I was once asked to draw a pirate fighting an octopus to attach to a job application.
I'm a pacifist at heart. I also like to push the boundaries of interpretation. And I didn't want to look like every other applicant.
So I had planned to make my sketch of a Pirate and and Octopus being best friends.
I developed a variety of situations for these characters to be in. These sketches have been slightly reworked to present here, but are good representations of my process.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf5.myportfolio.com/592afc67-3faa-4e6c-bd45-5394c397c074/61172260-1099-4292-84d8-57059c7e9840_rw_3840.png?h=2afbc842c30de5d54a7db9647f7e6e6b)
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf3.myportfolio.com/592afc67-3faa-4e6c-bd45-5394c397c074/e8e549c4-2e48-4257-aeb5-7a3054c92c03_rw_1920.png?h=3ec712d19e64c325eb192cc72e3f706f)
Selfies are popular, and my favorite sport is bowling...
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf1.myportfolio.com/592afc67-3faa-4e6c-bd45-5394c397c074/c808bca7-80d5-486e-ad71-fdc9d78ec880_rw_3840.png?h=200f3ca3d318c5e91ea9f6672578ea1d)
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf.myportfolio.com/592afc67-3faa-4e6c-bd45-5394c397c074/b4293d10-453c-40a8-b036-00840f6758e0_rw_3840.png?h=89e99b1c0125d6b50d7875d99a314f2a)
The caption for these read:
(Left) "Garr, this one's got three left feet, she does!"
(Right) "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?"
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf1.myportfolio.com/592afc67-3faa-4e6c-bd45-5394c397c074/96c0f8c8-71ce-496c-b44c-b86995fbf07e_rw_3840.png?h=03e07f0309f6ab8a02ca91219c8e0995)
A collage of pages from my sketchbook.
And finally, I turned in just an inked version of the following illustration. I didn't get the job, so I've had time to reink and color it since.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf3.myportfolio.com/592afc67-3faa-4e6c-bd45-5394c397c074/eaf0d4c0-ad4e-4da6-a032-a42469aea3fc_rw_1920.png?h=22b34def7d0bc8bafa4736753b98a6bd)
And of course I saved the timelapse from pen to final, which was 25 minutes long before I sped it up...
I felt like a titanic failure when I was told I was too creative for this job. In hindsight, that was a compliment and I'm putting it in my win column.
Thanks for watching!