Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey all,

Just wanted to stop by to: A) Wish you a slightly belated happy and safe Thanksgiving & B) Drop off the Digital Sketch Card of the week, Sev the Republic Commando!

Really quickly, I also wanted to list off a few things I'm thankful for this year:

• My family, those still with us and those who're no longer physically here, for their undying support. This includes times I'm a major pain to deal with.
• My amazing girlfriend who's been a pillar to my determination to work hard and inspired me to chase after any dream for the past year and a half. I love you, Alicia!
  
• My Staten Island friends for always having my back and cheering me on after every victory and loss. I don't know where I'd be without you!
• My friends at TFN, Rebelscum, and DeviantArt for endowing me with unbelievable memories from Celebration V: Memories I will never forget.
• All of the industry artists who have ever gone out of their way for me (be it advice, or making a contact), including Sean Galloway, Grant Gould, JAKe, Katie Cooke, Matt Busch, Dan Schoening, and anyone I might have missed.
• My family at Market Maker Interactive and TRAFFIQ for allowing me to stay on part time from home. You have no idea how much easier it makes everyday life.
• Anyone on DeviantArt or this blog that has subscribed to see my work, and read what I have to say. It means the world to me, and without your encouragement, I'd be a much angrier person! You guys are the best!!
  

Looking Forward

Whew.

With SWGS6 fighting for every moment of my attention (in my brain, anyway!), here's a quick rundown of what's on my plate:

• I'm working on an original Star Wars story with mostly original characters but plenty of familiar faces! It's going to be extremely time consuming and will probably be very difficult for me, but I'm willing to give it a shot!!!
  
• Work on C.O.R.e. continues!
• I've already come up with another sketch card series once my Expanded Universe set is finished!
• Yoda Pages 7 - 9 will be completed once I finish a few pages of my original story.
• Of COURSE, Topps' Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 sketch cards!!!
  

I promise that there will be tastes of these projects in the near future. But for now, I plead with you to realize that work I'm satisfied with takes time. ;) It's coming!

Also, we've already hit the midpoint for the Expanded Universe series, Week 5! This week, I took a much more stylized and simplistic approach to the character, Grand Admiral Thrawn. In the Thrawn Trilogy graphic novel, the first artist, , portrayed him with a really rectangle shaped head that I REALLY loved, but the design sadly didn't carry over in the other artists' depictions of the Grand Admiral. So, this is my tribute to him!

Topps Trading Cards

Guys, do I have a story for you.

Famous Star Wars artist Grant Gould has recently added me to his DevWatch list on Deviantart, and also favorited my TheForce.net banner from Celebration V! This in and of itself blew my mind. But then Grant went above and beyond any artist call of duty and suggested getting in touch with his editor at Topps Trading Cards about doing some sketch cards for them. And the result?

I am now officially doing 200 sketch cards for Topps' Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 trading cards to be released in 2011.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More details to follow soon...

Okay, now on to the content for the week...the Expanded Universe digital sketch card! Boy, am I glad I've been doing these for weeks, because they definitely helped me snag this gig!!! Since Quinlan Vos premieres tonight on a new episode of The Clone Wars, I thought it only fitting to dedicate this week to him. While I'm not sure their depiction of him is true to his character, I'm still sure the dynamic of Quinlan and Obi-Wan will be a fun one!! Enjoy!

Captain Fordo in the Clone Wars Mystery!

So this is more of a little detective post than an art entry, but...

I was really excited to see Captain Fordo from Genndy Tartakovsky's 2003 Clone Wars mini series being remade into a 2008-Present Clone Wars styled figure. Hasbro has been giving away a lot of season secrets by previewing figures of characters that appear later in the season, and spoiling some surprises, such as Boba Fett and Quinlan Vos (sort of). This could only mean one thing to me -- Fordo will be on the show! Right?...

Anyway, Fordo is included in the latest battle Arc Trooper battle pack. These battle packs come with cards for each figure to play a roll playing game involving a special dice. On each of these cards, they list the stats for each character for the game, as well as a picture of the character in a scene on the Clone Wars TV show. Fordo's card lists him as "Arc Trooper Commander" (not a captain), and the image showing him looks pretty familiar. Where have I seen it before? Oh yeah.


There's also no doubt that while he isn't outright named Captain Fordo in the battle pack, his coloring and equipment are identical to Fordo in the 2003 series. His double mini rifles, Arc Trooper heavy rifle, antenna, and gauntlet are a perfect match.

Image of figure taken from the Jedi Temple Archives

So, they Photoshopped a picture of Rex from the "Rookies" episode, since Fordo looks very similar. There's a few possibilities here:

• Hasbro only had pictures of character models of new characters that would be made into figures, no pictures of a scene, and the cards use scenes, not character models. Fordo will make an appearance.
  
• Hasbro knew Fordo would appear but were given no source images to back it up.
  
• Hasbro imagined and designed a 2008 CW stylized Fordo themselves and he won't make an appearance in the series.

While it doesn't look good for Captain Fordo appearing in the new Clone Wars show, there's still a chance. On the other hand, it could just be Hasbro providing some fan service. I know I wanted him as soon as I saw he was being made! Which brings me to my final, unrelated note: Captain Fordo is this week's Expanded Universe Digital Sketch Card, because he is so damn awesome!!