Here's the third in the series of new StarStrikers model sheets, this time for Sylvia Soren.

As one of the two longest-running characters throughout my various projects, alongside Lowenstein, Sylvia has undergone plenty of changes throughout the years. She began life as a supporting player in fanfics I was writing ten years ago, a slightly ditzy next-door neighbour with a purple bob. Over the course of the first five years of StarStrikers she evolved into some sort of slightly terrifying neo-amazon; the decision to 'grow out' her hair was made as an attempt to offset this. In my desire to have my characters be so much better than everyone elses's, I had created a monster. And so my outcome for this redesign was to bring back some of that Sylvia of old, to reclaim her beauty and femininity.

One of the funny things about Sylvia and Corinne's new looks is that I spent a lot of time studying human anatomy to make sure the proportions were fairly realistic. I did this because invariably the only time I ever get any feedback on my work, it's people telling me I need to work on my anatomy, and I DO take that stuff on-board. It wasn't until after the designs were completed that I noticed how "grounded" they are compared to those of a lot of animated characters on TV, both in Japanese and western animation, who are often a lot more stylised. I'm not saying that the more grounded look of the girl StarStrikers is better or worse, I'm just pointing out that this is the road I've ended up going down rather than just aping what I see on TV (which some people seem to think is my M.O., I might add). I'm not sure it'll be nearly as apparent to anyone else as it is to me, since no-one else gets to see the underlying groundwork behind the designs, but I just thought I'd put the observation out there.

Unlike Corinne and Lowenstein, I didn't have a clear vision in my head for what Sylvia needed to look like; she was something of a blank slate. The biggest challenge of all was figuring out what she was going to wear. In this and in many other respects, I drew a lot of inspiration from StarStrikers: Too High, a piece I did in late 2004 which no doubt I'll repost on DeviantArt shortly. Since Sylvs didn't appear in the later pages of the StarStrikers webcomic at all, it was just about the only good, modern drawing of her that I had to work from. I actually went so far as to unearth my original pencil sketch of it for wont of a better reference.

There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with Sylvia's new design, much more so than the other three. I deliberated over her skin tone, her hairstyle, the size of her cleavage and how much of it needs to be on display, her muscle tone and definition, and her height in relation to the other StarStrikers, to name but a few problems. Even as recently as a few weeks ago, I found myself having to go back and redo the boots, because I knew they were off. They weren't what I wanted and so I had to go back and work on them until I got them right.

All of the model sheets have been like that. For me, they've been about going the extra mile and getting these characters to a point where they look as close to being professional animation models as I can get them. Even if they're really only for my reference, I'm not willing to settle for second best. Ultimately no-one has spent as much time poring over these images as I have and no-one else will, I'll be using them for reference all the time, so the most important thing is that I'm happy with them, which at this point I can say is definitely the case.

By the way, I was visiting our old family home today, which my parents are in the process of renovating. The walls are the same colour as Sylvia's outfit, and the sink, bath and toilet are the same colour as her shoes. Seriously. It's uncanny! 0_o