Painting Arcana Xerath - League of Legends Splash Art Timelapse

Arcana Xerath! First of all. I Just want to thank Riot and West Studio for trusting me to contribute to this very unique skin line! Doing the thumbnails here was different from the usual because we had to make sure there were graphical elements and that there was an ornate border behind the character. The character design was also a challenge because I need to prioritize that he still reads as Xerath from a distance. It was like drawing two characters in one where I do the armor and main silhouette first, then fit in the human part last. Before rendering, I got a paintover from Riot to tilt his pose more upward and to make him face the camera more. This helped a lot in making him read more evil and powerful. I had to separate each part when rendering so that I can nudge things around to avoid tangents. There was so many things going on in this character! It was also challenging to invent those graphical elements at the borders and behind him. Despite all the details, I still managed