Rolla Coasta of Life

Hey gang. I know it's been almost a month since my last post. I have to admit that I knew they would be spread out, but this was a ridiculous length of time. So there have been a lot of positives in that amount of time, but it's been a proverbial climb. About two weeks ago I jumped on a plane to go and bring my little darlin daughters home. The trip was a 15 hour marathon consisting of me boarding a plane to Texas at 9 am and returning home with them that same night at 11 pm. Needless to say, I packed pretty light. And leave it to me to keep drawing caricatures of sort at 3500 feet. For whatever reason, I decided to draw Southwest Airlines flight attendant (And budding author) Angela.


She was so gracious in accepting the picture that I became somewhat of a mini celebrity on the flight out, at least with the first half of the cabin. My apologies to everyone else I didn't get to draw. Maybe I can exchange caricature art for airline tickets. LOL.
When I got to Bandera Texas I scooped up my lovelies and we made the track back home. It was so awesome to be bringing them home for basically the whole summer. They were superstars all the way home. At the airport in Orlando while waiting for their luggage I snapped a pic of what in my opinion has to be one of the best Star Wars weekends ads ever.



Wish I had gotten to attend this year. The next few days saw me finishing packing up my life, and the three of us heading to the house of Mouse. Got to meet Tinkerbell which was cool. Then move week started. And it was a nightmare. The second night in our new place, and there was a massive lightning storm that took out a house a few homes over. It caused havok to the electricity and cable, leaving me internet-less and air conditioned impaired. The cable company ran a temporary line and before the day was over, a lawn guy ran it over and disconnected my world wide web once again. A few days later we were back on-line and I had managed to move just about all the heavy stuff into my second story studio. I was ready to get set up and working. After all the heavy lifting I had done the week before, it was a small box that took me off my feet and effectively destroying my back and keeping me bed ridden and un-able to do almost anything but wince and cry like a 1st grade girl. I have managed to miss work because of the intense pain and the inability to sit for longer than a few hours. And once again my personal workload is piling up on me.
So here I lie still in bed, finally managing to put some thought together long enough to update you guys. I've managed to pull a little tray by my bedside so I can do some drawing to try and ease the load. So that be that. But ultimately all is well because I have my little mini ducks at my side for now.


Have a great weekend.

UP from here

Well yes, the post is about UP, (and so is the three minute cave art you see here) and it's about many other things. Beware my readers, it be one of them looong winded posts.
I had the chance to see a few movies over the past week. Some were with my hunny bunny in a theater, while others were playing on the tube while I was working. And although the race was tight, UP edged out Drag Me To Hell by a hair. What a beautiful flick Pixar has put together. I had heard that the first few minutes were better than any love story out there today. And it is so true, once again, the mix of music, beautiful animated human emotions and story that Pixar is so good at floored me. But more on UP in a bit. '



Drag Me To Hell was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. The fact that that my girlfriend wanted to see it was in itself a bit inspiring. To be honest I wanted to see it because the title amused me. So we made our way to a midnight showing, and I was instantly wrapped up in the grossness, the over the top moody sounds, the jump moments, the camp, the soundtrack, the delicious throwback to older horror flick films (right down the oddly grainy projection itself.) I had a really good time at this movie. My brother made a good point though, asking if it was a horror movie or a comedy. I couldn't really answer. I simply said, "It's a Sam Raimi." And a breath of fresh air.

Other movies I saw kind of ran together. Vickie Christy Barcelona, The Spirit, The Wrestler, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Max Payne. Yeah, honestly nothing to write about, (although I really had better hopes for liking The Wrestler)

I managed to get quite a bit of artwork done too. Finished all my Archie cards (scans to come soon), I got several commissions done. Including these delightfully foot filled cards


and the boat caricature below. And I continue to line up my never ending list. I finished a base card for Sadlittles Legend and Lore set (wish I could show it) But I am really enjoying my drawing time.

For those of you waiting on cards, please continue to be patient. I know how hard the wait can be. I am in the same boat, awaiting almost a year now for a sketch. I also must add that my schedule is going to become overloaded the next few weeks since my girlfriend Jaime and I have decided to move in together. We have a beautiful home lined up to rent, and one of the best parts is, I will be bringing my little girls home for the summer. Of course, the move, the trip to get my babies, yeah, it's all happening over the next two weeks. So I beg for your continued tolerance.

Hey by the way, there is a cool blurb about yours truly over on the raider.net. If you click this link and scroll about half way down, you can catch a glimpse of the duck in all his awkward Animal Kingdom gloriousness.
Locoduck on the Raider.net

Oh and side note two. I was at church with Jaime a couple of weeks ago, and this passage stuck to me, leading me to evaluate and recognize one thing, ( Corinthians 15:33 says, Do not be mislead. Bad Company corrupts good character.) I AM NOT BAD COMPANY.

Anyway, this I guess brings us back full circle to UP. For those who have seen it, you know the way it ends, with blessing of a new adventure. I have braved through my black clouds. And with my move, my babies, my new love.....the only place life can continue to go is UP. Onwards to adventure a new.

PS Also on a new Upward adventure is my brother from another mother Kenny Durkin. Congrats to he and his new blushing bride Andi. I love you guys!!!

Recent Caricature Order

The photos I got for this were not as clear as I would have liked them to be in the sense that they didn't show the faces of the coaches too well. So I decided it best to for a more simplified cartoon approach. It was received with great enthusiasm!

*EDIT*
I got these pictures in my email today. Looks like the caricatures went over very well. I always like getting cool follow up like this. As you can see, I also included personal head shots of each coach as well.