The first pass of the Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill poster featured the ban high up on a stage and Lady Day down on the floor at the audience level. The title treatment seemed to work right off the bat so I kept it in each variation of the poster design. I was playing with the idea of a very smoky lounge and how that might affect the lighting and even ghostly wisps of smoke rising from the floor.
My favorite detail is of the cello player and yet his cello is hidden behind the piano. The piano player himself is off screen. Even the hands of the drummer are not visible. Clearly I needed to make the musicians more visible and make the act of playing the instruments more clearly visible.
I liked the warm lighting, but wanted to incorporate more cool blues and purples into the painting. As a first pass I was mostly pleased that the title was working.