Collaborate on promo art

Felix reveals how he and Esben worked together on a marketing commission, based on the Dota 2 universe

A gamer gets a fantasy spin in Esben and Felix’s joint art.

This picture was one of the illustrations behind a series of key visuals done for SteelSeries, a Danish manufacturer of video game accessories. The idea was to portray the duality of the often fierce in-game character avatars and the calm and collected gamers battling to overcome the next big challenge. All the illustrations were done with a few well-known gamers in mind, and the avatars that were created were inspired by the in-game characters which each gamer usually plays as.

Sheever, who this picture was made for, is not only a streamer but also a caster, interviewer and a host when it comes to all things Dota 2. The illustration is inspired by Windrunner and Witch Doctor, because Sheever felt that those were the two characters who best embodied her in-game.

Since both of us artists work full-time jobs, we decided to split the work between us, and the piece was divided into four stages: sketches, refined sketch, colour block-in, and final render. Esben worked as the lead artist on the project.