The Frustrating Progression

I began this image as an entry in one of the contests over on Sketchaholic.com. The incredible Dylan Cole was going to be giving a live interview and then choosing the winner. I found out about the contest 5 days into it so I had to get crackin! Having kids requires a lot of time so when I say that I had 5 days, what I really mean is 3. I did 8 rough thumbs in pen and then chose a few to explore in Photoshop. I got halfway through the third when I started tinkering with the color sketch that starts this progression.
I hadn't really planned on taking it to completion but I found myself getting lost in the image. So because of my lack of planning I ended up with the third image down in the progression as my entry piece. Needless to say, I didn't win. I couldn't let it sit so I continued to work away at it and finally, after much determination, pulled something interesting out of it. It still has it's share of problems but not enough to make me keep working on it now. On to the next image!