Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen in Tal Verrar

Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen in Tal Verrar⚓️, illustration I made for the special edition of the fantasy classic The Gentlemen Bastards sequence’s Book two: Red Seas Under Red Skies, 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 Locke and Jean in the docks of Tal Verrar. The city is described as a very particular place, divided in many islands over a Dark Glass seat, a material very similar in properties to the Elderglass of Camorr, but Black and not self illuminated during the night.

I decided this kind of glass should be part of the docks and the scene itself as a small sign of Tal Verrar. It was difficult to make it look like black glass and provide it with certain visibility due to the material. I thought maybe it could have a bit of amethyst shine, not very influenced by the red light of the flames behind, in a way it could look a bit unnatural.

These glass areas were important too to make understandable the composition and the different action layers. The main concern I had in this scene was representing the tension: the moment they turn back with their crossbows while the boat behind is literally exploding and the two strangers are also pointing at them with their arrows.

About Locke and Jean, I tried to represent them as it’s in that part of the book: unkempt, dirty, with beards and longer hair than usual. Locke also has a more blonde hair tone (his natural tone) as it’s noticed a few pages later by a very important character in the book.