Riven the Exile Cosplay - Part 1

Hello!

So i'm a huge cosplay fan and i've done a few cosplays in the past, but they've all been small jobs and not that grand, but this time i wanted to step out of my comfort zone and really think about the materials i use to make it the most animated and realistic ( at the same time ) as possible.

For those unfamiliar with Riven, she's a champion out of League of Legends. I know that not many people actually like her as a champion but i absolutely fell in love with her look and so i decided that it would be perfect as a cosplay. 

Here are some pictures: 

The above is a fan artwork, or concept art by Dimelife on deviantart, this particular piece of art has helped me extraordinarily and i actually want to include the details on the leg armor and belt in my cosplay, hopefully i can manage to do so.

Here is my progress so far, although it's not much at all:

These are just rough sketches i did before getting down to the crafts, i find it really difficult to draw out something which is 3D and then making it 2D. As you can see i went through many many many leg armor designs.

I find it really amazing watching something which was on paper come to life, and this is my final template for the leg armor. I sketched it out on paper first, then took leg measurements, re-sized the drawing to fit the leg measurements, cut it out, copied onto craft foam (found in probably all craft stores, i got mine from hobby craft, it's blue because i was going to use it for something else, but never did) I cut the craft foam out so i can reattach it with wonderflex, which would make it more angular and armor-like.