Reworking Hope and Jason's Character Designs - A Megapost!

This is the link to the official public Cryopod Art Repo:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j8TrqSDRSB5dpzkKxPxZGsNDShcvRxsL 

This is the link to the Patron-only Art Repo, with unreleased art pieces which will come out to the public in future parts: https://www.patreon.com/posts/hey-everyone-art-29727436 

Hey, everyone. This post was originally going to just be about posting the next piece of character artwork for Jason. However, it turned out kind of... bleh? It wasn't amazing, and so I decided to have MWTX do a total rework of not just that image, but an image for Jason and Hope both. We then went back and made some changes to the current Patreon banner.

But first, a history lesson.

I had the first image made for Jason by MWTX over a year ago. Since then, I've had several variants made, mostly because he's my main character and I want to make sure he looks good.

We started off with some pretty okay-looking versions that had an issue of they didn't look particularly like he was demonstrating his personality well.

The Jason on the left was intended to be Jason when he entered the Labyrinth, while the one on the right was Jason after he wordsmithed himself to look much bigger and more masculine. The problem is that he looks like a little kid on the left, so I wanted to fix that.

Enter Jason V2.

Aside from a few stylistic issues I did not like, this image represented Younger Jason fantastically to me. He looks like a lanky, malnourished 18 year old. He has a lot of optimism in his eyes, and Hoarhiim looks pretty good, too.

However, a problem cropped up after this, where Jason started looking less and less like a half-Japanese guy, and more like a very generic white guy. I didn't particularly like that.

Here, he looks like a lumberjack. Just a generic, southern Lumberjack, and even Phoebe looks fairly out of character, too.

These were issues I wanted to remedy. So, when I finally sat down MWTX after several months to design a Patreon banner, I knew that nailing Jason's appearance was crucial.

And so, we did.

(Click the image to enlarge it)

Finally, we not only had a perfect design for Jason, but also Hope, too! The two of them look remarkably distinct, while also being obvious twins. Heck, even Phoebe looks great, and you can tell Belial's PLOTS are looking solid, too.

Thus, after this image, I had a new standard in my head for Jason and Hope. This was their new appearance, and I wanted to ensure they always looked as accurate and excellent as they did in their banners.

So, I asked MWTX to draw Hope, but without the Crown. The result was my post about two weeks ago.

Honestly? Not too bad! Pretty solid 8/10, though the backgrounds MWTX draws are not the hottest, but that's okay for now.

After drawing Hope, I wanted to get a fullbody for Jason. I asked MWTX to draw him while mimicking his Patreon Banner's style... and the result was... ew.

This image of Jason was not at all what I had in mind. On a technical level, it's fine. It's not the worst thing ever. The problem is that something went very wrong with Jason's face. He kinda looks a little bit dopey. He doesn't have that same fierce, resilient appearance he did in the Patreon banner, and so on.

So, with that in mind, I had MWTX spent the last 1.5 weeks revising and updating Jason and Hope's images. I have to say... they came out great! Seriously, these are on par with, if not superior to the Patreon banner. I love them.

Starting with a Crown Swapped Patreon banner:

The goal for this one is to preserve the surprise at the end of the Ancient Era ;)

And moving on to NEW artwork!

That's right! Hope seems to be wielding the Dominion Rod! Of course, this probably isn't a portent of anything to come in the story, so don't read into it too hard... :)

And finally, the overdue revamp for our MC!

This design has a few minor issues, mostly in the shape of Jason's face, but I'll overlook them. I think it came out great, and I am very happy with MWTX's work! For those of you keeping track, this post includes not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR new pieces of artwork, assuming we could fugly Jason, handsome Jason, handsome Hope, and also the crown-swapped Patreon Banner.

I don't have much more to say. The next character designs will be for Smealum and Shepherd, followed up with any other characters from the Ancient Era who didn't get good artwork yet.

That is all I have to say for today. I want to express my big thanks to all my Patrons, many of whom have stuck with me for 1, 2, 3, and even more years than that. You guys really help me out and give me the drive to continue producing Cryopod.

Thanks for reading.