Chris Benoit

Talk about strange, shocking and depressing all in one. Anyone that knows me, knows I am a big fan of wrestling. And Canadian wrestlers are pretty close to my heart because of my short friendship with Bret Hart.
And I was just like everyone else in the respect line for Chris Benoit. So you can imagine my horror when I stumbled on to the net a few days ago and came across headlines of Good bye Chris, and Benoit dead.
As I read further into the headline I saw that his family was gone too. I wondered immediately had if they'd been in an accident?
But the details that have now emerged have made me sick and sad at the same damn time.
And I ask myself why?
I actually had the chance to meet Chris Benoit and his son out at Disney about two years ago. And He seemed so nice, so calm. They were trying to grab a soda refil in the food court of The Caribbean Beach. Unfortunately for them the building had closed. Fortunately for them, I was a Chris Benout fan, so I let them in, so long as he'd pose for a photo.
Hmm. I have it somewhere, but at this point I'm afraid to look for it.
Me and a murderer side by side. Two very different fathers.
The same goes for this piece I post today.
A part of me thinks I shouldn't have drawn or finished it. But how do you differentiate the talent and career of Chris Benoit, respected wrestler, from Chris Benoit : Killer?
Can you? Do we just forget the accomplishments? And figure it as good riddance to him, and prayers for them?
There seems to be all kind of conspiracy theories abound about what might have gone down. Fingers pointing to the possible "Chris was framed" angle.
I don't know what to ultimately make of it except for this.
Three lives are gone and nothing is going to bring any of them back.

Free Sketch Cards

I know I'm a bit late with this post, I was fortunate enough to be able to have my daddy come down and visit and hang with us for a bit. And given the fact that I hadn't seen him in ages, well, he took priority!
Anyway, you read the headline right, I'm going to start giving away free sketch cards. One per week, sometimes of the winners choosing, sometimes one of mine, and sometimes both!
How do I win sketch card goodness? All you have to do is post comments on my blog! You will recieve one entry for everytime you post a comment on my blog per week.
So basically if I post a new entry, and you comment, you are entered in the drawing. If you comment more throughout the week you'll be entered for those comments as well. The contest will run from Sunday to Sunday, and at the end of the week, I'll draw at random one winner!
Oh and by the way, posting something like "that's cool" over and over on the same piece will not count. Each comment should have some substance and be different. Locoduck will be sitting here right beside me filtering out the junk comments!
This is a short, almost over week, so anyone that comments this week will have their entries carried over to next week.
Good Luck, this contest will go on indefinitely, or until I get tired of giving away free cards! Bleh.
In the meantime, enjoy this image of wicked Captain Jack!

Pan's Labyrinth

There was no doubt that when I first saw the trailer for this movie I was intrigued. But having two little girls makes R Rated movies tough to get to. SO I was elated to grab this at the video store.
Came home, popped it in, and saw SUBTITLES?!! Oh man nothing bums me more than having to read subtitles while watching a movie. To my delight the movie was filmed in Spanish, which I speak with some fluency.
I have to say, it's kept me thinking about it four days after watching. I really get into World War 2 time period movies, and creepy fairy tales and mythology were an added bonus.
I can see why it was R rated, pretty violent and gory. But the little girl who plays Ofelia, the main character was phenomonal.
Overall it was a great flick and it looks like it will definitely be jumping in my collection at some point.
Anyway, enjoy an illustration of the Pale Man, one of the film's creepiest characters.

Be sure to check back here Monday as I begin giving away free artwork....more details then.

Dog Days of Work

I realize it's been a bit since I posted, so I'll give something. This cute little mutt. Yeah occasionally at work I get asked to do caricatures of people's dogs. I always find it a bit challenging because they aren't human faces. And when you toss in the fact that I'm usually working off a cell phone or something, it makes it that much harder to get a decent likeness. Still, I feel like I achieved something with this one. So wala. I share it with thee.

Movie Review Friday

So maybe, just maybe, I'll toss in a movie review or eight from now on for Fridays. ever since I got the Blockbuster Online subscription, I've been living in movie rental bliss. And I see myself more and more wanting to sketch while watching. So my Friday's are going to littered with movie reviews of sorts, accompanied by art from said flicks.
We'll see how long I can keep it up.

Happy Feet. Yeah, didn't make me too happy. I don't understand exactly how this beat CARS for best animated picture. It was a bit overloaded with music and confusing going on's. I didn't like that every penguin looked basically the same, and the stroyline in my opinion, was a bit...well blah. And eventhough the animation was quite good, my kids wouldn't even sit through it.
So yeah, not good for me.

The Pursuit of Happyness. Good stuff. If you're a father you can truly relate. You can't help but feel sorry for the main characters struggling to grab a foothold in life. And dammit if I didn't want to buy one of Will Smith's Bone Marrow Machines myself. Definitely inspiring and touching, and the Fresh Prince and little Willy did a great job. And what a Captain America cameo!

Which brings us to CRANK. Wow what a hokey flick. Action packed and crazy fast. The premise sees a hitman named Chelios injected with a lethal China cocktail. The only way to slow inevitable death is to keep his adrenaline going.
The flick was completely unbelievable, overly violent, and sex driven, (let's hear it for the public dicplay of affection in Chinatown.)
In other words, yeah, I loved it.

To Infinity And Beyond

Here's another piece from quasi-concept to finish. The challenge was to draw Buzz Lightyear in "my" style. So I started with a few sketches here and there. Fleshed out the color scheme. Then put it down to layout, and wala.
I bought a little nothing WACOM to work on my coloring skills, but unfortunately ran out time before I could put it to use on this piece.
But I'm determined to start making magic with it.
By the way. I totally dig ZURG, what a great bad guy.

Screwin Round

I drew Donna Troy at random. She was one of those characters I'd never drawn before so I figured what the hell. I initially did the standard comic style version before fiddling round with a looser more cartoon style.
I inked that one, and decided to throw some quick color on it. Figured it needed some sort of background, and wala.
Kinda cool I guess. Her head's a bit on the large side, but other than that I was fairly pleased. Now one of these days I'll learn how to color well on Photoshop.

BTW, I watched the Departed tonight. Wow. Lots of brain matter flying round. But good nonetheless.

Jungle Queen

So I'm thinking of taking some of the more popular caricature designs at work and drawing them in a more comic book like style. The Jungle Queen is by far one of the most popular. So here we go.

Yawn...Another Caricature.

Didn't want my blog to slip into obscurity, so here is one of my most recent favorites.

Reality TV Junkie.

Okay, so I am addicted. I enjoy the hell out of reality tv shows. But they've become overwhelming, and now it seems I don't want to keep up with any of it anymore. But in all fairness I was digging "GREASE: You're the One That I Want". And I have to admit that I called the winner of the Danny part from the start. Good Old Max Crumm, (sorry Keelan.)

And eventhough I thought he had talent...WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH SANJAYA on American Idol. I found him likeable during the audtion phase, but now...ugh. I feel bad for the kid. I wonder if he realizes what a butt of the joke he's become. I think if I were him, I'd just quit. But I guess it shows that perhaps American Idol, is becoming Green Day's American Idiot. Because that's what the voting public is becoming.

Oh and PS, yeah the drawings are mine. Look what Loco can do with a sketchbook and a few bored minutes.
Hope everyone had a better Easter than I did.

Meet the Robinsons

Okay so I'd seen the previews, and to be honest the movie didn;t seem too appealing to me. Aside from the obvious reference to Tommorrow Land, it didn't say Disney to me.
But yesterday I decided to treat my oldest daughter to a movie after school and I let her choose the flick. I was really trying to persuade her to see TMNT, but alas, those darned 3D glasses were too enchanting for her to pass up.
I, being the duck fan that I am, was delighted to see a 1955 Donald Duck short before the movie in 3D as well.
The movie started a tad slow I must admit, and as it picked up steam, it got confusing to a degree, as most sci-fi cartoons tend to do...IE Treasure Planet.
But once the movie hit cruise control, I fell in love with it. It has a lot of Disney Heart in it, and the characters become quite endearing. You quickly realize that it isn't so much about time travel and sci-fi, as it is about family.
The music is modern and fitting, and damn good. And the CGI that seems to be littering the market, was well suited for this show, as I couldn't envision it anyway else.
Far better than Chicken Little, I walked out of there feeling pretty good, and the Walt Disney quote that wraps it all up, helped scream Disney to me at the end.
Check it out if you can.

On Sale Now.

Well, you can officially purchase copies of my recently published books, "IT CAME FROM THE POND: THE COLLECTED SKETCHES AND ARTWORK OF MICHAEL DURON" and "TRAGIC: THE CLOWN"
The sketchbook is 52 pages B&W and runs for 8.00.
Tragic is 60 pages and printed in perfect binding, has greyscaled interiors with red spot color and runs for 10.00.
All prices include shipping and handling.
You can purchase through PAYPAL by clicking on one of the links to the right.

Project Next

So what on earth was I going to do to follow up with Tragic The Clown? I had a few ideas, but like most this one just came together over several days, and convenient events.
I have a pending title, and here is the first concept sketch. Could be a long year. Or perhaps a Mini Series this time around.

The Customer is always flipped off?

Okay so my good friend Keelan snapped this picture of me at a recent gig we did together, and damn if I didn't laugh my ass off. I'm sure it was just a simple gesture caught on film, and the intention was not what it seems, but it sure looks like I am flipping this guy off.
Hah. So apparently, I get paid to draw, make fun of people, and flip them off. Tis the life.
Candid Camera is fun.

Spiderman 3

Hurry up and release damn it!!!

COOKIES

Yet another food related pin-up. My original idea was to have a cheesecake "girl"scout with a red wagon full of cookies being devoured by Cookie Monster. Then I saw a few of the submissions, and they all had Cookie in theirs as well. So it was back to the drawing board. I managed to bastardize another cookie related icon, the Keebler Elf. Fairly satisfied with it, but I really need to learn how to color on the computer.

Winds of Change

I'm bored with my website. I think I have entirely too much old crap on it. I have so many random mascots serving little or no purpose. So I'll be dumping it all and starting from scratch at some point in the near future.
I've also been blowing a lot of time time looking at random art blogs. I swear I could take a week to just be inspired by the plethora of work out there.
But not to fear, I haven't been slacking in the art department. Here's a little something I did for something I will diverge more info about at a later date.
SHAZAM!

Sandman and Seen in a waiting room...

I'm doing some warm up sketches of the Sandman for a draw-off and this is what I came up with for now. I've also grown attached to my sketchbook and take it everywhere I go, fortunately there is never a shortage of subject matter as these two fellows show. Hope everyone had a great weekend.



And as a bonus, here is one of the Lord of the ring sketch cards I revamped.

Yum

Stummbled across some ancient character design sheets through JIMHILLMEDIA.com for Disney's Long abandonded Don Quixote project, and just had to share. They need to back and do this project!

Time to take a (caricature) dump

Here are several caricatures from the past few months. Just a little reminder, that eventhough I was slaving over the comic book stuff, I was till working at the greatest job in the world.

Ice Cream

I'm a moderator at Digital Webbing.com in a draw-off section. We've been running pin-up contests where I throw out a word and folks get to design a pinup around it. For the most part it's been edible items, Bubble Gum, Champagne, Ice Cream, and now Cookies.
While I had definite ideas for each, Tragic the Clown, and Megacon were taking up most of my drawing time. I managed however to sketch something out for Ice Cream the night Megacon finished. Unfortunately, I fell asleep before completing it all the way. It's a bit risque, but it's doing well in the voting polls.

....Meeting her idol.

One of the neatest things that went down at the show, was Hailey's chance to meet her imaginary friend and schoolgirl crush, Sean Astin. Ever since she saw ENCINO MAN a few years ago, David (the character her played in the movie), or Daven, as her young developing speech would say, has been her security blanket.
She plays with him, works with him, is married to him, etc.
So for months she was looking forward to meeting him. He was at the show! So 30 bucks, and a half an hour in line later, my baby got to meet him. He was a great guy, and seemed very humble. Hailey was a bit star-struck and gooey, but could not be happier!
That in itself made MEGACON entirely worthwhile.

Megacon Day 3

Well, I missed a day so I'll double up on the photos. Megacon is now in the bag, but what a blast it was. Met a lot of great people, drew some cool pics, was inspired by the massive talents, and was able to spend a ton of bonding time with my oldest daughter. She hung with me all three days of the show! I would have liked to shop a little more, but I was too busy drawing.
I have some books left for anyone who may be interested. I'll post info here soon on pricing. In the meanwhile, here are some photos of work I did at the con.
It was a good time. Thanks also again to my pals at Ka-blam.com , I enjoyed the high quality of work, and the dinners afterward!!!!

Megacon day 1

Well day one has come and gone, and I was pretty durned happy with the set-up. Lots of talented people there, and The Books looked great! A ton of thanks to my friends at Ka-Blam.com
I took the girls along today, and eventhough my littlest had a melt down, Hailey loved every moment and stayed the whole day. She is determined to be there all day again tomorrow. Should be a busier day, and maybe she'll get to meet her crush, Sean Astin.
Here is a group shot of the set-up and the lococlan. And one of a few Princess Leias I drew.
More news tommorrow!

MEGACON

Well we are on the eve of the big show. I'm pretty jazzed and ready to go. Both Tragic the Clown, and my sketch book are al printed up and available to buy. I'll be drawing all kinds of commissions and probably spending just as much as a earn. Nonetheless, I'll try to give daily updates over the next few days. For now, I must get some sleep.
And here is the colored cover for the sketchbook, whuch will also be poster sized at the show. Mick Clausen at minwinderstudios.com did an amazing job!!

TRAGIC THE CLOWN COVER

Here is the cover to Tragic the Clown. The logo was done by Brien Roth and he did a fantastic job capturing the look and feel of the book. The official release date is Feb 14th, and it will be available at Megacon and the internet soon.