Dear Riot: Slight Change in Art Direction for Wukong/Janna/Ahri?

So, as I'm sure many have noticed, and may more have pointed out, in the new splash arts currently on the PBE, Janna, Wukong, and Ahri stand out as having decidedly different facial structures/appearances compared to their old splash arts and thus their current ingame models. I think most of the negative responses that these are getting are because they're different - and thus look objectively better or worse than the previous splashes. (Change is indeed hard)

But, if any of the lovely people at rito would mind sparing a second, I had a couple questions:

1. were these changes totally intentional? I know that artistic freedom is indeed a thing, and while I can see these as artists simply being creative with an interpretation of a character given a rather loose framework, I was wondering if Riot played any particular part in directing the changes of these characters' appearances.
2. are there any plans to update the ingame models to better match the splashes? While I know facial features aren't exactly a reason to go back and change a champion's model, I was wondering if these were going to become permanent thematic changes or not.

Thanks!