Hey everybody!
Wow it has been a long time since I entered a blog here. Tells you how busy I have been
So Star Wars Celebration IV is almost here, and I'm so excited that it is in my hometown of Los Angeles! Can't wait to see everyone!

But I am most excited about the program book that was announced earlier this week. If you are not familiar with that story check it out in the Celebration IV News. I'm excited because I illustrated the cover. Man, what an honor.
I'm telling you, I had to have people pinch me for a month to make sure I was not dreaming, I asked people to pinch me for an additional month because I started to like it That's a whole other story.

So taking on this illustration was truly an honor and I felt a little bit of extra pressure that I usually never feel. Because I realized this piece was one of the few Official pieces that will be part of Star Wars history for the 30th anniversary. I suddenly felt this obligation to make sure that it was not merely a collage of Star Wars characters, rather a representation of the story and the emotions the characters AND the fans felt along the journey.
I was lucky enough to work directly with Steve Sansweet (you guys may have heard of him), who was the art director on this project. Steve and I went through many different compositions, ideas, and sketches before we settled on the artwork that you see now. But I didn't mind because this piece had to be REALLY special. BTW, Steve is really an awesome art director; he listens, gives great ideas, and yet will give me a kick in the pants when I'm being a little too stubborn (thanks for never taking it personally Steve. Mary Franklin was an active part of the team too. At one point we had the Emperor looking menacing over everything when Mary said, "you know...He's just too ugly" we agreed, but we just could not justify going along with her suggestion of replacing Palpatine with Bossk (Mary's favorite character). The saddest change in the composition for me, was replacing Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness) with Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGreggor). Nothing against Ewan, but I had the sweetest sketch of Old Ben, that was just MMMMMMMMWAAAAAWWWWWW!!!!!! Classic. But, in the end, with the other elements of Mustafar, Padme and Anakin, Emotionally it really does work better with Ewan, who is still my favorite Jedi
Celebration IV celebrates 30 years of Star Wars, not just "A New Hope". But, it was important to make sure that we celebrated the film simply titled "Star Wars" (not "A New Hope").
For those of us who are...sigh...old enough, you can remember standing in line to see some space movie that everyone was talking about. You got your popcorn, which I think was only $10 a bag in 1977, your candy. Your sitting next to your parents or best friend, and you have NO IDEA what to anticipate. Then WHAMO! You are hit in the face with a huge "STAR WARS" with John Williams horn section blowing your ear drums out. At that time you could only get that effect at a Kiss concert. You don't even notice that there are no credits (brilliant), and you are thrust into the middle of a great space battle like NOBODY has ever scene before...and it was at that point that we all knew that our lives were changed, and we were hooked. Our wallets would never recover hehe.
It was that feeling... that feeling of amazement, excitement, and magic that I wanted to capture in this painting. Some how, some way... then it hit me... illustrate what I just described! Brilliant huh Haha. Really though. I really wanted to capture the moment we all got hooked, and I only hope that when you see it, you can hear and feel the rumble of the mighty Star Destroyer (The Devastator I believe...God I'm such a nerd.
Take note. This is the Devastator and Tantive four from the original cut. The special edition ships are slightly different (I'm kind of proud of that little detail.

Well, that is it for the first part of this blog series. There is a lot more to tell my friends, I haven't even gotten the least bit emotional yet...wait...here it comes...I promised I wouldn't do this...sniffle...ok, I'll hold it in till next time

Be sure to ask me any questions you want in your comments and I will answer them in my next blogs.

In the mean time check out this web page I have made showing the making of the SW Celebration IV program cover. You can see the progression of the painting.

http://web.mac.com/randymartinez/iWeb/Posters/Making%20of%20SWCIV%20Cover.html

See more of my artwork at:
www.randymartinez.net

Ciao!