A form of art that I always find interesting is gender-bending, or gender-swapped, characters. It is the process of taking a well established character and switching their gender (usually from cis male or cis female to the other).
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| Something about those chains just works better with Female Thresh |
Yosnakorn Sothonwong is an artist on Deviantart that makes some absolutely amazing work. The above gender-bent Thresh is an example of his work. Anyone who has played League with me (or just has been following my blog for a while) knows that Thresh is thematically and mechanically one of my favourite champs.
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| The cavalry has arrived, indeed. |
I do talk a lot about League on my blog, as it's probably my favourite game. But artists do more than just League art. This is a character known as Tracer from the game Overwatch. Tracer is a spunky Australian with the technology to rewind her place in time by several seconds. She is able to reload her weapons, undo damage done to herself, get out of ambushes, or surprise enemies with a position reversal into a flank. If you're familiar with League, she seems to play very much like one of the newer champions, Ekko. Anyway, Yosnakorn does an impressive job of capturing many aspects of Overwatch and it's characters with this single image. The smirk on Tracer's face hints at her playful attitude, the light lines from her weapons imply her impressive speed as a character. There's even a subtle "time shadow" behind her, as her ability to rewind is a core mechanic for her in the game. On of the other characters, Winston, is in the background ...appreciating... Tracer's athletic build. All in all, the artwork captures the spirit of the game and it's characters well. The colouring and shading is beautiful, and it never hurts to have more art out there of a sexy character.
Yosnakorn also likes to merge different fandoms in his art. This piece combines characters from League with the Avenger's franchise (He really likes to combine League with Marvel stuff). The champs that fit each character in the movies are portrayed well in the image. Gnar is hulking out, quiet literally, as his rage-fuelled transforming ability is incredibly similar to The Hulk. Xer'ath is using his magical lightning to power an Iron Man suit. Braum grabs yet another shield to add to his repertoire as Captain America. The hammer of Thor, with it's flexibility of fighting style and powerful emissions is a logical choice for Jayce. Miss Fortune fits the body type, attitude, and weapon style of Black Widow, with Varus and his amazing bow backing her up Hawkeye-style. Lucian's stoic attitude makes him a great choice for Nick Fury (Sorry Ekko, you're a little too punk rock for that one). Master Yi takes over the role of the fast running Quicksilver, with Morgana taking the role of his sister, Scarlet Witch. If that wasn't enough, Malzahar takes flight as Vision, and Azir commands his minions as Ultron. The fact that all of these characters work so well in the art and as crossover personalities is really impressive to me.
From gender-swapping chain wardens, to the most attractive Rengar I've ever seen. Yosnakorn's art is always a pleasure to peruse. Some of his art is NSFW, but the
Deviant art filters hide his more revealing works from underaged eyes. This particular character is a favourite of his, with several pieces dedicated to the female Rengar. Yosnakorn also uses the Fem-gar, as it's also known, to cross over skins within League. Here is the Battle Bunny skin that Riven uses, but adapted for Fem-gar. It really makes me wish that one: Fem-gar was a character in League, and two: That this skin happened ASAP. There is also a Heart Seeker Fem-gar, complete with heart eye patch and accents.
This artist really likes to do gender-swaps, and makes some really sexy artwork (a little too sexy for some of my more conservative readers). Give his page a look and support. Maybe one day Riot will pay him for some new skin ideas...
Toodles!
