Turtle rider

A tale of two pirates

Recently I decided to make some new promotional materials and fondly remembered the boom box pirate (the second image) I did some time ago of which I was so proud. I opened up the file and experienced that wonderfully terrible my-insides-just-dried-up feeling you get when you see work you did some time ago. The drawing is stiff and out of proportion and dark and muddy and just not right. Belt buckles don't work like that, except on pilgrim hats, the scabbard is too long and the handle somehow comes over his coat and doesn't really read like a sword handle and the boom box nearly looks like an unfinished drawing of a boom box, but not quite. What time I didn't put into the boom box I obviously put into the background. I had been so proud of this image. I looked at the date on the file, and it's from February 2012, which seems like yesterday, but apparently was nearly two years ago.

Still, I liked the concept.

So I did it again, just now, started from scratch, and I'm very proud of it.

Here's the scary thing: what if I look back in 2016 and get that terrible feeling again?

And here's the Twilight Zone twist ending: what if I don't?