The Devil Made Me Do It

My favorite pieces were the following:

Adam Lane - Probably too 'pretty' to fit the description, but I like what he's done with her sword and cloak.

Christopher West - I love the sword here, it just radiates necrotic energy. Her armor feels appropriately badass, and her cloak looks fantastic.

cornelius cockroft - What a piece of art. This was my pick for the first two questions. The sword is a nasty-looking blade; it's too thin for outright combat, that's a weapon designed to pierce. The cloak is excellent, wisping into shadows, while her armor is functional, dangerous, and alien. But what sold me on her is the malevolent look in her eyes, that mask and the sneer...

Michael Ng - This was my pick for the last one. I love the form and the shape here, but it's far too sultry to be the assassin devil. This looks more like a succubus.

Ryan Hall - I love how imperious his devil looks. She has a great weapon; the blood drips really add to it. She just looks dangerous.

One thing that struck me while looking through all of the (now almost large enough to actually see) images was how many artists interpreted "a cloak made of shadows and darkness" and "a black longsword made of shadowstuff" as "a cloak and sword made out of black (or grey, or even purple) smoke or mist".

I mean, cloaks and swords made of smoke are totally awesome, but smoke isn't shadow and shadow isn't smoke. Shadows don't often have random swirly bits going off of them, unless whatever is casting the shadow has random swirly bits itself.

Also, call me crazy if you must, but as far as I'm concerned nothing that is made of shadow should ever be glowing.