I dislike sweetheart Xayah’s look. I feel like with the dark side of love there’s so many things you can do that isn’t just having a weird princess themed outfit to match Rakan. So on Valentine’s Day me and chat went in with two designs and it was a lot of fun.
I’ve had this idea for a while but I thought it would be perfect for the love day itself. The wedding dress idea came in late in development but I’m really proud of it. The arrows through her are my favorite details
Back when Sweetheart Xayah and Rakan was released the community responded with criticism and fan edits/redesigns because of its poor quality....and here I am contributing to that.
That's right 5 years later after this skin was released and with it being nowhere near Valentine's Day I took it upon myself to make my own HeartAche Xayah!
For holiday skins, heartseekers had a shallow thematic with "pink, gold, and hearts" being the core elements. (There is potential for improvement by giving a more directed and dramatic direction).
Xayah and Rakan made perfect champions to a valentines skin line with their romance being their main gimmick. Literal love birds.
As a concept, Rakan is actually great (not the skin itself). He's a love-struck prince charming suitor in pastel and personally, I think there are already plenty of wonderful fan redesigns that perfect that concept.
For Xayah I felt she looked plain next to Rakan, as his contrast Xayah had many avenues to explore rather than being his basic goth princess background npc.
She needed a makeover. One that made her represent the Dark and painful side of love...
I replaced her wing with a tattered red cape associated with a red hiding hood adding to the "fantasy" but gave it a high pointy collar similar to that of the evil queen and vampires. (I was torn between giving her default hood back and this)
The black swan (swan lake) also heavily inspired Xayah's look with a ballet leotard and ribbons paired with a feather top and asymmetrical half tutu.
And of course, I gave her running mascara.
Overall Xayah turned out a lot darker than the status quota of sweetheart but I think all of the valentines skins should explore the different shades of love.
Roles: Art Director, Storyboarding, Visual Development & Illustration
Twitter - ArtStation - Instagram
In light of Riot Games laying off 11% of their staff globally, I want to make a series of posts highlighting the portfolios of those affected, so that we can appreciate their contributions to the world of Runeterra and continue to support them. You can find a full list of those known to be affected here.
HEARTSTEEL visdev (source)
Star Guardians - Everything Goes On visdev (source)
Rakan and Xayah have such a similar dynamic to ladynoir, and I love it.
Fun fact, yes I play league, (on and off that game sucks the soul out of you) I’m a support/mid main and despite my username being rakan I play a LOT of lulu.