Developing Designs

After giving more thought to how I would utilise the source material, I landed on what I figured to be an original idea with plenty of potential for development.

I wanted to redesign Jinx in a completely different time period - from the fantastical steampunk world to ancient Greece. I felt these settings could not be further apart, allowing for my design to be completely original but somewhat historically accurate. I wanted to keep the fantasy aspect, thus added in some anachronistic aspects, like her painted graffiti and bright colour palette, but twisted it by translating any words to Greek. I made two initial designs for her dress based on ancient Greek artwork, one being a more traditionally feminine Athenian design, the other significantly more Spartan, which is the one I chose as it was more fitting to her character.

My favourite aspect of these designs are definitely the props. The lore of Arcane is so extensive and iconic to fans that I inserted references even in this relatively simple design. For example, I took the runes shown on-screen and simplified them enough that they could be realistically carved into a sword. Even subtle details are symbolistic - the circular design on the shield is the silhouette of the ruling Council's round table, defaced with 'Jinx was here' in Greek. They are based off of real ancient Greek weapons - the sword blade being the width of the hilt and tapering off, and the convex shield both being the most common items on a battlefield.

I plan to use a mixture of worbla and EVA foam for the sword and shield props, with a PVC pipe core for stability for the sword. It will be manually carved and weathered with sandpaper and a rotary tool to add 'battle damage' and painted with gold spray paint, with a black acrylic wash for aging. Ideally I will paint the graffiti by hand to give it a realistic touch.