Once upon a time in Nassau
Hey guys,
This is my first time posting 2D on polycount 
I did an illustration piece for my portfolio to get it a bit more up to date with my current level before I applied for a concept art internship and thought I'd assemble a process thing
Because I was catering to that a little bit I went for a pirate setting and a little more hand painted style.
I've been watching a few Sergio Leone films and originally wanted to do a western but I thought i'd kind of combine the two. I really wanted to push a strong composition and storytelling narrative and took a lot of inspiration from the climax of those films which centre around a confrontation.
Came up with the idea of a notorious pirate captain walking down the stairs into a tavern and everyone is turned to attention
Started with a 3d base to experiment with compositions and angles, fov (made in maya, rendered in marmoset)
Quick paintover, experimented with ideas. trying and failing to get the perspective right with guy walking down the stairs.
Didn't like how big the tavern was or how high the stairs were. Old taverns seem to have very low ceilings so i just painted over and tried to cramp it up a bit. (couldn't be bothered to faff around with 3d some more). Also experimented a bit with lighting options
I wanted to try working through this piece in passes so decided it would be easier to do some basic lineart instead of a direct paintover.
At this point I was figuring out more clearly what I wanted - the focal point would be in the centre of the room (framed by the shape of the room) with some kind of pirate gang celebrating around a table. I made the table circular to contrast with the surrounding boxy forms and other rectangular tables and get that kind of equality/unity for the various members around the table.
I thought it would be compositionally interesting if the last thing the viewer sees is the pirate captain walking down the stairs, making it feel like you're in the room when you see people staring and wonder what they're looking at.
Also made the hand rail on the stairs break off to not completely block off the bottom floor and to also convey that the environment has a history of violence (and foreshadow what might take place after this moment illustrated in this scene) as well as connect the focal points.
Blocking in more figures, wanted the tavern to be reasonably crowded and have people peering in to see what's going on.
After lineart was done, started blocking in some values, testing the lighting. Wanted/ needed to really nail the values to get the focal points just right so started painting in grayscale first instead of straight to colour like I usually do (and risk messing it up)
Vaguely blocking in base contrast values
Coming along, switched up the guy on left of the circular table and just made it a bit more interesting and a more cocky pose with the foot on the table (like they owned the place) and slightly spilling his drink in disbelief.
started the lighting pass with multiply and screen layers, rimlights. Significant glow from the centre table and then smaller from the lower left table candle as a secondary focus. Deeper blacks on the pirate crew. Also added skulls on the captains belt to add some sinister vibes
I felt like it was missing something , so experimented with the idea of having a rival pirate captain at the table. The only person who isnt shocked but is keeping face stoically.
can't remember why but I didn't really like this idea. It fitted better with the 'confrontation' idea I initially had but I think I preferred slightly that there was only one dread captain and it would have more impact. Maybe these were rookie pirates and they had crossed the worst dude
I showed some non arty friends and got some fresh eyes on it to see what was going on focal point wise and some were reading it this way when it should be more or less the reverse. Didn't really understand why but tried to improve it
made the big dudes shirt black for extra contrast.Lowered the values on the skull on the belt to hopefully make it read in reverse. It probably isnt perfect relying on contrast alone, so was hoping that some saturation would reinforce the focal points stronger
Decided to add a chest and some gold on the table to enhance the story (pirates are all about booty after all). Ready for colour pass
First colour pass. Multiply + Colour layers with group masks for every object. Finding out the problem with passes on this complicated of a piece was that the layers were building up exponentially and also it was just getting complicated (Eventually finished with about 250)
looking to put a strong orange light source from the centre candle, keep the captain desaturated, make the chest and gold pop. Weaker rimlights on the folks at the bottom right table pop for a secondary focal point
hard light layer inc
trying to get some stronger atmosphere and ambient light with another colour layer pass and soft light. was really struggling to get the
rim lights to read well on the centre crew and it took a lot of fiddling
Did another pass of dodge, hardlight. Realised it was too dark after getting some fresh eyes and slapped exposure adjustment, tiny bit of colour balance.
stronger green light and little bit of smoke pushing the scene into a little more supernatural (like an undead pirate or something) and just cause I felt there needed to be some sort of colour contrast with so much red in the scene.
Fini 
Thanks for looking
Critique is absolutely welcome!
Replies
For me, the upper structure is pulling my attention away from the action. Compositionally, the sight lines do not move naturally between the characters below and the character above. It kind of fails the squint test... squint at the illustration, and can you still understand what the story is? Where does your eye move to? I completely lose the foreground character.
I think your third image has a really good read, the one with the red lines. The pirate's hat silhouette instantly commands attention as I feel it should. Then, my eye would hit the men down below, and see their startled expressions.
I love the color work, the characters, and the rendering! I think it's just the composition that would help seal the deal.
Great first 2D post!
I'm also thinking about adding some stronger rimlighting on the secondary characters below the focal table to lead the eye a bit better? It will probably end up poorly though so I'll post an update soon
@gabrielluis88
Thank you for looking! Much appreciated
Very nice image and I like the atmosphere!
@Eric Chadwick
I tried to push the silhouette on the captain further by putting in some cold breath and also putting a multiply layer over him to up the contrast. I'd love to hear your thoughts - i've been squinting like eastwood non stop and my eyes hurt lol
Also put a multiply on the stairs just to further divide it and push the colour contrast and taking the supernatural/sinister feeling further like death is creeping in. also extra atmospheric smoke
@Elithenia You're welcome! Thanks for taking the time to comment
Hotter/stronger rim lighting on the entering figure, so he becomes an equal attention grabber. And darker on the left side, so the eye doesn't stray over there so much. So hopefully now your eye will keep circling back between the room and his silhouette.
It might help to downsize the whole thing, so you can focus on composition alone, without all the details getting in the way. That's what I did, I scaled it down to 160 pixels and painted on that.
I do have to agree with @Eric Chadwick and his .gif comparison. The green lighting on the main pirate really helps him pop, and with all the detail you put on him it's a shame for him to not be noticed first.
Great work and looking forward to seeing the next steps on this!
I added some rim lights, but had the warmth coming in from the centre and some green coming in from the right suggesting like some kind of window there? I know that's not exactly what you suggested but I felt it was a better choice in my instinct.
@Aaron Barnett
Thank you!
@Joebewon Thanks for checking it out and your input
@R3D I hope it works better now! Cheers