Splashes, portraits, and clarity
I think they look great. I can't art like you guys, but I've identified a few issues that bother me about them. I try to be concise and constructive in my criticism, because this would be a very long and potentially discouraging post otherwise.
tldr: more clarity in portraits pls.
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Consistency in artstyle
There's old art and new art, I know. Maokai and Aatrox have very different levels of detail. That's not the issue here, because you're updating the old art right now.
In the new art, there are distinct styles. The most egregious examples are in the new batch of splash updates. Kayle looks like a painting. Janna and Zilean look like cartoons. Wukong is nice and colorful. Singed looks like a caricature.
Some updated splashes suggest a style of dramatic lighting and high detail, which Janna's splash lacks. I wouldn't have guessed that Janna, Singed, Wukong and Shyvana belong in the same game based on their splashes. They also don't quite match previously updated art like Olaf and Annie, nor new champions like Yasuo and Vi.
I don't see a problem inherent in having different art for the champions. It's just a new thing for the game, which will take a while to get used to since so few champions currently have an art style that stands out. And it can hurt immersion.
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Color scheme and lighting
Eve is blue. Kha is purple. Zac is green. Fizz is blue. Malzahar is purple. Singed is green. Lissandra is blue. Kennen is purple. Thresh is green. They're obvious in the portraits and matches the color scheme of the in-game models.
Cho is purple. Ahri is pale. Janna is white. Rumble is red. Kog is dark. Shaco is purple. These don't match their in-game models, which is confusing when you only have a moment to look at the minimap to identify the champions. Associating the portrait with their default skin makes things easier to read.
Then we have light and other detail that add clutter to the portraits. Jarvan, Rumble, Cho and Shyvana's new splashes are full of detail. Most of the detail is lost in the scaling, so what's left is uneven, noisy surfaces.
The additional, dramatic, colored light of many of the new splashes is confusing and doesn't communicate the color scheme of the champion.
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Composition of portraits
Kayle looks like Pantheon. And they both look like Lee Sin, a backlit head against a bright background. Talon looks like Nasus. Janna looks like Riven. Ahri looks generic. Shen looks like Nocturne. There's more.
When scaled down to the size where they fit the minimap, the portraits become easily to mix up. In cartoons you have to be able to tell characters apart using their silhouettes. This doesn't work with the current splashes. Older splashes used clear colors and a close-up of the champion's face to communicate their color scheme. Zooming out to include more of the profile works for champions with a distinct head. When champions resemble each other, other tricks must be used to distinguish them, like color.
What is Kog? A dark blob with a light spot in the middle. What is Ahri? A girl with black hair. What is Veigar? Two yellow eyes... somewhere. For other champs, their composition works well. Blitz is a robot. Sion is big and scary. Talon has a hood.
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Consistency with older art
Nami's face is much smaller than other human-faced champions'. In the new art, some champs have similarly smaller heads. This composition communicates some champions' appearance, but why is Ahri's face so small? Why is Lee Sin's face so small? Most are cropped just above the forehead and just below the chin, focusing on the face. For inhuman faces this doesn't always work, but why are Cass, Ahri, Lee and a few others different?
The same goes for lighting and color, the same goes for level of detail, the same goes for a lot of elements. If the plan is to have more artstyles in the game, that's fine. I'm just concerned that these outliers will stand out until most champions have a rescaled portrait or new splash to differentiate themselves.
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What do I want?
I'm not sure. Probably clarity in the portraits. Splashes are larger during loading screen, so they're not much of an issue, but the portraits could all be remade to match whatever style best communicates each champion, and makes it easy to identify champions at a split second glance at the minimap.
