[Riot Art Contest 2017] The Great Escape - Zoe Fanart WIP

ald_hendra

Hey all! I guess this is really late a start for this contest, but I just found out this week, so... Yay.

I'm drawing a Zoe fanart, cos she looks fun. TBH I've been torn between two concepts for Sona fanart, one with Silent Night skin that has gorgeous red and the other with DJ Sona skin with cool futuristic lighting -- BUT the playfulness of Zoe also looks fun to draw, so I gave up resisting.

Starting with some of the pencil doodles I've made, because I'm a traditionalist when it comes to thumbnailing. 



And with tighter details, here's the initial lineart. Usually I only use lineart to get a better idea of how I want the painting to go, so after this I will jump directly to digital.



I haven't decided what to do with the background except there will be people pointing and being angry. Maybe I'd put in Mt Targon. Or maybe Zoe had just ransacked a candy shop and the owner was angry. Is there even a candy shop in LoL? Children need candies; it teaches their teeth about grit and perseverance so they grow up strong.

ald_hendra

I'm kinda going back and forth with the concept, but here's the very latest version:






TBH, the reason it took this much time is because I experimented too much with the theme. After getting stuck with the background, I tried several ideas, including a candy store where Zoe had just tried to "taste" some of the candies. But candy stores just don't fit with the LoL universe (or so I thought) so I tried to create an alternative skin that'd make the idea works.

Anyway, here's the scrapped concepts:



I like the 2nd concept best, because it reminds me of candy store uniforms I often see (like this). But when I tried to imagine Zoe's bouncy, hoppity-skip animation, the 3rd one just works better. I think it's because of the basic shapes -- the 2nd one looks kinda one block of stick plus a tail for the hair, while the 3rd has big sleeves that can also animate during her movement. Kinda like how the classic Zoe skin has a big scarf, a necklace and that something on the hips that also move during her animation.




Too much colors, I'm gonna die of diabetes.

At this point I realized that the Candy Thief idea just doesn't work. It looks fun to draw and maybe it'll look quite Zoe-like once rendered, but when I remembered this contest is about recreating a splash illustration... nope, it's just not LoL. I can't even imagine this as a splash for an action game. Maybe OK for candy-themed puzzle games, but not action.

Oh well, that's that for the Candy Thief Zoe idea. Too bad it doesn't work, but you can't always find the perfect idea. Some ideas work, mostly they don't, so that's fine.

ald_hendra

A slow progress.    Here's the grayscale version:

ald_hendra

Here is the first coloring...



And after repainting:



And that's it! "The Great Escape": Zoe running away from a guard and two guard-poros after playing a prank! I'm hoping to capture Zoe's playfulness in this piece -- you know, like saying, "You noobs!" or "See ya loser!" while jumping into her portal -- but does it convey her character well...?

Well, it's been fun. I'm still not very satisfied with the result, but if waiting until I'm satisfied, I won't submit it until the next millennium. So, whatev.


[EDIT 31/1/2018]
I made a blunder   I misread the time difference between Indonesia (where I live) and the PST timezone, which made me think the deadline should be 15 hours earlier than it actually is.

Well, since I had extra time, I wanted to make some improvement and resubmit it again.



Up here is the final result. The changes are minor, but some of them are important, especially the positioning of the cast shadow (and the lack thereof on Zoe's hands). 

I'm sorry, guys at Riot Games. I hope my resubmission won't cause confusion. Please don't disqualify me.