Sabetha and Locke Lamora during the election in Karthain

Sabetha and Locke during the election in Karthain, illustration I made for the special edition of the fantasy classic The Gentlemen Bastards sequence’s Book three: The Republic of Thieves, written by Scott Lynch and edited by The Broken Binding in collaboration with Gollancz . The project includes 6 endpapers for the 3 books of the sequence.

This illustration is of the election event in Karthain, one of the most expected moments during the book. My main concern in this piece was to show all the main elements but preserving the chaotic aura of this massive event as it’s described by the author. The old aristocrats of The Deep Roots party and the young artists and progressive people of the Black Iris party had to be represented so dark and green tones were a need. However, I chose a color palette with many green tones, closer to gray, and black colors closer to some warm/brown tone and also gray. This way, both candidates are represented, but very mixed. Those tones create a mosaic of colors that creates some illusion of movement, chaos and crowd. On the other hand, there was another very important element too: the green elderglass dome I maintained with more evident green which is only repeated in the officials carrying the ark with the voting results, creating some “order” for the action and composition.

About lighting it’s supposed to be made of alchemical globes, which maybe should be more white, but I thought the warm touch would really suit the decadent style of the place, the noble people aura and the tones in general.