2D Project - Promo Poster Design - Thumbnails (getting that characterisation in)

When thinking about a promo image (like a wallpaper) I figured the best thing to do was to test the waters with some thumbnails for the composition and posing of the piece, and thus i came up with these.

The idea was that i was trying to get in a bunch of different idea's quickly and without worrying too much about anatomy for the moment so that i could focus best on what design captured my characters...character. so to start that off i listed some of the keywords to associate my character with to help me figure out while i was drawing these, and to on reflection look at these designs and pick one out as a winner.

Since the character is a paladin of sorts, the stoic attribute means i want something strong and impressive as far as posing goes in order to capture her strength, while wrathful is meant to indicate her somewhat violent nature when angered, so in this case i also wanted her to appear imposing or like she would end you if you crossed her. Lastly she is both holy and corrupt, he stalwart nature as a knight means she serves the people and is a paragon of justice but simultaneously her god is a demon, which serves as a ever encroaching darkness for her, hence this nice duality that i wanted to show.

My winner for this is the bottom center one, the outstretched hand shows her intent to help, but the demonic hand that is offering it shows her for what she truly is, the posing is nice as it also captures both her regular and irregular fighting style, both her intended to be used greatsword and her reluctantly used demonic strength.

Hopefully i will have time to properly make this into a poster since i had a lot of fun doing these thumbnails, it was a nice way to cover a lot of ground and get a feel for things within a short(ish) amount of time.