December Check-In
Wow—it’s the 15th of December already. I honestly can’t believe how long it’s been since I last wrote a blog post. Work got hectic, life got busy, and I think that’s just how the end of the year goes. Everything piles up at once, and suddenly you’re just trying to keep your head above water.
There hasn’t been any direct progress on Unchosen, which is both a bad thing and a good thing. Bad, because progress is progress and stagnation always feels uncomfortable. Good, because I’ve actually been talking to a web developer who currently works with a company over in New Zealand. Over Christmas, we’re planning to spend some time putting together a rough prototype—something tangible. Something measurable. Probably a very rough, very messy first attempt at turning the idea into an actual game. But that’s exciting. I’m genuinely excited to work with someone who’s strong at programming, has some free time, and is still actively working in the indie / AAA-adjacent space. It feels grounding, in a way. Like the idea is slowly becoming real again. I met him through League of Legends, of all things—which honestly tracks.
League, Community, and Spice
Speaking of League of Legends, that brings me to today’s post and the art piece I want to talk about. This one was created for a calendar submission for Spice Gaming OCE. They’re a women and non-binary League community that host Spice Cup tournaments, and they recently ran a Secret Santa–style silly tournament where you submitted a champion pool and got assigned a random team. It was the first one I’ve ever competed in, and it was chaotic and hilarious. We came fourth overall, which honestly exceeded my expectations.
Alongside that, they opened submissions for a Spice calendar—less of a competition and more of a community showcase. Artists were invited to submit a piece that could be featured in the calendar, and I was immediately keen. I’ve shared a lot of my art in that Discord, made friends there, and even helped some people where I can—mostly with software basics, layers, Clip Studio quirks, that kind of thing. I’m not a professional, but I can at least help people feel less lost.
I briefly considered doing something seasonal—Santa Braum for December, Heartseeker Varus for February—but then I had the very obvious thought: would it even be an AyeeJ submission if it wasn’t Sett? I’ve put so much Sett art into that space that it just felt right. Sett is my favourite champion, and that’s very well known there.
Concept and Direction
This piece builds directly off the back of a couple of previous works—Hot Spring Sett and a Rengoku piece from Demon Slayer. You can see the throughline between them, especially in the rendering. The biggest thing I wanted to get right this time was the hair. Hair has always been my biggest hurdle when rendering, and it really shows in older pieces.
Even earlier in the year, before those two, I tried rendering properly with a Dungeons & Dragons patron design. Looking back at that now, it barely resembles how I work today. When I line everything up—the early attempts, the mid-year pieces, and this one—you can really see the growth. I don’t love patting myself on the back, but this is genuinely my favourite piece I’ve done this year. I actually like it more than the God King Darius piece I did afterward, which says a lot.
I pulled a lot of inspiration from the Spirit Blossom splash art. Blue and purple are the dominant colours in that skin, so I made sure those carried through. I wanted the piece to feel powerful, so a low-angle shot was always on the table. Folded arms felt perfect—it reads as confident, controlled, cool. Sett is intimidating, but he’s also effortlessly composed, and that balance was really important to me.
Problem Solving and Process
There were a few tricky points in this piece. One was the arm position. I did a few drafts where his fingers rested on his biceps, but it just didn’t feel right. Huge shout-out to Yaiza, who helped by finding references of big guys folding their arms—turns out they often sort of hug their own bodies. That solved the problem nicely. Also, conveniently, it meant fewer hands to draw, which I will never complain about.
Rendering-wise, I used almost exclusively two tools: the charcoal brush and the painterly blender in Clip Studio. That’s it. I used pencils, glow, clipping layers, all the usual stuff—but the bulk of the work came down to those two. Early on, I used to hate rendering because I wanted everything perfect on the first pass. Then I came across a quote that said, “Just make it exist. You can make it good later.” That completely changed how I work. I blocked everything in with charcoal, blended it out, then repeated the process in smaller and smaller sections until it reached a level of detail I was happy with.
The tattoos were unexpectedly difficult. I thought I could just do the values and slap colour on top, but it looked awful. I had to really work them into the skin instead. The background, on the other hand, was relatively easy—I went through a few iterations, but I didn’t want it to overpower the character. In contrast to the Hot Spring piece, where the background was a major focus, this one was always about the hair and the figure.
The Hair Victory
The hair is the thing I’m most proud of. I finally feel like I nailed it. I used a set of imported hair brushes from the Clip Studio asset store, and they fit the style perfectly. This is also your reminder that you don’t have to do everything from scratch. If good tools exist, use them. Someone else already did the hard work.
This piece took a long time—less than my first attempt at this kind of rendering, but still a huge time investment. It’s also massive. I usually work at 1920×1080, but this was A4, which made everything slower and more detailed.
It’s made me think a lot about commissions. If I ever open them again, pieces like this probably won’t be on the table. They’re exhausting. I need passion to finish work like this, and I don’t think I could sustain that level of effort for something I wasn’t deeply invested in.
Wrapping Up
I mostly wanted to write this to check in. I haven’t forgotten about the blog. I just needed time—time to work, to make art, to deal with family stuff, to breathe a little. I’m in my final week of work now. I’ve barely seen my horse lately, and he was very unimpressed with me the other day, but he’s still looking beautiful as ever.
There’s been a lot going on in the family—some good, some not so good. One really bright moment was my grandparents celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary, which was genuinely lovely to be part of.
Thanks for sticking around, and thanks for reading. Hopefully I’ll see you at least once more before the new year.
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