Intrepid Studios - Ashes of Creation Art Test

This is the work I was able to create when I was taking the art test for Intrepid Studios' Ashes of Creation concept art position, unfortunately did not get the position BUT what an amazing experience it was! Really love what I'm seeing with this IP so I'm glad I got to take part in the test. Shout out to Art Director Ryan Richardson! Super cool guy, absolutely helpful and gave me some excellent feedback!

His Profile: https://www.artstation.com/ryanrichmond

I also absolutely did NOT turn my work in like this, it was soooo much more chaotic looolll. I figured I should clean up the work so that I can at least post them here when it is all said and done.

Below are descriptions of the races that were assigned to me during the test

Dunir Dwarves:
Stoic. Tradition. Forge. Most of the peoples from the old world would see a mountain and think nothing of it. The Dünir saw a defensible home where riches abound. The Dünir take immense pride in what they craft and what they build: fortifications that seem impregnable, warhammers that never break, or beautiful gems for their royalty are all in their repertoire. Don't be deceived by their stout stature. They're pound for pound the strongest warriors the world has ever known.
Empyrean Elves:
'Imperial. Pride. Culture. Though not as numerous as the Kaelar, the Empyreans are a force to be reckoned with. Elite military forces and a highly structured government. The people of the Empyrea surely have a plan to carve their place in the world.

Please check out Ashes of Creation by Intrepid Studios, the world they are building is just really well thought out and visually stunning!!

My render of the Dwarf Cleric in a medium armor set

Here's a guide of what I was trying to achieve with the design

Step one for me is always researching and creating reference pages like this one, to really get into that head space

Here is my first pass, just sketches of light and medium armors. As well as an anatomy template I like to make for myself based off of the 3-D model in the game.

These are the roughs, slightly more refined and going into how light armor will upgrade to medium armor.

Light Armor design. Top - with cloak. Bottom - Without cloak. Here I'm sort of thinking about how the modelers would construct this, I thought, the more information I could give them the easier it would be for them to make it.

After cleaning the design I go into drop colors and figure out what works best. I decided on a Cardinal type coloration, although I was very tempted by the blue