The Hunt for the Seven Gentlemen

For this assignment, John Hendrix handed out a list of made-up book titles. The Challenge! Create an illustrated cover for one of the books, based only on the given title.

I started out with 3 sets of ideas - Steampunk vehicles hunting for the Seven Gentlemen, an explorer hunting for the Seven Gentlemen, and the Gentlemen themselves, being gentlemen:



I decided to refine the explorer in the tomb, the gentlemen group portrait, and the wall portraits into tighter sketches - those would let me play around with character designs the most:



And selected the wall portraits as my final. I drew the portraits and frames, then made some comps to figure out the title placement:



Chose the one on the top right to refine into the one on the bottom right, then inked it:



And made a value study:



I will be having a contest to name the Seven Gentlemen (including the missing one). Post a comment on this webzone if you want to give a name to one of the Gentlemen. The prize is: you get to give a name to one of the Gentlemen*.

*Sponsored by the Tautology Club.