Cyborg Ninja vs. Pirate Robot

I’ve been wanting to draw this hot topic of debate for a while now.

It’s mostly an inking exercise and I actually did it about a week ago. I uploaded it to this site only shortly after that so it’s been sitting in the gallery for a few days now, waiting for me to write a post about it.

That post is found below.

Initially, I wanted a regular Ninja vs. a regular Pirate fight but I also wanted to keep it interesting (not just for people but for myself as well) by throwing a third party into the mix. This three-way fight idea probably germinated when I read Zombies vs. Robots which later turned into Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons and was quite an entertaining read but I digress. Regardless of who I’m plagiarizing, I was very cautious in deciding which third party to include in this Ninja vs. Pirate vs. ??? fight.

Zombies? No. They’re only menacing en masse.

Robots? No. Too overpowered.

Amazons? No. Already done (see above paragraph).

I didn’t want fictional characters either so I was stuck.

Soon, my problem was solved when somebody said: “The conflict has always been between ninjas and pirates, adding a third party is unnecessary.” I’m paraphrasing but the message was loud and clear. I decided to keep it between two people and leave a three-way fight for another occasion but I still had no idea on how to make it more interesting than just a flat out Ninja vs. Pirate fight. The solution to that problem came to mind rather quickly: a Robot Ninja vs. a Robot Pirate fight.

With my task clear at hand, I got to drawing. I got the Ninja’s pose down rather quickly but the Pirate took a bit of fiddling. He wasn’t menacing enough and it had to look like an even fight so I solved that by just making him bigger. After my layouts, I tightened my pencils very roughly and superficially and left most of the actual rendering to ink. It was as I was inking that I decided to make them different kind of robots so the ninja wound up being more futuristic and the pirate got a more steampunk look. That’s ultimately what led to the name change of this piece from Robot Ninja vs. Robot Pirate to Cyborg Ninja vs. Pirate Robot.

My favorite bits?

The wooden peg leg and the robot parakeet.