Endless Miles

Well, Mia's asleep which is good because she hasn't slept much today. We tried rice cereal again today and she wasn't having it. Maybe swallowed the tiniest bit, but that's it, really. I love off days. I can't stress that enough. Even when Mia was real little and cried 90 percent of my wednesday off, I still would rather be here then anywhere. Work drains me every day. It still leaves me in disbelief that I'm at Kwik Trip still after 14 years of employment. Some days I wish I had taken more risks with other jobs in my field (the few that there were) but I just never felt good about certain job postings I saw. The few graphic design jobs I did take ended up being pretty awful in the end. So now, I'm left to doing art of all kinds freelance. It's just what's possible for me. Currently, I've got some album art, a logo for an Etsy store and a 1/4 sleeve tattoo on my plate so in any spare time I'm not feeding/changing/playing/rocking Mia, I will work on that pile.

The Rice Cereal Experimentation

So This blog originally was my canvas to talk about my art and music. Well, since I haven't been able to do much art in the last 5 months since my daughter Mia was born, I'd like to open up the blog to include all the adventures regarding parenthood and the pursuit of happiness.

Saturday, we tried rice cereal with Mia. We knew we were in for a messy experience but hey, that's okay right? I mean, she craps and drools everywhere so what's a little rice cereal all over herself? First attempt went pretty well for the most part. It appeared that she ate some of the mushy stuff, even though most of it wound up on her face and hair. This morning, we tried it again and she didn't care for it. She was rather cranky and wanted nothing to do with eating the smelly stuff. We'll try it again maybe tomorrow when she's in a better mood.

2011 Goals

Hey all! It's going to be a busy year for myself. In March this year, I'll become a father. (no not some sort of priest) My wife and I are expecting our first child and we couldn't be more excited. With that in mind, I've got a lot of goals and achievements I'd like to accomplish this year.

1) Finish an oil painting I started in 2010.

2) Design a popular shirt for Threadless T-Shirts

3) Design a new shirt for my band

4) Feb 1st, I'd like to start an art piece a day series where I draw/paint every day start to finish for a month. It's going to be super difficult because it takes a lot of time to come up with something THEN to finish it. ALL in one day. I think I can do it.

5) I'd like to finish my website for Thrill Factory. I started working on it quite a while ago, but it hit a dead end.

6) Re-learn the art of acrylic painting. I haven't touched acrylics in a long long time and have been ignoring it. I bought some small canvases on sale last year in December so I'd like to get some work going on those.

7) Design some new TFD logos.

8) Take some amazing photographs. It's been a while since I actually did some photography. Actually since probably my Hawaii trip last March. I need to take advantage of our newly-fixed SLR camera and capture some beauty.

With a kid on the way, these are ambitious but possible. With hard work and determination, I can accomplish them.

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.