With the release of Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force I've finally convinced myself it was time for a blog.

Over the last 12 years I've worked on a wide variety of Star Wars projects - books, magazines, games, trading cards and more. For every one there are stories I could share. This latest book is the culmination of it all and each illustration has it's own story. I'm starting this blog to share these anecdotes with the fans because as a fan myself I love to hear about behind the scenes info. I'll start with the Force guide, but look for more musings about current projects and others I've done in years past.

Since the book so new I'll start with the 7 pieces seen in the recent preview on starwars.com


Mace Windu -
The description in my art list of from Random House was simple: "Mace Windu [in lightsaber action pose]"
My first thought was the Clone Wars cartoon and Mace wiping out hordes of super battle droids. That's what I picture as the source of the blaster bolts flying by his head. I wanted to stick to his usual Jedi robes and left the clone armor off.

Leia Organa Solo and the Tedryn Holocron -
This was fun to illustrate a slightly older Leia from Dark Empire. This comic series marked an important point in the return of Star Wars during 1991. I still remember picking up the comics and talking about them in my high school art class. The green and purple colors in this piece are a nod to the watercolor palette used by Cam Kennedy. The background pattern came from a close up photo of the CD player in my basement workshop.

Darth Vader's interrogation of Princess Leia -
This piece is one of my favorites in the book. It was also one I was looking forward to doing since I saw it in the first art list for the book. During the first planning stages Tommy Lee Edwards and I were sent the full 120 piece art list. Our editors asked us to look it over and pick out any specific pieces we really wanted before they split up the list to give us each 60. I had been wanting to illustrate my take on this scene since I worked on Vader: The Ultimate Guide. I almost painted it for that book, but changed my mind when I came up with the idea to have Vader ordering the execution of Owen and Beru Lars instead. I wanted to show what happened just after the scene cuts in the movie, as the door slams closed and the droid moves in. I pictured a dramatic composition with an almost pulp magazine feel. My thumbnail sketches I had done two years before had already decided the basic layout. While at Celebration Europe I met a great couple of fans, Alex and Lisa. They both had great costumes and posed for fellow artist Joe Corroney earlier in the year. Lisa wore an excellent recreation of Leia's costume from A New Hope and was happy to pose for pictures. We shot a series of photos just outside the convention center. Alex is a photographer and he was very helpful in directing the shoot. The pictures I took worked out perfectly to recreate what I had been picturing in my head. Also in a bit of luck, my friend Chris had taken a great low angle photo of the interrogator droid when we went to the Star Wars exhibit in Ohio. Vader looming over the scene pulls the whole thing together.

Darth Revan and Darth Malak -
I've read lots of fans trying to guess exactly where the two Sith lords are in this illustration. The truth is, I have no idea. I made up the background - I think of it as an old Sith temple. I really just wanted a huge window in a big open space and dramatic beams of sunlight to give the scene a warm hue. Here's a bit of trivia: The window frame came from the front of the old train station in downtown Detroit. This was one of the locations Michael Bay used in Transformers. Megatron comes crashing through this same window when chasing Sam to get the Allspark.
This was the second illustration I completed for the book.

Darth Krayt and Darth Talon -
I loved the gold throne and panoramic view seen in the Legacy comics so it was a quick decision to have that be the setting for these two. Darth Talon - beautiful and deadly at the foot of her master. Great characters and I wanted to do them justice because their creator Jan Duursema is a friend.

Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker -
This epic scene from Return of the Jedi was the first piece I completed for the book. A classic scene that I don't recall painting previously (which is kind of surprising). Lots of fun.

Anakin constructs his first lightsaber -
I originally had Anakin using small tools to mount the crystal inside his saber. I was reminded the final construction was completed with the Force in the Jedi Quest comic so I altered Anakin's pose a little and made the lightsaber parts float in midair. This was another piece I requested in the beginning. I love to build Star Wars props and I wanted the chance to show the insides of Anakin's lightsaber.

So there you have it. My first Star Wars blog and a little insight into my latest and biggest project Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force.

More stories soon!

Be sure to check out the book!

Chris