Book cover workshop - figuring things out

I'd previously done some research on my story and the links that it had with the program 'The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
I guess on the way I became a little attached to the secondary character Captain K'nuckles, I adored his design and I feel like he has influenced my characters for this workshop. I loved how this program illustrated the nose, large bulbous shapes have never looked better!
Above I have included some of my character designs for Stormalong and the arrows depict the evolution of him, the length of the nose and the way the characters eyes sit have definitely been influenced by watching this program.

Also I like how beards are animated in this program, the middle image shows some rough sea dogs and their beards have sentient qualities, one's is even holding a sword!

The two digital images of captain Stormalong (enclosed in sketchbook folder) were greatly inspired by Logan Faerber and he is one of my new favorites
This guy has found the perfect balance between digital and traditional, the textures and lines are hand rendered and then the colouring is done digitally. The image on the far bottom right was one of his narratives and it helped give me an idea for the Stormalong comic (top right/middle)

I am happy with the two digital outcomes that I made but I'd like to tone it down a bit for the book cover. During some of my early thumb nails I drew out some simpler ideas and I think that is the way I should go.