[Riot Art Contest] - Irelia

Nik

Art update:





So I'm trying to redesign Irelia. It seemed like her art hadn't been updated but I thought the champion with her flying blades was interesting.

My first thought was to go for her default skin but give it a slight upgrade, however I'm not sure how well of a job I did with that. These are some sketches that I made when I had a couple of minutes (sorry they're really rough) and then a little bit more of a refined sketch I created later.






However I'm not super happy with how she's turning out so I gave her another try but with a more Chinese type armor (at least what's in Chinese movies). I figured it seemed fitting since she's an Ionian Captain and they seem to borrow a lot from Asian culture...or at least that's what that house in the background of her splash art looks like to me.





and I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself by doing this action pose...what is going on with that forward foot?

ejdc

that looks great

Nik

Gave the Chinese type armor another shot and just decided to to try a different heavy armor. A bit in the style of Leona.

Balut

Nice sketches.

Enalya

The Chinese one is pleasing to the eye!

LeoJr

Very nice! Agree about the Chinese ones looking very cool, esp. the one on the left!

Nik

Sweet seems like everyone prefers the left version. So here is a quick color pass for her outfit.



I may have to darken her hair, she might look a bit too close to Sona. Then again color doesn't seem to be too consistent among the champion skins.

LeoJr

Very nice! Seems like some of that beautiful etching/detail work is getting lost in the black parts, though...

DrigzAbrot

Very Interesting Nik, the way you have her hair down like that (and probably the color) reminds me of gossamer wings. I like your take on Irelia.

Nik

Good point on the etching. I'll have to maybe separate it with a bit of color or find some way to give it more pop in the final image.

I don't want to push it too much or I feel the armor will become too busy/noise and will just distract. I'll just have to be careful, thanks for the feedback.

LeoJr

Probably a good idea, good luck!

Nik

and to finish the night of just two quick comps.

Nik

couple more compositions. Any favorites?

VictoriaHall

Nice work! I would say B and D. I know that it's only a sketch but in D I would tilt up her face rather than looking down.

Jelligeth

Man! I wanted to do something like this too before I went for Morgana and Kayle because Irelia's lore didn't grab me enough haha. But you're doing a way cool job on it. I like B, C and D. B is my favorite, but maybe you can try switching sides Irelia and the building in the background (maybe. It probably actually works better how it is now, but it's worth a try). C is cool, but it looks a bit like she's going to fall over xO Otherwise, D, but her blades look a bit messy. For thumbnails though, these are brilliant.

THendersonVFX

I really like D. It's very dynamic, and makes great use of the rule of thirds. I just imagine some depth of field around her and some motion blur on the blades.

Rayph

Tons and tons of sketches, great stuff!

Nik

So D on the last set seemed to be the best overall composition. Here is a new take on it, with some adjusted blades and a clean up of Irelia.

One of my buddies pointed out that her shoulders weren't very well on display in the composition so I adjusted her arms (A), but I didn't really care for it and made the original again (B) and then tried a mix (C).



Will try some more stuff tomorrow, if I can stop playing Civilization Beyond Earth long enough to get some work done.

I'll also try the head turned up per VictoriaHall's suggestion.

Nik

Here is a color pass on the image. Still need to do a lot of work to push the background further back and pop Irelia and her swords more.



I'm still debating on whether I should add motion blur to the swords. It might look cheesy and I didn't see any of the LOL Champion portraits using motion blur. At most they use some light trails where appropriate. Hmmm, I might add some magic glow to the Jade blades now that I think about it.

Nik

Eliminated the lines and put in some basic lighting. Still needs a lot of work and clean up.



I'm not feeling the facial expression yet, will need to work on that more.

A buddy of mine also pointed out that her right leg is too aligned with the image plane which flattens the entire thing. I'll have to adjust that to come more forward.

As mentioned lots of work left to be done. If anyone has any other suggestions to make the image better let me know.

GravityBwlast

I love your color choices.

Wazowski_Vegeta

Oh those colors are so beautiful! and I agree with you on the expression, she doesn't look like she's fighting, she looks more upset, so maybe opening her mouth like if she's saying something to her enemmy or a nice grin like "I'm winning" would be goo to improve it! Anyway, awesome work so far!

Nik

thanks guys, glad the colors are working out. I'm still trying to get there with the expression, I might just have to redo the face altogether. We will see.

meanwhile I did some more pushing of contrast and polishing. Crits and feedback are always welcome, it's never too late to change things up for the better.



I feel like some of the swords are no longer working that well in perspective or the composition. Will have to work on that.