Mitch Hedberg in ink

Mitch Hedberg. Micron pen (.03 and .05), Faber-Castell PITT "B"-series brush pen, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and Copic markers in a Daler & Rowney sketchbook (8.5" X 11"). Art by Coyote Duran. (Please click to enlarge.)

"I bought a donut and they gave me a receipt for the donut. I don't need a receipt for the donut. I'll just give you money and you give me the donut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario where I would have to prove that I bought a donut."

                                                         - Mitch Hedberg

Late one night, a couple of weeks ago, while toiling away (and by "toiling away," I pretty much mean "staring at the wall if I don't have any entertainment") at my lonely third shift Joe job, I fell into one of my many YouTube wormholes when I came across a video of one of my absolute favorite stand-up comics, the late, great Mitch Hedberg. Naturally one video led to another, then another and staring at the wall was replaced by laughter. Good times, man.

I'd always been a big fan of Mitch's and his unique brand of humor, laced with one-liners and non-sequiturs, frequently taking the obvious to new levels of surrealism.

Consider:

"An escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. You should never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out of Order' sign, just 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'"

(I told that joke to my daughter Makayla, who wanted to know more about Mitch, a few mornings ago and she agreed that it just plain made sense.)

After a long artistic dry spell, watching these videos inspired me to dust off my trusty art supplies. I had the itch to draw some Mitch...

Spider-Man in ink

Spider-Man. Micron pen (03), Faber-Castell PITT "B"-series brush pen, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and red ultra-fine Sharpie in a Daler & Rowney sketchbook (8.5" X 11"). Art by Coyote Duran. (Please click to enlarge.)

So almost immediately after I posted my recent ink portrait of Art the Clown, I got a bug up my backside (pun fully intended) and thought it'd be pretty cool to render a brand-new Spider-Man piece. I wondered how I'd go about the design and I instantly remembered a Spidey piece done by the late Tim Sale. In the piece, Tim featured Spidey swinging in front of the Eiffel Tower but what spoke to me was the color palette used.

 

Simple red and black. It was striking. No musculature detail. No shading. No gradients. Pure and simple.

Art the Clown (of 'Terrifier') in ink

Art the Clown. Micron pen (03 and 05), Faber-Castell PITT "B"-series brush pen, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and red ultra-fine Sharpie in a Daler & Rowney sketchbook (8.5" X 11"). Art by Coyote Duran. (Please click to enlarge.)

 

A few years ago, when I started working my third-shift security job, I met a customer named Raul Cantillo. As Mr. Cantillo and I got to know each other better (via our shared love of horror films, as indicated by his many awesome horror t-shirts), he asked me one day about my thoughts on Art the Clown. I said I wasn't familiar with him.

"Dude, how can you be a horror fan and not know who Art the Clown is?" Raul asked.

That was a damn good question, actually.

Jimi Hendrix in ink

Jimi Hendrix. Micron pen (03 and 05), Faber-Castell PITT "B"-series brush pen and Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on Strathmore Bristol Board (9" X 12"). Art by Coyote Duran. (Please click to enlarge.)

As any artist knows, inspiration comes right out of nowhere sometimes. One day, I woke up and thought, "A Jimi Hendrix" portrait would be neat!" So I cobbled some reference and got going with my layout on 9" X 12" Strathmore Art Bristol Board with my trusty "Blue Special" leadholder.

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After figuring out position and the route I wanted to go, (something many artists call, "figuring things out"), I really started moving. Mind you, at this point, I hadn't drawn anything in about three months (I know; I know. Shame on me. Nothing shakes an artist's skills more than inactivity), so it felt really good to shake off the cobwebs and flex the artistic muscles, so to speak.

My most important "commission," thanks to Makayla Duran

A composite of a character Makayla Duran is calling "Gabby." Continue reading to fully view each piece and the story behind them! Art by Makayla and Coyote Duran.

Just recently, Makayla was hip deep in creating a character and scenario, both based on the "Grimace Shake" online trend, most popularly featured (I guess?) on TikTok.

Last June into July, McDonald's celebrated the big purple taste bud (yes, this is how he's described) Grimace's 52nd birthday (yes, he and I are both 52, although I don't believe Grimace's debut was until November of 1971) with a purple, berry-flavored shake. For whatever reason - and who knows why anyone posts overly weird stuff on TikTok - folks everywhere began uploading videos of the "results" of drinking these shakes.

Some people shared how the shakes "killed" people, transported them to other locations or just changed them somehow. As the kids say, it was a weird "flex"; to me, it was random as hell. However Guillaume Huin, the social media director for McDonald's (per Wikipedia), seemed to get down with it.

So one day, our daughter Makayla put her own spin on this trend by not creating a video but her signature, manga-inspired digital art.

Makayla's character, tentatively named "Gabby," who's undergoing a possession of sorts after drinking a "Grimace Shake." Note Makayla's version of Grimace looming to your left. Art by Makayla Duran.

As you can see, it appears that Makayla's character is fighting off (or enjoying. The story is still developing...) a possession of some sort. (I love that kid. She won't watch horror films with me but shares a twisted bent.) On your left, "Gabby" seems to be a normal, six-year-old, little girl enjoying a shake and on your right, a delighted Grimace is enjoying her subsequent possession, as she transforms into a strange entity, drooling out a mouthful of this weird, frozen beverage.

After Makayla finished the drawing, she asked me if I wouldn't mind rendering this crazy character in my style. I had a few art things to button up but promised her I would absolutely tackle such a neat challenge. I broke out the Strathmore Art Bristol Board (8.5" X 11"), my trusty "Blue Special" lead holder, erasers and pens and went to work on this new, fun "commission."