The Making of "Drop Anchor"

I recently found an interest in pirate lore, and in particular, I found the Irish pirate Anne Bonny, who makes for a fascinating historical figure. This painting was very loosely inspired by her. 

Step 1: Lineart (3 hours)
I created a very quick reference image in Poser 9 for the pirate, as well as using some reference images of older British ships for the boat. I then illustrated the digital rough using Photoshop CS6's round brush as well as the pen tool. Most of the time for the lineart came from the boat, which I created in Illustrator CS6.

Step 2: Base Color, Texture, & Shading (8.5 hours)

I first set the base colors, using masking combined with the round brush. This is far faster, I found, then the method of meticulously lassoing everything in. Once all the base colors were set, I overlaid wood onto the boat and sand on top of the beach.

Once the textures were set, I decided where my light source would be and proceeded to shade using a soft brush at 20% blacks and 10% whites for everything. I'm particularly proud of the skull on her bandana and her necklace, pictured larger below, as they were the first things I colored for the piece and were the first things created by me without any masking or extra layers. To make the saturated beach, I selectively blurred the mask over my beach and filled in water overtop until it looked right. I also created some blown sand using the brush I created for one of my earlier paintings. Lastly, I created a slight yellow overlay for the sun itself on top of the pirate, and changed her shadow to slightly blue to match the colored light.

Step 3: More Shading (1 hour, 20 minutes)
For the next step, I focused a lot more on the water. I added white to the water to form caps, set to the Vivid Light blend mode, again using the brush that I used for the sand. I also created more windblown sand, and added more shading to the boat. I added stitching to the sails here, also, as well as working more on the edge of the beach.

To finish the step up, I added more shading to the windows on the back of the ship, made the ropes and netting more wood-like, and added a soft lighting overlay to the boat.











Step 4: Yet More Shading & Finalization (33 minutes)
For this step, I added an overlay of lighting and shading to the whole piece. I also added definition to the pirate's hair and bandanna. To finish the piece up, I added several adjustment layers to everything.





























Materials: Poser 9, Illustrator CS6, Photoshop CS6
Total Time: 13.5 hours (roughly)