Yeah, the perspective is definitely off. At first I was trying to make it kind of cartoony and like it was bursting open. There are probably a lot of artifacts left in this piece considering how many times I switched course. Thanks for pointing it out, I've become numb to them.
The crack is supposed to be a mark where the chain was broken. Someone bashed it with the shovel or something.
I fleshed out the beach a bit more, and learn quite a bit about what looks like sand and what doesn't. I'm not totally happy with it though. I think I might try adding a bit of dithering, that might give it a grainy texture like sand... or it might just make a big mess.
I also attempted to add a crown in the chest. I actually like the crown I made but I'm having trouble making it look like it fits in. Here's the crown just placed on top of the gold
and then here is my pretty lame attempt to make it look more like it's embedded in the chest. I'll keep playing with it on my own but maybe someone has some insight here: