Much work, or no work at all?

I spent much of last week drawing the following scene ... called Cute Conscience:

And in an effort to draw something that appeared entirely grounded (instead of just scribbling some lines under a character's feet), I ended up drawing this ... and it's an image I loathe. A technical exercise in many ways (perspective, cross-hatching, drawing a receding hairline ... and so on). It's depressing to look at.

Maybe if the bird was a penguin, the whole thing would have been saved.

Then: last night, minutes before falling asleep, I drew this, called Valley Thriller:

Seriously ... I was at this one for less than five minutes. In my journal, no less (the other was on much, much nicer paper). And I like this one better.

I started out trying to draw a more conventional hairstyle. And then it became the girl of the 80s, in a zombie-pose that you see here. Fun stuff.