A Product of Change

Surprise! The old, and the new.

It was brought to my attention recently that a lot of people who've watched my art, especially through deviantART, have no idea what happened to "Vistyne." On that note, if you don't know who she is, feel free to be merely amused by the work in progress in the center, of a character named Jo who will finally be popping up in my art - that is, once i'm more settled in and have time to do my own stuff again. But if you want to know more about "Vistyne," visit =HotaruThodt's dA page! You'll find her there. If you do know who she is, then you may find this read a little interesting.

-So, what happened to Vistyne?
Well, in short, i grew to hate the character. She was supposed to represent my passions and interests, borderlining a persona, but because i was immature, mixed up, and had a lot to grow on, she turned into a typical mary-sue i tossed into every awful scenario of fandom i could practically come up with. Not to mention, this and my behavior being brought to the light by my own undoings, lead to a total loathing of her design. In the end, she was a reminder of mistakes and un-originality.

That being said, Vistyne was supposed to represent something i had difficulty replicating through her ridiculous outfits and agonizing poses; strength and will. While my friends knew this and some of those i've become familiar with online, Vistyne appeared to be no more than some pervert's wet dream. Really, i just didn't like having to cover up the anatomy and skin i enjoyed drawing at the time.

-Then, what happened to her?
Originally, i intended to dump her design altogether. The thongs, the tails, the horns, the multi-colored eyes, the flourescent, red hair, the dragon, the heels...Instead, an interest, long-time online friend asked about her whereabouts and when i informed her, requested she pick up the design and convert her into HER story. It was decided, and while the artwork itself still belongs to me, i have given all rights and most of the general design to =HotaruThodt.

-You just threw her away?
Because what this character represented to me, is still very important to me, and some of the attributes of Vistyne i loved, i of course wanted to keep some ideas i still adore. So, i changed Vistyne entirely, and this began before i handed the rights over to Hotaru. What was created was "Jo," a character finally worthy of admiration. The first recreation is what you see above, on the far right. I kept the left-side scar, and converted the dragon tattoo into a bony "mutation." I nixed the three tails and created a single, also bony tail. The curled horns remained, but no longer had the ability to change shape. The general idea, in short, is that Jo is part of a world shaken by an alien virus.

This revision remained for some time, with the horns removed finally once i became frustrated with her looking persistently demonic or dragon-like. I had to move away from this idea, but had trouble translating it in a way that i liked for her, and would want to draw repeatedly.

Finally, some time after creating Frank ( [link] ), who comes from the same universe, i had the idea of making a perfected form of the unfortunate mutation he suffers. So, the armored, endo/exoskeleton was created, after several reworkings. Once, going to bed before work in the morning, i suddenly had the image of a wide, somewhat skeletal, segmented tail appear in my brain. The following day, i sketched it out on my break, along with a couple small sketches of the arm and "scarred" hip, and backside. This same sketch i used to reference from in drawing the final product in progress, of Jo, in the above center image.

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So there you have it. Jo is technically the revised, redone, progressive remake of Vistyne, in a much less stupid universe. But you will never Jo in 95% of the themes i used to place Vistyne in. Jo is a hardened, cold, mean, apocalyptic warrior. She's not a villain, but she's no hero either. She's a perfect mutation who stole a military Jeep and blew up your truck. She's not sorry about it, and she's stealing your things. You were trying to raid that camp anyway.

Vistyne belongs to
Art and Jo belong to