•I loved the game (even though I didn't play it) and the most memorable part for me was this radio tower scene where Lara went waaaaay up and the scenery was just gorgeous. I'm a sucker for huge landscapes so I made sure to emphasize that in the pic.
•I remember reading that for the rebooted Lara, the designers wanted the players to feel for the young tomb raider and they made a point about her eyes. I went through a few expressions and thought I'd show the more naive and frightened side of Lara before she was learning and adapting to everything she experienced on the island.
•The first time Lara took a life in the game had a pretty big impact on her--she noted on how it was really easy (not in an arrogant way but in a scary realization way that a human life can be cut so quickly and easily). So I wanted to somehow show her "washing the bloods from her hands" in a way.
•An important thing I realized was that this game was emphasizing "rebirth" a lot (obviously since "Reborn" is in the title) I wanted to somehow show rebirth in the drawing (but too many ideas packed into one image was difficult). The idea I initially came up with was for Lara to be emerging from the water because, to me, that very early scene in the game where Lara was submerged in water and nearly drowned only to be rescued made me think of a christian baptism: being submerged is signifying death to the old you and the resurgence signifies a rebirth of sorts to the new you. It was an entirely separate picture idea but I made sure to have Lara at least standing in water. A genius idea I saw from someone else's entry was of Lara laying in the fetal position with some rope resembling an umbilical chord--she was essentially a baby and that entry is definitely my favorite out of everyone's that I saw!
•Threw a sun at the top because Himiko=Sun Goddess
•The frame (which got lost by the time the picture became final) is kind of insisting the shape of the various icons you see when upgrading skills [link]. I wanted the picture to resemble a giant skill icon for Lara becoming the person she was going to turn out to be by the end of the game (essentially something like an ultimate "Survivor" skill that you might get rewarded with). I wanted to show her journey from bottom to top with the ship wreckage at the bottom and as you go up, you see different elements from the game experience and at the top would be the sun to signify the Himiko being the end of her journey on the island. The only element of that part of the idea I included was the sun at the top. But I did fortunately saw that the water pouring out of the frame was a great visual and opted for that favorably over showing the entire frame.