Watch a Runeterra concept artist draw a new character on Friday 29th
Get a peek behind the curtain
At 6pm on the 29th of May (10am Pacific), Runeterra principal concept artist Chris Campbell will draw up a new character for Riot's card 'em up. It's for an "interactive global livestream", where you'll get the first peek at the newness and get to chat to him about how art works. It sounds nice, which is good because it seems like Riot are looking to make this a regular thing.
I'm more interested in this than I usually would be, because Runeterra's charming character design is one of the main reasons I still play it. I say as much in my Runeterra review.
Riot say the "inaugural ‘Draw with Riot’ will be an opportunity for LoR fans and art enthusiasts to peek behind the curtain of Riot’s character creation process, and learn the techniques used to bring the world of Runeterra to life." They've tied it to a competition, too:
"Following the two-hour live stream, the community will be invited to share their versions of the new unit via Twitter, using @playruneterra and #drawwithriot. 11 lucky winners will be chosen, receiving a selection of in-game Legends of Runeterra prizes, including new champions, epic cards, rare cards and expedition tokens, as well as being featured on @playruneterra. The winner of the best piece of art will also get the unique opportunity to speak with Principal Concept Artist, Chris, one-on-one! The winners will be announced on the @playruneterra Twitter page on 10th June 2020."
This does sound neat, even to someone whose artistic ability peaked with the hedgehog-shaped clock they made in D&T class when they were thirteen. I can think of a few things I'd want to ask Campbell. How much control does the artist have over the initial concept? How do you deal with the pressure of knowing that whatever you do, some of the people you show your work to are going to go "oh I didn't mean like that"?. And how do you draw hands? I hope it's easier than writing about them.
Chris Campbell, by the way, has been with Riot since 2013. You might recognise him from such Runeterra hits as "Thorny Toad", "Ursine SpiritWalker" and "Neverglade Collecter".
That is a very strong Toad.