Cyrus has spiked anime hair--none of these images quite capture the anime spiked hair as I envisioned it, but the second followed by the fourth probably come the closest. This spiked anime hair is red, but not just any shade of red. The color I am going for is fairly vibrant, but not pure red, slightly diluted. Brighter red than lifeguard-red, but only just. So it's much, much brighter than crimson, but it's not as bright as possible.
His eyes are, as mentioned, a fiery combination of golden yellow and orange--none of the programs capture this look particularly well. His expression is meant to be mostly neutral, almost but not quite negative, stoic and deadpan, more or less. Serious eyes, focused. For the mouth, the first and third are best; for the eyes, fourth, second, and third (in about that order) are good.
Phyrra's expression is a big cheeky teeth-showing grin. None quite capture that as I envisioned it to be. Her eyes are big, idealistic, heroic, and yet slightly determined eyes. The fourth captures it the best but all are decent.
I decided on an official garb for Cyrus--a deep blue hoodie (think color of the fourth), covered by a cloak shown perfectly in the third. Underneath the hoodie would be a tan tank top. (You can see the blue trim of the collar for this on the fourth.) With an orange smaller tank top underneath of that.
As previously mentioned, he'd have the jeans and boots and a belt and the like more or less unchanged from before.
Phyrra's outfit is a little more complicated. The deepest layer is those chest wrappings. Covering that is a white undershirt. (You can see part of this in the fourth image.) Above that, the red T-shirt. Covering the red T-shirt, she has the brown vest thing shown in the third image above.
She also has leather elbow guards, fingerless gloves, and the shorts/boots seen above. That's about as much detail as I have thought out. Haven't made the program versions for Phyrra and Cyrus-in-Phyrra's-body yet, but with this I'd be able to more or less using additional google references throw together Cyrus and Phyrra-in-Cyrus's-body using my actual art rather than a series of programs.
I'm still not sure I'd be able to make my vision come to life because my art skills fail to live up to those of my vision, but I'd at least have the grounding where it'd more or less be possible.
I have the time to do more than just throw together quick art though, so I suppose what I'll also do is talk some more about little things in the setting. An early concept I threw around was every episode starting with 'The D*escription*'. For instance, I might have an episode title of, "The Demand", and another possible one was "The Departure". For a specific arc, I might keep this, but there was an appeal to something else.
Specifically, the idea of beginning every episode with 'The'.
And I managed to throw together at least twelve aside from the above.
The first episode, The Thaumason Siblings, for obvious reasons.
The second episode, The Wind Guardian, as it'd introduce us some more to Gora.
Ace's introductory episode, The Ranger. I did play around with other ideas. Woodsman. Sharpshooter. The like. But this, in the sense of how-Aragorn/Strider-was-a-Ranger, seemed like the best descriptor for him. Someone who is skilled in the use of ranged weaponry, that is a wilderness survival expert, not limited to just the woods though in that in any environment he is equipped to survive.
Cedrick's introductory episode, The Rival.
Another episode featuring Cedrick, The PF Plan. (I'd tell you what PF stands for, but literally 80% of the humor in the episode comes from what it is so I'd prefer to keep that knowledge secret since the moment is absolutely hilarious if you don't know about it in advance.)
Kaze's introductory episode, The Earth Guardian.
Myra's, The Fire Guardian.
Bard's, The Street Performer. I considered 'Street Urchin', and also considered 'Spirit Demon', but this seemed like the one which best encapsulated his personality/role without being too spoilerific of his plot-relevance.
Clara's, The Paladin. Could also be The Solarus, but Paladin works better overall.
Hera's, The Water Guardian.
Will's, The Adept.
Lily's, The Tailor.
Alena's, The Botanist. Could also be 'The Alchemist', but I think of her as a botanist first and an alchemist second even though her skill as an alchemist is what gives her value in the Thaukama whereas botany isn't exactly the most plot-relevant skill to possess.
These episodes would be much harder to tell as being special episodes if every episode was titled similarly. For instance, if an episode focuses around a villain, "The Damned" could be the name of the episode and that could in fact be the way to introduce a character and yet wouldn't be. That might not be the best of wording, but basically the idea is that title episodes don't give anything away, so much as they just give a general indication of important things the episode more or less introduces.
I might have other stuff to talk about buried in my notes, but the only other thing I can recall off the top of my head which is quick to talk about is a little extra on the villains.
Sloan, the first big bad, has a soft spot for animals, and this fondness is especially the case for dogs. He even ends up adopting a dog he names 'Angel' when said puppy doesn't treat him with hostility, and he does nothing to try and corrupt the dog, raising him more or less the same way any other person would train their dog.
Gunther, the second big bad, literally at the sight of a baby will go 'agoogoo' at them. Now, this does come with a caveat. He makes it clear that he can and will hurt/kill/threaten a baby if it suits his agenda to do so (e.g. leverage, shutting down a prophecy), but when it does not, he is all too happy to be giddy around babies, and gives his blessings to any family with newborns that are loyal to him.
I suppose that'll be it for today. Hope you're enjoying seeing me build Phyrra and Cyrus as much as I am enjoying building them.