A little bit of process

Some of you might have already seen this piece on my deviantart account. 

Decided to share a little bit of process of how it came to be.

 I started this off with a very bland and a bit chaotic composition. I liked the designs so I decided to keep at it.

Rendered it a bit. Worked some more on the background. But didn't like the colors that much. It's still a bit bland and the background is too eyecatching. I want the two figures to be the center of attention.

So here I added some dramatic lighting to contrast against the cool blue background. The background is still too important and the light looks weird with these colors.

Pushed back the background, which is now a lot more abstract and blurry. The lighting works better now and I added some designs on the armor. The face of the right character is now almost completely darkened to add mystery. I like how it looks now so it's time to render and add the final details. 

So this is the end result. Added a bunch of details, shiny parts and a detailed suit for the right character.