Manny Pacquiao: Part one...The pencil stage

The start of my latest Manny Pacquiao painting. (Pencils on 11" X 14" cold press watercolor paper.) NEXT: watercolor paint and ink!

So, currently, I have a couple of art projects in various stages around the Coyote Den and that's a good thing. It means I always have something artsy to do when I'm not working my gig as a boxing news editor.

However, I needed to do something bigger when we in the media learned that eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao was likely to cancel a very short-lived retirement after defeating Tim Bradley in their third bout last April. At the same time, it also gave me the opportunity to start using my Periscope (a live-streaming video application) account.

HOWLERS! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! You helped make my very first #Periscope #art/#MannyPacquiao #layout broadcast.a success! The best thing? My Baby, #MrsCoyote paying the live feed a visit. That meant the world to me, Honey. I LOVE You. ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ And the rest of you guys are awesome too! Stay tuned; I'm gonna make this a habit! #Boxing #BoxingArt #BoxingArtist #Illustration #Portraiture #Drawing #Portrait #Sketch #Champions #Artist #ArtLife #CoyoteDuran #CreationNation

A photo posted by Coyote Duran (@coyoteduran) on Jul 14, 2016 at 4:00pm PDT

Jack Monroe: Nomad!

Comic book characters are fun to draw, especially if they're relatively obscure to anyone but the hardcore fan like my longtime pal, Joseph Pugh, who commissioned this pencil-only rendering of Jack Monroe, the third incarnation of Marvel Comics' Nomad.

Admittedly, there were two problems I had with this piece and they both had to do with me and no one or nothing else was to blame. First, I was inexcusably late in getting this commission to Joseph (for your patience, I thank you!). And while it was really fun to draw, I botched a couple of other tries at it, trying to make some sort of urban statement with surroundings. Had I gotten going when I should have, I would have had no problem but at some point, I wanted to focus on Jack himself.

And as I'm happily penciling along, I noticed when I tried hammering in some darks, my layout lead, a 4H, was still in my lead-holder (and old-school draftsman's fancy-schmancy, artsy-fartsy term for "pencil"). Sure, if I were inking the piece, the 4H would have been bitchen but this was specifically a pencil job. With my style, 2H or softer would have cut the mustard. Damn it all.

And that's why I had to fiddle with the brightness upon importing this piece in my laptop (trust me; the actual drawing looks neat).

So what have we learned today, Howlers?

1) When you score a commission - especially when it's one from a friend - get to work, dingleberry.

2) Pay attention to your lead situation.

Things will be a lot less dopier on your end. :)

Slaughter at the Carousel

My pal, Paul Gonzalez, commissioned this demo album cover for his screamo band, "Slaughter At The Carousel." Not particularly my brand of music but "P-Gon" and I cooked up something visceral. I call it Edvard Munch-meets-Jack Kirby. Done in pencil, Micron pen, art marker and Prismacolor pencil. Finished on March 23, 2009.

Some Manga-esque Comic Stylings

A comic-style drawing I did back in 2002 (featuring character based on me and my friend, Boyce) that portrayed the endgame of a long comic book idea I had about two unjustly convicted criminals who escaped prison. Naturally, "Prison Break" came out a few years later and pooched my idea. Done in pencil, Micron marker and Sharpie. I was inspired by manga-style speed lines but I probably didn't need them. Sorry about the image. I don't have access to a scanner that can accommodate the size of the piece. :)