Starting today and for the next couple of days, I'll be unveiling the new model sheets, the "new looks" for the StarStrikers, one by one. We begin with the first completed sheet, which is Lowenstein's.

I actually started working on the initial version of Lo's model sheet in September 2005, a month after the webcomic finished (that's surprising to me, I had no idea it had been that long). But the final pencils were never nearly as good as the rough draft I'd done of what he should look like. It's not the first time I ended up using my draft as a final piece; very often I find once I'm trying to do a 'good' redrawing of something, it doesn't have the spontaneity or the charm of the original piece. Sometimes it's easier to just improve upon the draft instead. In this instance, a lot of that was because the proportions of the rough one were better, and he was much cuter as a result. I've come to place a lot of emphasis on cuteness when it comes to Lowenstein.

Thanks to drawing him hundreds of times over (for the webcomic, alongside Corinne), I already had a very clear idea of what Lo needed to look like going into this project. One of the key things I needed to go back and resolve was the issue of his backpack, which had always been an obtrusive pain. Then I remembered that Lowenstein IS a Scuttlebug, and to place greater emphasis on the "bug" thing I drew inspiration from creatures like the beetle and ladybird. I probably have Beast Wars Insecticon to thank for that idea actually, if I didn't have that figure who knows if I'd ever have had that "eureka" moment!

Originally Lowenstein was supposed to have his new weapon, the Lowenstaff. However, I've decided to do a second set of model sheets for each of the StarStrikers, reworked versions depicting them with their weaponry and gadgets. Hopefully that won't take ANOTHER half a year.

As it stands, I'm fairly happy with this depiction of Lowenstein, and there isn't much I would change. These designs have been sitting on my computer forever while I worked on the other StarStrikers, so I've had plenty of time to go back and make any revisions that were required.