Spirit Blossom Akali

Worked on this piece a bit earlier last year! Wow it's been a while! Akali's always been a super visually interesting champion to me, and its awesome to have the opportunity to paint her in such a fitting thematic. In the story of this skin, Akali refuses to metaphorically "cut out her heart" and forges a path of her own in the spirit blossom universe, and trying to fit that in the symbolism of this splash was a super fun challenge for me. One thing that came to mind while painting this piece was utilizing the masks that are hanging around as symbols for one's heart. As our faces often express what we feel in our hearts, I felt like it was a nice way to tie in the design with the narrative without making the symbolism too obvious. I imagine a "mask" as a representation of our aspirations, our hopes, our dreams, and the person we see ourselves becoming. As she kneels in the middle of the pond surrounded by hanging masks, us as the viewer is confronted with the amount of "hung up dreams" around us, an overwhelming pressure to let go of one's wildest imaginations. I think masks are normally used to represent hiding one's true identity, but with this, I wanted to play with the idea that masks are the ideas of yourself you choose, you can be whatever you choose to become, and in this case, Akali is choosing to keep her own individuality to not cut out her heart.

Special thanks to the splash team for helping me along this splash, I've learned so much throughout the years and it is all because of their amazing support and encouragement!