[Riot Creative Contest 2017] Elderwood Azir

Jacobtm92

Hello!

For this year's Riot Creative Contest I have chosen to illustrate a Elderwood Azir Skin! I hope you all enjoy the process I post and give me great feedback! Good luck to all contestants and I hope have a lot of fun and learn from this! 

There are a lot for ideas for this piece so I decided to draft a reference sheet for myself to help with this entry!

Jacobtm92

Here are a couple of quick sketches of what I imagined Azir doing in the Elderwood series. I really like the first 3 but added two more just to get a sense of what may and may not work. I've uploaded all together and High res for you all

Jacobtm92

Took 1-3 thumbnails and rendered them a little more I'm feeling a little like 3 is the way to go thoughts guys?

Jacobtm92

Quick Sketch of what I'm hoping Elderwood Azir is to look like in the splash illustration hope you think its cool, gonna do some more color studies, and would LOVE to here your critiques or tips that may help em along

RedSinistra

Hey! You are doing a good job with this concept, keep it up!   
I like the little detail of that "nest" on the shoulder pad XD. I only would suggest that for his design maybe you can try more yellow or even brown feathers (like autumn). Oh yeah and for the mask, you could try to give it a "wooden hawk / crow skull" look , like a tree "turned into" a bird or something. 

Kroute

Great start man!
Your idea is awesome, can't wait to see more of it!
Overall, I like the design even though it could have some nice details on the head, it's too simple at the moment imho. Also, I think the color palette lacks a bit of a complementary color somewhere, maybe some autumn-y leaves here and there (but more red-ish or purple-ish colors)?
Cheers!

Jacobtm92

Ok so with some help from you wonderful people and some outside eyes I provided a couple of options for me I really like #1 and feel with a closer eye to detail it could really flourish in the splash art! What are your thoughts? would love any feedback!

Ibeenthere

i prefer #3 the head is more streamlined and feels more like a being of the forest instead of a forest being possessed by  a being. if that made any sense

Jacobtm92

true but it's a little too similar to Elderwood Hecarim... maybe a combo of 1 and 3 in the head woukd sell it! and a splash of color from 2

Jacobtm92

Feeling like I nailed down what I want Elderwood Azir to look like and splash concept I want. On to what his soldiers will look like and rendering out the scene some more!

skullkid99

I really like the design of the final version, I hope to see more of the model concept, maybe see the idea for the soldiers and the towers once the splash art is over. really great work

Jacobtm92

Took some time to give the splash some decent rendering before concepting some more. It's a decent start but there may be some things I may not see that you guys can any thoughts or comments? by the way the foreground element shows one soldier rising out of the wood but i intend to add more and have the soldiers fleshed out a bit more.

Jacobtm92

Here is some value reworks

Jacobtm92

Soldier Head Studies for Elderwood Azir. Struggling to figure out which head works best for Azir's soldiers and can be in the Splash Illustration. For league standards the soldiers have a presence, but not strong enough to over shadow Azir. Which do you think works the best?

JoPainter

awesome!

JoseML

About the soldiers I think 1, 2 and 7 fit well with elderwood thematic, But i really like the 6 one. About the 4 is like "bird" thing, so is almost like Azir, And i think Azir's helmet must'nt resemble to his soldiers head. Excepting the 4, the other ones are really good, And 6 is my favourite.

Keep going with the work and good luck with the contest!

Sealinside

Awesome concept, looking forward for the final entry! 

Jacobtm92

A small update but I'm easing back into this since holidays kinda kept me busy, really hoping to take off on this as the month goes by  

Jacobtm92

Another update to this project, Pressed for time but determined to finish it! getting the values refined but till needs to be pushed! Hope you all like it!