This illustration began as a challenge I suggested between a few coworkers of mine. There was no real competition as such, but the idea was to create a finished illustration from the phrase 'Away We Go'. We could do anything we wanted as long as we used the phrase as a starting point. I began my usual way by going through some music, listening for a song that stirred something inside me. The song 'Californication' by The Red Hot Chili Peppers really resonated with me musically, and I started to get an image of a group of soldiers trucking through the desert on some transport. So that's where I began a couple of nights later. I started with this character sketch and tried out a couple of different head piece designs. My idea of soldiers was turning into something more like mercenaries/pirates. (Fig.01)

Then I moved out from the figure I'd sketched and established the overall illustration. It was a weird way to work and would cause me to make many changes later on, but it's how this piece transpired. As you can see the transport also changed into a tank. (Fig.02)

After settling on the middle guy's design I reworked the surrounding soldiers until I had a pleasing composition of figures. (Fig.03)

It was at this point that I showed my wife and she suggested making the soldiers kids, to make it more interesting. I dug the idea but wanted to keep the middle guy since I liked his design. This new change of direction now reminded me of the gang Oliver Twist hooks up with under the crooked leadership of the thief, Fagin. I had my story now. I threw the flag back in but with a Lord of the Flies type of pig head and crossbones now. (Fig.04)