Swain, the Noxian Grand General

Participating in this project has been one of the highlights of being at Riot so far. I tried to involve myself earlier in production and I want to thank the team for being receptive to some of my ideas regarding Noxus' infamous Emperor, especially in terms of portrait and graphic value grouping/contrast. It was really fun envisioning one of our IP's big players in terms of lore. He felt distinctly villainous (at least visually), but with a nuance and depth that is rare for our game.

It was very much a dream of mine to collaborate with the talent on this particular squad, especially concept artist Justin Albers (check him out, so glad he's finally designing champions!), narrative writer David Slagle ("to redraw the map, the blood of soldiers must be the ink"), and composer Kole Hicks (of Ornn fame).

This painting kicked my ass and I'm not 100% satisfied with it but what else is new?

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