The design brief was simple, something along the lines of "Dude! Draw Captain Macbastard in your style!" so I was able to do whatever I wanted with it as long as it wasn't something ridiculous like a turnip with a beard (who knows? maybe that would have been ok?)

The first thing I do is some super quick thumbnails. I usually use a program called Mischief for this early stage. Mischief is a simple vector based drawing program with an infinite canvas. I prefer this because I don't want to worry about resolution size or running out of paper space. I DON'T WANT TO WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING! I WANT TO FREE!!!

At this stage I try to have no preconceived notions of what the final image will be. I find it better to "think" out loud with the pencil, I don't worry about form, structure or even staying on model, I'm just trying to find something that interests me. The drawings that interest me I will naturally resolve more completely. In this case I end up going with the drawing on the bottom right. The pose is a little more static than the other ones but I like it because it presents a clear silhouette of the character and gives me an easy way to play around with the characters proportions.