Meeting Kat Von D

Last week, I was lucky enough to have the evening off (from band practice) to meet tattoo artist extraordinare Kat Von D. Waited at Barnes and Noble at roughly 3pm for her book signing. Quite a few people showed up. Probably 200 plus. It was crazy. She gave me a hug, signed my book, and just as I was about to take a picture with my camera, the battery died. LOVELY! But thankfully, my current phone has a good camera feature and I was able to get a very nice picture of us. I showed her my tattoo as well since I know she digs skylines. She loved it.

In other news, I've got quite a few projects started. Oil painting of a dark sunset is currently drying right now. I've got a color pencil sketch of Jill (also in Hawaii) started...and plan on doing a good sketch of a close-up of Remi.

Over the last week, I designed my band's ep album cover too. Turned out good.

Stay tuned for updates.

Let's get spooky

Halloween is approaching. One of my favourite holidays. Why?! Because I love the fall, the colours, the atmosphere..So I started a series of some cute halloween pictures. Here's the latest one.

A Slight Artist's Block

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. September got really busy over here. My band was playing tons of shows, and I haven't been doing much art. Did some flyers here and there, and a rad sketch of guitarist Billy Bragg as well. (I'll post that soon) Here's a flyer I did for the upcoming show in November.

COMING SOON*

Cute zombie/halloween art

more Hawaii paintings

Hopefully some more sketches.

Keep posted.

Steppin out to step it up

Things are goin REAL well music-wise for me currently. My band Clean Hands are starting to book shows left and right. Which has be both excited and nerve wracking. It's been over a year since I've played live. Anyway, so naturally I'm coming up with flyer after flyer. My band mates are looking for something more abstract visual-wise. Which is cool with me, but forces me to step out of my comfort zone of using band pictures and thinking of new ways to stand out on the flyer. I'm glad they're comfortable telling me what looks rad and what doesn't because I'd rather us be happy with flyers/art etc then quietly thinking "this really sucks!". Anyway this is my most recent one for our show at Landmark Lanes in Sept. Should be a good time. I really like how it turned out. Took me a good 45 minutes to get the image of us jamming to fit nicely in the ball, without too much going on. Used soft brushes with low opacity to soften the edges. I debated about putting Lady Cannon in the pin, but I figured it'd look horrid and make her look mis-shaped.

Water Colour piece finished!

I don't know how I pulled it off, really. I somehow completed a water colour painting of a beach we discovered in Oahu, Hawaii. Water colour has never been my strongest medium, but I was deeply inspired by my older brother's work, that I wanted to get better at it. I did some practice stuff of some sunset images that didn't turn out that great, but basically said "screw it, I'm just going to go for it". I think in general, water colour isn't easy for anyone. I tend to like having a lot of control of the paint on my brush, so when you ad the water, it just takes away 45-50% of that control. It starts to spread out too much, thus making a mess and not getting what I want...Roughly, I probably put in 26-30 hours in the painting. I spent many late nights painting and drinking trying to capture the beauty and serenity of Hawaii. The clouds were a lot of work, and I put in some extra effort using soft sponges for the clouds, as well as the top of the waves to give them a spray-like look.

Overall, it was a challenging piece, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I'll be doing more paintings of Hawaii in the future.

WELCOME!

Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my brand new blog 'a colourful noise'. For a few years I was writing with my older brother at Bullying The Jukebox about everything music. Recently I decided to start up this one to share my art, thoughts about art and what I'm creating with the wonderful world of the web. I hope you enjoy it as I plan to update it semi-often. Here are some facts about myself:

*I live in New Berlin, WI which is approximately 10 minutes from Milwaukee, one of my favourite places to be.

* I've been drawing/painting for a very long time. Longer then I can remember most likely. It's my biggest passion, yet can defeat me like nothing when inspiration hits a wall.

* In 2006 I graduated from Carroll College in Waukesha, WI with a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Communication, Emphasis Design with a Minor in Art.

*I started Thrill Factory Designs around 2005 with my younger brother and wife. We design shirts/promo posters/logos/photograph/press kits/stickers/various merch for anyone in need of our creative souls.