This is an animated artwork I created as fanart for Brawlhalla's "Brawlhallidays 2025" event. It includes in-game skins for the playable characters 'Xull' and 'Thatch'.
Initially in this artwork, I had a different idea for the composition that ultimately didn't work out as I planned, so I instead took inspiration from compositions with big monsters and a smaller warrior in comparison. I really love that composition and it's usually one of my favorites.
The color balancing in this shot was planned, too. In the shot, I wanted to make it seem like there would be a clear winner, come the end of the battle - that, being the giant overpowering orc that is 'Xull', with his giant snowball grasped in hand. The in-game stage, "Twilight Grove", has a strong blue color, that fit the 'Xull' skin quite nicely. The red from 'Thatch' contrasts to the rest of the shot, as he's the one out of his field, or rather, out of his 'depth'. All of these thoughts and choices I made during the creation of this piece basically boil down to "Thatch is doomed".
The biggest challenge was making such a large character like 'Xull' have a cool, clear pose that fit his overall character/archetype of "big war chief orc". When it comes to clear posing, I always think of the silhouette method (to turn the entire character to one color and have the pose still be understandable), which I also use in character design. I'm glad to have been able to clearly depict what pose I wanted.
Ultimately, I like this piece. I'm glad I could get across everything I wanted to.
The Epic Snowball Fight