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@Riot @IronStylus Oh, you illusive parrot you.....

Uracle·7/28/2014, 9:55:15 PM·9 votes·1,451 views

http://imgur.com/GVivjAF

I've had questions I was hoping to ask you but it for me it seems very hard to get your attention, Mr.Stylus.

I tried twitter but seeing as how many tweets you get from people I was most likely buried which comes with the territory.

I had an opportunity in another thread but I before I could strike while the iron stylus was hot I was at work when you were available to respond and you moved on from that thread. And I was like, "Awww, so close"

I hope this time I'll gain some ground swell so here so here goes.

Questions:

  1. Will you be coming to Fan Expo this year

  2. The release of the Smite and Ignite album seems to have been a success. Has Riot considered releasing an online League of Legends art book (with a few printed copies reserved for events). I ask because there's a lot of League art out there by concept artists new and old but they tend to be spread out plus sometimes they lack the interesting incite on the design.

  3. Mostly asking for advice on design. I feel my character or skin designs are lame and seeing stuff from other artists makes me think "man, if I could come up with those types of designs" Any advice on how to increase and improve your mental encyclopedia of design and not make them seem super generic? (At least they are to me, I feel)

5 Comments

RiotIronStylus7/29/2014, 7:01:56 AM10 votes

Ahmahgahd. This is so sweet it's giving me cavities D:

Did you make it?

Anyways...

  1. Yes.

  2. We've considered it. Right now I'm not sure where the status of such a project would be at. We have a LOT of art around, so it's be a pretty huge book. Something I'll ask about.

  3. Look at/watch/read/play everything. Like.. everything. There's that term that "nothing is original", and it's to a certain extent true. We as artists are very much the sum of our parts to a degree. Thing is, great artists know how to rearrange those parts into a pattern that's different. Yes, every human-made thing in James Cameron sci-fi movies are based off of vehicles and weapons from the Vietnam war. The feeling of that sort of hardware and time period resonates. However, he takes what's familiar, and makes it new. Makes it adapt to the context he's putting it in.

So, as far as I'm concerned, tropes and familiar archetypes are great. It comes down to the spin you put on it. An excessive you might try is going through archetypes. Start with something like Jungian Archetypes:

http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html

Those are universal human characters. Seen throughout history in many shapes and forms. Archetypes are fascinating in that way. They resonate without necessarily needing the full detailed context. They're broad strokes of story that are, for some reason, ubiquitous and abundant in the history of storytelling. Try your hand at going down the list and creating your version of the archetype. Sure, reference where/when you want that character to live (space, ancient times, alternate-reality, fantasy, etc), but give it a twist of something unique, some flavor that you think is special. Start with the archetype, give him a setting, and insert something unique that you like that might not be commonly seen in media, or at least not usually introduced into character making.