UPDATE:13 June 2007
I've been asked by http://www.expanded-universe.com/ if they can post my Maul v Vader Poster artwork. I'll let you know when it's there.

So the Star Wars Celebration in Europe is happening on Friday 13 July. I'm visiting on day one with a Consultant friend to meet up with Cynthia Cummens, who is a registered Star Wars Artist. My friend has commissioned her to draw a set of sketch cards. Her work is beautiful and has a slight whimsical fairytale quality to it; very nice work.

Now kids, a word of advice, don't even bother to waste your time showing artists your portfolio work at a convention. A, they don't want to see it and B, well they don't want to see it, especially when being swamped by a hoard of excited fans. So I'm just going to say 'hi' and make contact. Just enough time to swap details and get a dialogue going between Cynthia and me. Check out eBay and see Cynthia's cards please. She works very hard on them and the results are spectacular.

A word about portfolio submissions. It's a hard job getting feedback on work and I'm not happy to send anything to Lucas. It's not the rejection; simply I've not got anything right to show. There is a strict policy at Lucas and you should check out the website at http://www.lucasfilm.com/employment/faq/. If you get it wrong you've lost your artwork.

As far as I can tell the only way you will get anywhere is by getting to know the right people, as well as having loads of talent and something that the commercial food chain in the world of Star Wars wants.

That's the other thing. It's not just about copying a frame from a movie or a poster, it's showing imagination with your work, and balancing that with making it commercially viable.

A word on comics. I went to a top UK art college (Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design) with this amazing cartoonist. He could never get anyone to accept his submissions. 2000AD, all sorts. He was brilliant. I couldn't work out why. Then I realised it was being able to deliver the goods. He was finding it too much pressure. They wanted something that he couldn't give. I don't think it was his draughtsmanship at fault; rather he lacked the imagination. He flunked the course in the end. Great shame. But remember that comic art is very hard to break into. I've done illustrations for magazines but there is a definite mindset for comics. I have a feeling I may be too old to get into that. It's not what it used to be that's for sure.

Sketch Cards. That's where I'm going to start to target the commercial sector. I've had some commissions for paintings and that's what started it all off. It was my friend the Consultant who I found out was a REAL fan of Star Wars. I cannot express just how much of a fan the man is. He's not obsessed, well kind of. He's got a wife, so he doesn't think of Star Wars all the time. I'll leave that there. Any case, he asked me if I did any Star Wars art. At the time I'd not drawn/painted anything descent in years. I created a pastel picture of Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan. It came out really well and from that moment my love of Star Wars caught fire, as well as my passion for drawing. So a year later, Painter IX on my machine, a full sketchbook - real pencil, and a new artbox with pastels, paint and the works, I'm ready to get to it.