Redesigning Brand | Fan Visual Rework
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We’re a team of artists with a lot of opinions about our favorite media and character design. Now, we want to share our friendly discussions and educational lessons with YOU. With your help, we can continue to create content like fully-edited videos, livestreams, and artwork! Please consider becoming a supporter to keep Subjectively running smoothly!
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All content and characters discussed belong to their respective owners. Our content is covered by Fair Use for the purposes of polite criticism, artistic education, and/or satirical purposes. We want to share our enthusiasm for the media we cover, and also engage more people to be interested in the value of art direction and character design.
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What are the brushes you use?
Claire made a few sets of brushes that we use in all our videos! They're available for purchase on our Gumroad! >> gumroad.com/subjectively
@@Subjectively thanks
@@Subjectively please do avinia, she’s my main and favorite
Also what app do you use to make your art, is it free
@@garrettlich7140 Usually in professional contexts it's either photoshop or procreate. Sometimes with a combination of several programs for different things, but those are the big two. In this case, it's Adobe Photoshop.
Neither is free, unfortunately. Photoshop is a pretty expensive subscription service actually.
But art program does not the artist make!
Pick up Krita or something, you'll do just fine. :)
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 I’ll look into it thanks
I think Brand's back story is a wonderful example of that famous quote "The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth."
Oh. Oh wow.
You could say that this is a Brand new design!
It's a rock solid rebranding, that's for sure
@@Biodebatable hehe i get it
AUUUUGH
...no.
* *takes psychic damage* *
Fun fact: in Danish we have two words for fire: Ild and Brand. Ild is for controlled fire, while brand is for uncontrolled fire :) Fits him well
but he controls fire
@@PinkOrangeOrangePink they mean it as if Brand himself is the uncontrolled fire
same in Dutch! Vuur and Brand
You beat me to it, you kartoffel
Glem ikke "bål" XD
i'm beyond impressed with claire's improvement on the splashes, the lighting is so complex so its really hard to recreate, but every splash it looks closer and closer
That story section had me hooked to my screen, The voice acting, to the art, to the story itself was amazing. It had me searching for the Lich Volundread presumably me not being able to find him means he was your own creation. The Darth Vader and Obi Wan contrast was also a very compelling theme. Wonderful video.
So true! Claire's speedpainting and Jack's storytelling merge together flawlessly-- I love it! The "You're not ready" line from Brand while looking at Claire's gemlike flames gave me chills!
I get more of a Shifu and Tai Lung vibe, honestly. If you swap them out with Ryze and Brand, the similarity is quite uncanny. Hell, Tai Lung even sets his hands on fire while beating up Shifu, yelling at him to tell him how proud he is
Honestly, the fact that gragas and ahri are in the same game was my favorite joke by riot since he ASU.
Anivia and Aurelion Sol, LOL
actually screw that, Anivia and BOTH of her brothers, Ornn and Volibear.
@@thoseriseofkingdomsadswith972 I think her bros look fine nowadays. Can't say the same about mother of all omelets, however, so agreed here.
@@thunderultra i think thats what the comment meant, the quality difference is insane, compare to her borthers which exist in the same game
Bro rumble exist in the game cho gaths fucking model bel vethd minions got more polygons then there whole body its so wild
I have never clicked on a video so fast. It’s been more than a year since the last league redesign and I am so happy that this series had made its comeback.
i have zero interest in league but these videos are great lol
SAME HERE !!
Missed opportunity calling this video "Re-Branding"
I love you, thanks for existing
I feel it's important to note that that is a _dramatic_ retcon from Brand's old story, which might put his current design into context. Previously, he was from a pirate crew from the same vaguely-described and hidden land that Olaf the viking came from, but found that fire power hidden in a cave and killed his crewmates with it in a mad desire to burn everything around him. The pants, therefore, are a holdover from that old pirate design, I'd bet.
This is good to know! We knew that Brand’s lore had changed over the years, but we never knew what the old story was!
I think my only critique would be that the “crown” could probably look more like his very skin peeling from the back of his head coming forward to resemble a crown perhaps? But otherwise this fantastic!
Uugh
He is on fire, not melting chief
Claire's splash art is phenomenal! Please make more of these!
I love this! Also I’m glad he doesn’t just look like a freljordian that got set on fire, but the fact that if you know a bit about Runeterra’s lore you can deduce a lot about Brand’s story just from his character design: a rune-corrupted abomination. Absolute home run!
This was some Arcane level writing and story telling. Your voice acting was fine, and the voice changer was not expected. Great job
I don't want to shit on your biscuit but Arcane is a billion dollar Television series so I think its better.🤣
I am always waiting for your champion redesigns you guys are actually brilliant!
I would love to see your take on redesigning champions like Vladimir or Shaco.
Shaco would be so much fun cause we could literally start from scratch - there's no existing lore to work off of!
@@Subjectively When Viego came out Riot did a livestream with his writer and someone asked him if the “lonely prince” who Shaco was made for in his lore was Viego or not. The writer answered that this wasn’t the intention behind it but i feel like if it was it would elevate both characters.
A few ideas that come to mind on this are that maybe Shaco was beloved by Viego as a kid and his weird posessive feelings about Isolde came about becuase he believed people to be like his toys. Or maybe Shaco was discarded once Viego grew up (like a F-ed up version of toystory). Or its even possibe that Shaco was just one of Viegos toys that he never really cared about. Who gave Shaco to Viego? Could it have been from Vladimir trying to reconnect with his family? All these neat ways to explain and tie certain things together just excites me about all these possibilitys.
Imagine all the neat contrasts that Shaco would have with Gwen this way! One is one of Viegos many former toys while the other is a specific doll that Isolde made with care. One came to life recently while the other could have been corrupted and animated centurys ago. The possibilitys are limitless. Not to mention that he could expend on Camavor to the point where it actually might exist on the map.
I agree that Shaco’s lore and design need a huge update, but I honestly think his gameplay is fine. He has one of the most toxic playstyles in the game and it fits his fantasy perfectly.
@@mopeluso1 Honestly the only things i would change about his gameplay is to make it even more toxic but for him to have an even higher skill ceiling. To the point where you would have to be an actual psychopath to play him at the highest level.
To make him from arguably the most hated champ to the deffinitively most hated. And him having a high skill ceiling would ensure that he isn't picked that often so it might balace out.
@@cherechesalexdaniel811 How in the hell would you even do that though?
League has never been my thing but every video you’ve done on it has been so interesting! The lore of Runeterra seems so interesting and I love seeing the art from both Jack and Claire! Claire’s painting style especially is so mesmerizing for the splash art
I will say there is an interesting fan theory that could justify a visual connection between Brand and Xerath if you had wanted to expand further on the design you talked about at 13:06. It is stated in lore that the sarcophagus that Xerath was trapped in was originally used to contain an "entity of living fire" which some believe to be Brand or perhaps the rune that he stole. That being said, I like the direction you ended up going way more, since it allows both characters to retain their unique shape among the rest of the cast.
Impeccable Ryze impression. I'm blown away, I loved the new voice you chose to give Brand.
I missed a bit of the Zombie feeling of Brand, this one seemed more of like a Blazing Lich King, but honestly: amazing work!!
In early League's champion designs, they usually combined two generic things to try and make a new one, Brand was the Fire Zombie, and I like how his movements and posture - not to mention skills - reflect how he's spreading fire, violence and anger like a disease (hah, get it?), even thou his model could use a lot of improvement hahahahahah
I really want a transcript of that Brand story, it’s definitely your best story yet. Honestly forgot I was watching a redesign because of how compelling the story was. That being said, the redesign is stellar as always
What if Brand ended up with fire sort of filling out his torso, so that he has a powerful looking silhouette but looks emaciated as the fire fills in body with exposed obsidian bones.
Claire’s painting is so insanely well put together. Seeing her splash arts evolve and get better everytime is so cool. Genuine improvement and polish that needs to be applauded👏🏽👏🏽
That short story was insanely good. The voice acting, the writing its all so incredible! Great work truly
Edit: I should also add how freaking amazing the artwork is
Such quality is *on Brand* for you guys, well done!
Just, wow. My dude really apologized for his voice acting, THATS WAS AMAZING.
I really loved the huge stake through the body look, I thought it brought a great new silhouette to the table and a cool baddy look to him. Like he got a huge stake running through him but he still going to kick ur butt sort of energy but I understand ur thought process that its not quite the message u were going for. Love ur work!
For the remaining scraps of clothes of the brand redesign, how about using blues, whites and browns and then have those be charred and obsidian covered? I think that stark contrast of blue would lead strength to the implications of the remnants of who brand used to be.
The current clothes make me think more about Noxus.
The last suggestion I could give to this amazing rework would be to use the natural curvature and shards of the skull to emulate a crown.
Just tear off the scalp and break in the nose and you'll have a skull that is shattered into the shape of a crown.
Always love your champion redesigns!!! I know the idea of Shaco is thrown around, so let me pitch you this: take the concept of “Jester’s privilege” and make Shaco a sort of trickster deity. I think it’d be super neat
As the story was told i start to picture an young brand as wielding heavy furs and a metal staff that could be mistaken as a warriors weapon.... and then the image of his body after burning cutching what remains of it with an fur like colar of flames on his back... the instruments of his mage craft and the clothes of his peaple turned in to a scepter and a kings cape.
Loved every minute, even the accent you used works really well for Brands character IMO. It was so easy to visualize everything happening
Honestly if you ever decide to do another take of Brand, i'd suggest giving him talons to emphasize his hands, emphasizing his inherently possessive and greedy nature, and perhaps adding some shapes on his body akin to the animal themed armor of the Freljord, implying any armor he was wearing when he became Brand was fused to his body, whether it had been made of bone or metal, speaking of which maybe consider having the metal he is wearing be glowing from the heat, practically to the point of melting
I have two suggestions: making those metal parts of his clothing be molten into him, welded even. Brings the fire fantasy a bit further.
Also I would have liked to see more inner fire. The torso looks amazing, pure fire with barely any "rock" hanging on, but the limbs look a little too solid for my liking. Overall more untamed burn, creeping out his knees and forearms and feet.
I like the two faces concept! Makes it clearer he was once someone else and isn't just random fire demon
Idk if this will even be read but the one thing i think would make the new design even better is the world rune in the middle of his chest. I think having the symbol on the rune itself be also "fire - colored" makes it much less visible. For someone not knowing his story, it just looks like a part of his body, like his core. Having it glow in a different color would really hammer home the fact that it doesnt belong there. That this thing was introduced from outside. It would look more like a nail rammed into glass, shattering his body around it
Man really called out both my mains for having bad designs (Singed and Gragas)
That said, I'd be very excited to see the Subjectively Singed re-design. His lore is pretty cool, being a master alchemist, destroying his own body by testing everything on himself but in the process becoming a "tank" by deadening his nerves. He was rejected by the Piltover academy for his hatred of magic and Hextech, he created Warwick, he gave the Noxian army the chemical weapons to commit war crimes in Ionia, now he searches to create eternal life through alchemy.
And his current design is like... a bandit cosplaying a warcraft 3 orc with a big green bottle on his back. Also he has a big spikey shield he flips people with for some reason, and he shoots glue?
Have you ever thought about putting more of your writing on the channel - I've really enjoyed the plot lines in your videos, from videos like this to the Kaijune stories to Smaugust, your writing is really great and engaging - and you joke about your voice acting but it's pretty good in my opinion 🙂 just my two cents
You are truely creating good content and sharing high quality production (both video and art). The efforts are considerable. Wow.
In terms of end redesign, I remain unsure.
Things I like : The "Phantom of the opera" mask. It feels right to have a portion of the face that remain somewhat "humain". I also find interresting that the portion is what should be the mask.
I like the embeded shard in his body.
I appreciate the call to Freljord in the clothing.
I like that you didn't go the "Demon" path, which is "cliche".
On the other side, the armorlike protrusion diminish the intended look of an overlord, he end up more soldierlike.
Also, using all the Infernal skinline imagerie, bring the concept down : they are all Brand, and none of them are... How to stray from this archetype?
I find it hard (must have been for you too) to think outside the box with a prompt like "A human mage with fire power"...
Keep up the great work.
I'm not really familliar with League of Legends lore, but I gotta say the story was such a fun listen: the atmosphere & voiceacting were so cool!
Also I'm still amazed with how dynamic yet clear Jack's sketches look
Really good re-design, if you want to stray away from using cloth to cover his privates you could instead add molten metal curving, stretched and dripping. the metal could be parts of armor and such he had on when he got the world rune. It opens up a design where the cloth could be replaced by molten metal flowing down where textures of metal molten or close to melting could cover up his crutch.
Was also interested to know if you do commisions?
God, these concpet art and desings of yours are just so stunningly beautiful! I am in awe how amazing they all are.
I think it would have been pretty neat to see runes dancing out of the flames, like what we briefly saw at 15:55 when you were designing his head.
I was absolutely mesmerized by the story, and I could see it all vividly!
A fun thing about Brand is that his name is the literal word for "fire" (aside from its synonym "ild") in Danish and Swedish (Norwegians spell it "brann"), just as Udyr's name is the Norwegian (maybe Danish and Swedish too, idk) word for "beast". This piece of trivia is of course not any revolutionary knowledge considering how long the game's been out, but I gotta flex with what I've got :P
Beast is Udyr in Danish indeed :-)
"Beauty and the Beast" is called "Skønheden og Udyret" in Danish
I love every detail of this design and art. It's amazing
I really love these videos and the Pokémon ones as they help inspire me! I especially loved watching as your art style adapted more with Pokémon's and I feel that that kind of development should also happen here. A lot of League splash art has a "sheen" or "gloss" on it that I see absent from this art, that if present would take it to the next level.
Incorporating his Freljordian origin was a really good step for his characterisation and to make him look less generic
You guys are so talented! I can’t believe your humility on that voice acting! Also *chef’s kiss* to her splash art!
Focus on yourself man. 🤣
I really like the added gesture to your sketches, it really shows your improvement!
I love your storytelling so much! And the design came out AMAZING
Wow I loved that story! Every single thing about it from the voice acting to the character work to the narrative had me HOOKED
I loved everything about this video, from the design to the splash art to the story. It was all done really well, and I think it does a lot of justice for Brand. Brand has been my favorite league character ever since I started playing 4 years ago, and while I initially picked him cause I just thought he looked cool, as time went on it because more apparent that the visual design was, in my opinion, the weakest part of the character. I think the re-design looks amazing, and does such a good job of telling Brand's story and better informing viewers of both his power and his nature. The story was equally fantastic, I think it fits in pretty well with both Ryze and Kegan's characterization in their shared official story, and from a broader perspective was just a very well-written and engaging story. Also, I really liked your narration, I think you did a great job with the emotion of the characters, and putting some grandiosity into the event. This is by far my favorite of the re-designing series so far (though I am biased) and I can't wait to see what you all do next. Thank you so much for putting together something so amazing for the best charred corpse in Runeterra.
ever since i've started League way back when, Brand has been one of my favourite champions, so my expectations were high for this one. i just find his design, simple and Marvel-esque as it may be, pleasing. the black and red contrasting, some cool burning from the inside, charred from the outside, cool fire mohawk, and man, i am a sucker for pointless belts and the color khaki lol. his new lore is pretty solid as well, giving him the "literally consumed by hatred/power" angle.
so, this comes from a fire-hardened Brand-enjoyer who actually likes his current design: if Riot dropped this in my lap one day, i would be like the proud parent wiping away a tear and going "that's my boy".
the story is wonderful too, so well written with great pacing, descriptions, emotions, suspense and plot. you really are a great and skilled designer and storyteller! i would also really enjoy Brand's new voiceover having that freljordian accent
Loved the story and the splash art! You guys did an amazing job 👏
I've somehow totally missed this came out 2 months ago, so I'm very glad Nickyboi gave you a shout out today. These redesigns keep getting better and better and I love the stories that come with them.
I'd love to see a Kog'maw design in the future, because your Cho design was just insane. I have a soft spot for Kassadin's so I think his design could be greatly improved upon as well, but that's just my fanboy brain kicking in.
If I had to make any changes, I think I would change the color of his fire, maybe blue or lavender, not only would it feel more magic-like, fitting of the world runes, but a more blue color scheme would be a good way to subtly hint at his Freljord origins. Plus isn't blue and lavender fire the ones that burn the hottest? Idk, but I think it would be cool anyway.
The only problem might be it would have some visual overlap with Ryze and Xerath, also two mages who have a blue scheme, but maybe silhouette and the specific shade might solve this.
This way I loved this!
Dang, that's awesome!!! I never really cared for Brand (for the exact reasons you mentioned about his design) and didn't really understand his lore until this video, but because of this video, I actually know who he is! The redesign turned out amazing, btw, I love all of it! If I were to make a change though, it'd have to be the mask, making it bigger to represent the whole, "I'm Brand now!"
The reference you had for the Final Design was perfect if im honest.
I don’t like how he has what looks like mechanized armor instead of stone/wooden surface with more flames
I've never played league but i love watching you redesign it's characters, missed these vids and I'm happy we finally get one more!
I absolutely love when you do character art with that league of legends lane background. I rewatch it a lot just to study how ya'll render
Million dollar company: *144p
2 peps: *4k
Oh wow the splash art looks absolutely insane! The visual fidelity is amazingly spot on
Amazing video
Awesome re-design, very cool Story and splash art.
I like Brand now and feel so sad for him and Ryze. Imagine Brand not becoming Brand. He would be such a wholesome kung fu panda type of character. Now he is the leopard guy.
You are only missing someone to write music to these champions you create/re-design.👀
Well spoken my friend. Finally someone realizes what's going on around here.
Amazing video. The art and lore are breath taking. Keep it up, cant wait to see the next redesign.
I absolutely loved this episode. The design, the story, the sound effects, the music, the dialogue; the voice acting, all amazing!
The restraint it probably took to resist the multiple possible pun points in this script is stronger than anything in Brand’s lore
Great redesign and a great story. Love the work you guys do.
you guys are so amazing both the story, voice acting and painting are beyond awesome. Keep making videos !!!!
I love this like honestly amazing but I think with the stylized skull it looks more Japanese inspired in which makes him look like he is from ionia I think you might be able to find skulls from freljord that might separate that or an idea I had was make the rune stone part of / or just his head but overall this design is amazing 💖
This is absolutely beautiful omfg
I MISSED THESE SO MUCH
Thank you for your work!!!!!!
amateur? AMATEUR!? this is some good ass voice acting, not top teir but deffinetly not amateur, You did great!
Objectively, you chaps executed a commendable job, such a nice match of artists working on this! Loved your study behind the character, and all the posibilities the character could have been. If the rework of Brand was up to me, I would endeavour to fuse his current lore with some of Ornn's. I think transforming him into something with the characteristics of Ornn's golems could be an interesting visual, whilst including more about Ornn's forge material to the game. Your videos are always a mix of nice emotions!
The storytelling and painting made for such a great viewing experience, Rito should look at hiring you guys for dev diaries
Glad you’re continuing this series
Absolutely love these LoL redesigns! The artwork is amazing!
While I'm in no way in the spot to criticize such amazing redesign, illustration and storytelling (which got me hooked more than the drawing I was doing while listening!), I always like to challenge myself to see if I can improve the things I'm consuming even more (my boyfriend actually thinks that is a bad habit of an artist). And while I was looking at the beautiful illustration made by Claire, I was thinking about one particular thing of Brand's story: rage.
In all instances Brand did something wrong it was out of pure, uncontrolled rage. (As someone pointed out in another comment, Brand is the word for wildfire in Danish as well). While the current design is leagues (heh) better than the one we currently have in game, I was thinking how intricate and precise the details on the face/mask look like. How perfectly carved the horns and plates are in particular on the head piece, as if he was wearing some sort of helmet at the moment of his transformation, and while they are so amazing to look at, rage is more...chaotic. Uncontrolled, blind, messy. And I believe the World Rune would do just that, unleash all that build up and (somehow) restrained rage and anger and jealousy and envy stored within Brand, and would make him into something that would want to see the world burn just for fun because he is, finally, in control. He is finally enough to make people respect him, look up to him.
Visually, I'm not sure how to put that in perspective. The only thing that comes to mind right now would be to add elements to the mask and the overall design that are "melting", as if the little that is remained of his old body can't contain the fully unleashed rage, but he doesn't care. And it's also a pretty sad but beautiful metaphor, because giving in to rage only ends up consuming you. I think it would end up looking more of a horror personification of rage than a final boss fitting with the likes of Lissandra, Mordekaiser and etc, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, as we already have Fiddle and Nocturne as personifications of some nightmare fuels.
Just the random thoughts of an artist trying to understand and explore the joys of character design. I know, in the end, everything about art and its interpretation is subjective. Thank you for this wonderful series and for the time you put in it! I've only recently found it but got me hooked right away with the visuals, explanations and the amazing surprise of a story added while watching someone as talented as Claire draw.
This is definitely how Brand should look like, it's just spot on love it
About the design... I really like it. I think all the goals were achieved. Great job! One thing that I think could be reconsidered would be the cloath around the croach. I don't really think it is a problem, but it does bring the "how can he not burn that fabric?" situation. I wouldn't complain too much about it, but it IF you'd be interested in reconsidering that, maybe the gold saint's armors from Saint Seiya could give you some ideas on how to make a "skirt armor"
Another really beautiful and awesome redesign, unfortunately I personally think the elaborate crown/horn shapes on Brand's "leftover face" really muddle the concept of it being what is left of his humanity, to an extent where if you hadn't talked about it at all, it wouldn't read as such to me. It still looks really good, but much less like a human remnant, like the more burst-open design did. Obviously I understand why you did it, as you explained, but I also think keeping it more human looking (maybe less horn-like, creating a crown shape in a different way?) would have been a better choice. This is purely subjective, obviously, I just thought it might be worth mentioning :)
EDIT: Also, forgot to mention, the story and reading was fantastic. I don't know if you're planning to do this for future redesigns as well, but I would gladly hear more!
The redesign the Brand seemed so good to me, it gives another mystique to the brand story along with its design. I would like to see a redesign of Sona and/or Illaoi, I think they would have many ideas.
Illaoi having a redesign? I think she's good but now I'm interested to hear what you're cooking
@@thorbjorn4164 If redesigning illaoi in appearance to her model and tentacles So that she looks more impressive next to the tentacles, making her story of the priestess of truth present, how she deserves it.
@@mauriciotaisoriavidal2168 mmm she is perfect redesign no needed tnx
You're league vids are some of my fav! As someone who likes playing brand, you're redesign is rad lol
I am of the mindset that his feet being fire as well and leaving a trail of fire lingering behind him would give his character more weight and allude to his raw power effecting the ground underneath him
Truly amazing quality all around here.
Fun fact: as Brand came way before they had the idea of the world runes, his old story used to be that he was just a random thief/criminal who tryed to loot some tumb and ended up possessed by a random fire demon. And that's how he became an inferior version of Heatblast from Ben 10.
Oh my gosh please do more LoL story reworks/readings, you did so so good, extremely relaxing
46:26 Shivers at this part. God, what a fantastic story, the production quality for this episode is off the charts! You guys really set the bar for Brand's eventual VGU/ASU, thank you so much for all the hard work you put into these redesigns. ❤
I love watching your videos because although I though nothing about what your talking about you manage to capture my interest and the character designs are amazing!
oh god you guys are awesome!!! thank you for these art and videos!! you both are amazing!!
One of them are awesome.
“As much as I didn’t want to, I had to cover up his groin”
Boy I hope no one takes THAT out of context
I liked very much the Brand story sir, your writing is splendid
this one has been a fuckin trip I loved it so much!! your guys' asu's/vgu's are so inspiring
I LOVE this series, glad to see it back.
Amazing video, this brand new Brand looks so good!
Another absolute BANGER from Subjectively
this looks so authentic to League's design motif!!
I got a Revenge of the Sith vibe from this. It feels very much like Obi-Wan holding Anakin back causing him to become Darth Vader, and I really enjoyed it. The design is also really cool, I hope Riot do eventually redesign Brand, his kit isn't bad, it's actually pretty strong, and I think a visual upgrade could really increase his popularity.
I love this design but ( from a person who doesn't play league ) Brand is supposed to be a prideful character but he doesn't look or feel like a prideful character and being a counterpart to Ryze who's design is very humble and calm looking Brand should be a prideful and aggressive character that looks very powerful but his powers are killing him
In terms of storytelling, I think having the call of the runes come across as a voice in the head beckoning to whoever's holding the stone reads very close to how darkin corruption works. Having it be more of an ambivalent, raw call to power might cement the world runes as both different from the darkin (not malicious or hungry themselves, just so undeniably powerful that no one can resist them) and perhaps older than them, too.
“You’re not ready!” chills…
as a Brand main i LOVED your artwork.
I've re-read the Brand and Ryze short story, From the Ashes, recently and found it to be one of the most beautifuly written stories in league lore, which says a lot. I was a bit sad to see where it ended, because I was left longing to see more. The story in this video greatly helped scratch that itch, especially as a real continuation might never happen. I'm sure there were inconsistencies, but for the time being, I'm taking it as my headcanon.
I really really like the direction, and think the motif of his humanity having burned away is a strong way to go. I'd say my main hangup about it is that it feels a lot more cluttered and the focal point isn't as clear.
The mask and blaze of fire by the head demands a lot of attention, I think rightfully so. I think a character centered around the state of their humanity and raw emotion should have their face and head be a powerful focal point.
The rune I think creates a new focal point that is too distinguished. I think you could actually take inspiration from Ryze's design to remedy this. His body is covered in the runes, and because they're present on the whole body, it makes it feel more "broad" and omnipresent in the design. It makes his body runes an important part of the design to those who really look at him, but it doesn't take away from his focal point, his scroll.
The lioncloth similarly I think could afford to be more subdued to make more room for focus on his head and shoulders. Lose the hip guards, darken the color so it blends with the legs more. Make it a present detail that nods to his roots for those who look, but isn't really competing for design real estate.
Brand I think is supposed to be a character whose appearance is simple. Alternatively, I think you could also take inspiration from Xerath's design where the rune is a glowing focal point of a distinct color and then make his face and body representative of this duality of death and humanity, almost like he's in the process of becoming something like Xerath, and it all centers around this rune.