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Between Two Turrets - Come chat with illustrator Suke! [COMPLETE]

RiotA Small Man·3/29/2016, 7:54:29 PM·20 votes·77,372 views


Welcome to the latest installment of Between Two Turrets, a Q&A series through which we connect you with various Rioters to chat about League, life, and anything in between. You can expect a new Q&A every two weeks or so, with Rioters from all over jumping in to spend some time with you on the Boards. You can also check out past installments!

This week, we’ve got Senior Concept Artist (dabbling in splashes and various other forms of illustration) Ke “hugehugesword” Su (aka Suke)!

NOTE - Things will be a bit different for this installment, as English is a second language for Suke. Myself and a couple other publishing types will be helping Suke identify questions and compose his answers. All sentiment will be Suke's; we'll simply polish a bit for clarity where necessary. Keep in mind that responses may be a bit shorter or take a bit longer due to these additional steps - thanks for your patience and understanding!

We want this feature to be a place for players to hang out with Rioters from all over the company, regardless of factors that might prevent them from more regularly chatting with you all on the Boards or other places online. Suke's worked with Riot's art department for almost five years and is super enthusiastic about getting to know players better, so we're very pleased to have him as a guest today.

My name is Ke Su, but I'm Chinese so I like people to call me Suke as its closer to the Chinese pronunciation of my name lol.

I'm an illustrator who works primarily on posters and splash arts. In the past I mostly created team fights for key art, from Season 2 key art to the 2016 preseason key art. I've worked with Riot for 5 years, but I was working remotely in China for the first two years. Before that, I was a concept artist and sculptor. I was a big fan of the original DotA mod years and years ago, and actually did two pieces of login screen art for it. Riot Games found me in 2011, and asked if I would be interested in doing art for League of Legends. I must admit, at first I was suspicious! As a big fan of the DotA mod so I wasn't sure I would enjoy League, but I decided to at least do some research and try the game out. As you can probably guess, I really enjoyed it haha. I actually felt tons of love and passion from it that made me want to be part of making the champions look cooler.



My first big project was the Katarina group image you see above, which was a great experience. After two years working remotely, I moved to Riot HQ in the US and became an in-house artist. This was an awesome move because it allowed me to work on a greater variety of League art, such as the base splashes for Ezreal, Kayle,etc.

Recently, I started to work on publishing my art more - you can check it out here. It's mostly composed of Arcade promo art, Project team fights, and the Lunar revel 2016 key art. Hopefully there will be more in the future!

I'm passionate about creating cool/serious/intense battle scenes, and I love choosing the coolest champions to build them up. But when I play League, I prefer a relaxing game with funny-looking and tanky champions such as Dr.Mundo, Volibear, and Udyr (only April Fools skin). These champions are tanky and fast, so its easy to go in, take some damage, and run out without dying too fast,and its no pressure even if I do die. I'm silver btw :D

229 Comments

RiotCuring3/29/2016, 9:02:01 PM13 votes

Can confirm that Suke is an amazing artist, I sit as close as possible to him so I can absorb some of his left-over art talent juice. Also he loves to slap the rest of art team with Definitely Not Udyr in our internal games, which makes him an even more valuable asset to Riot Games.

anacondazz3/29/2016, 7:56:37 PM6 votes

FIRST YAY ;D

Ghoulmeleon3/30/2016, 4:43:20 AM5 votes

Why isn't there a French maid sion yet?

kuralpha3/29/2016, 10:33:01 PM4 votes

Yo Suke, your art pieces are amazing/fabulous/outrageous! How do you like life in the United States? Is there a significant difference between working in China and working in the United States?

Kei1433/29/2016, 8:04:58 PM3 votes

1. Which pieces of splash were your recent creations? Scratch this, I just went to your posted link and saw your arts. They are awsome. 2. What do you think of the Chinese splash arts being merged with the existing arts? 3. Time it takes to make a splash? 4. Process of making a splash ? 5. What do you think of the "Riot Dash" pop up? 6. Share an office joke with us? 7. The craziest thing you've drawn? 8. Any crazy concepts that were thrown away that you can share? 9. How often do you play the game? 10. If you do play the game, how is the player base / skill level between the chinese servers and NA? 11. How did you actually get picked up while you were in china?

KungFuPandaKO3/30/2016, 4:21:02 AM3 votes

What was the funniest moment you had working at riot games?

mercenarykat3/29/2016, 9:03:19 PM3 votes

I've actually been following you on deviantArt for a while and it's an honor to actually be able to talk with you!

As an aspiring visual development artist I have a few questions:

  • What is Riot's concept/design process like?

  • What is your process like when doing digital paintings/concept art/etc?

  • Do you have any tips for artists who want to get into the video game industry?

ImRoosevelt3/29/2016, 8:31:33 PM3 votes

I saw you created the PROJECT: Zed art. Do you enjoy making more futuristic stuff or more fantasy-like artworks? :D

Ichabod Kong3/29/2016, 7:59:07 PM3 votes

Oh cool! What was your favorite piece of art to draw for the game?

Solidair33/29/2016, 8:35:12 PM2 votes

You like to play tanky champs, but which champs do you like the designs of the most? do you like big tanky guys, dainty supports? What's your aesthetic?

Nikutsune3/29/2016, 9:27:34 PM2 votes

I absolutely adore your work, your rendition of Ezreal is by far my most favorite. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Also thanks for the sick smiting pantheon splash with the butt shot. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

My question is: Is there any one Champion you love drawing above everyone else? Just a personal favorite who's fun to draw?

Ringo Biyori3/29/2016, 11:50:34 PM2 votes

What's your favourite thing to do when you get stuck and are having troubles trying to get something right?

Wannabe Doom Bot3/30/2016, 12:27:57 AM1 votes

I love your work! I was wondering, do you think it's particularly difficult to become a concept artist for Riot Games, or a concept artist in general? And did you attend a school or classes to learn or are you self taught?

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! I followed you on deviantArt and can't wait to see more of your amazing work!

Talacain3/29/2016, 11:41:17 PM1 votes

Have u ever used anime charters for ideas for concepts? If so good one be Melodious be a fun one from Seven Deadly Sins or may be a sup that's able to form in to a weapon.. Idk wish I had your talent well done.

Jabalor3/29/2016, 10:31:46 PM1 votes

I loved you work specially in the Vi vs Jinx art So heres my question What was the direction you went for that piece? you made look Vi as a real badass there! Any interesting tidbit for that one?

iTsundere3/30/2016, 8:55:15 AM1 votes

Hi Suke,

Aspiring Rioter here.

Im an art student at CSUF and was curious as to how the art team in Riot works. What kind of teams and positions are there? Any advice for a student trying to work for Riot even if he doesnt end up on the art team?

AmberRam3/30/2016, 11:22:10 AM1 votes

Hello! I'm already a big fan, having watched you on DeviantART, and I'd like to ask a question, aspiring artist to a professional. How did you start out? Or how would you recommend starting out to those trying to get where you've gotten now? Would you have any tips or helpful advice to give to artists trying to succeed in their craft?

Anyway, thanks! Keep doin you. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Sigfried3/30/2016, 1:14:11 PM1 votes

Any future project to update all the classic splash arts?

Yorick item 3070 Warwick item 3070 Kennen item 3070 Rammus item 3070

These are just the really old ones that are left untouched :(

...Thanks!

Zastie3/31/2016, 4:05:46 PM1 votes

I might be too late and/or this may have been asked already but..

How do you approach human figure poses at the first stage of your drawings? Do you look up references or are you able to just jump into drawing it immediately? Do you have any tips for learning to draw human figures in poses more effectively?