Pirate Riddle

Recently I was approached about illustrating a riddle which was to go into the quiz section of a leading accountancy magazine.

The riddle was pirate themed and went as follows:

A pirate ship was anchored at Smuggler’s Cove with its rope ladder hanging off the port side into the water. The ladder’s rungs were each spaced one-foot apart, five rungs were above water level. With the tide coming in from the starboard side at a rate of six inches an hour how many rungs were still visible four hours later at high tide?

Personally I feel my strengths lie in character design and so for me it was crucial to try and squeeze in as many as possible, whilst not distracting you from the key point of the riddle.

I was really pleased with the final outcome and hope that this will be a good launchpad for future magazine commissions.