More Rebels!

I hope you liked reading about and looking at my Star Wars Rebels piece from my last post. It occurred to me after the fact that I didn't include any of the "behind the scenes" stuff and comps that I have been adding to the posts as well lately. I am here to rectify that. So here is the individual characters as I worked thru them piecing them together from multiple reference as well as the final tight pencil drawing.

Enjoy!

Star Wars Rebels!

As much as everyone told me how much they liked Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I could never get myself fully invested. Heck, one of my friends from college was even a director and yet there was something about knowing where the characters were headed just seemed to take the air out of it for me. I mean, how much suspense can you get when Obi-Wan is in a death trap when you already know where he meets his true demise. Maybe I should have just been along for the ride. I can see myself eating crow in the future after I "discover" it and binge watch on Netflix and once again come to the realization that I am a tool! So after saying that, let me also say how much I love watching Star Wars Rebels! I do. I didn't think I would, but I do. I love the look and sounds of it, the characters and the designs of the ships! I love all of it! Did I mention the designs? Maybe it's because I was always enamored with the original design work of Ralph McQuarrie that it adds an extra layer or appeal to a nerd like me. If you don't already know, Mr. McQuarrie was the original concept artist for Star Wars and his iconic designs have influenced untold numbers of artists! I really love seeing the early concept designs for C3-P0, Han Solo and such just walking around in the background and the fact that Chopper and Zeb resemble early R2-D2 and Chewbacca drawings is magic!! If you have not watched it yet, I highly recommend it. Sure, the pilot movie is basically Disney's Aladdin but it gets better and the season one finale is some of the best Star Wars I have seen in a really long time!!

So when I first started thinking about doing a Star Wars Rebels piece, I very quickly came to the conclusion that I wanted it to look like real people and not the CG characters. I don't have anything against the CG, I just wanted to "cast" the show with real people and challenge myself with really working with diverse reference material and pull it all together and make a stew! It WAS a lot of work! But I also think that it paid off and I am really happy with the final product. The response on Facebook was overwhelming as well as the compliments I have received at conventions I have already been at with it. In fact, I just got back from a show where Steve Blum, the voice of Zeb was kind enough to sign one for me!! He was awesome!!



Enjoy!

May the 4th Be With You!

As you may know, today is what has come to be known as "Star Wars Day". Just a bit of fun and this year it is just another step as we inch closer to the release of the new film that many of us are eagerly awaiting. I know I am! Not gonna start a debate of the merit, or lack thereof, of the prequels tho.

So it seemed fitting that I should sit down and right this blog entry and share a bit of Star Wars art that I have recently completed. I shied away from doing any such pictures for a long time as there was just so much already out there and that I was doing a lot of work for a certain candy company that wanted to update their own Star Wars themed characters.

The picture for today is of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's long been my favorite character of the saga as I feel that he is the lynchpin in the Darth Vader story. He warns Qui-Gon Gin about training the boy and then takes up the mantle himself which only leads to disaster and the only retribution he can find is to watch over Luke until he his ready to be trained to defeat his wayward apprentice.

Enjoy!