1. These are the oldest actual sketches of Nikolas, from the margins of one of my scripts circa February 2003. Notice the obvious differences in style and aditude. He's even got an earing, and the coat is a bit more psudo-millitary. I was messing around with the priesthood past, even at this stage. I think he was supposed to be Dutch though.

2. More Nikolas originals, from the same script as above. The hair was a big deal for a while. I'm glad I finally dropped it though, it's too cliche anime.

3. This is different in that it is a very old sketch, from the aforementioned script margins, but the aditude is different. This character could actually be the Nikolas we know today. Note also the idea of the mole at the corner of his eye appears even here. ItŐs the only thing that survives from the original design.

4. This is a sketch of Finn, the character that served as a base for most of Nikolas's personality. Note the coat is almost exactly the same as Nikolas's.

5. Nikolas in a transitional phase, between the early design and the later design. The long and short hair are part of the same design process for past and present. At this point the story was a little "fantastic". But this is the earliest sketch of Nikolas with short hair, he's starting to look more like himself, although note the absence of the mole.

6. The oldest sketch of Nikolas in his present design apart from the original cover image. Note that he is wearing a turtleneck under his jumper instead of a shirt. I dropped this design early on, it inhibited movement and made him look too preppie.This is the only sketch left I can find that shows the turtleneck.

7. This sketch shows more how terrible my drawing used to be than any real design principle.

8. This is not the original design for Quinn. Originally Quinn looked, stylistically, identical to her present design. However I decided she looked much too like a Hellsing ripoff and tried to alter the design, shortening her face and hair and changing the glasses. This of course made her look too much like a stewardess, so I reverted to the original design.

9. Originally I tried to figure out some sort of holster for Joan's gun. But it never worked, so now we just assume she keeps it in her jacket or something.

10. This is the original design sketch for Quinn. As you can see she looks exactly the same as she does now.

Schwarz Kreuz is the original work and property of Rhiannon McCullough ©2003/2008