Happy Birthday, Babe!

This is just a quick little post for today. I wanted to wish my girlfriend, who's been a huge inspiration in my work, career, and life for the past 2 years, a happy, safe, and fun 25th birthday today! She's made me a better person, and pushed me to do things I didn't think I could do. She's the princess for this scoundrel, that's for sure!

We're taking a group of friends to Manhattan to grab dinner and then have a few drinks afterward. It's looking to be a great time!

Happy birthday again, Babe! I love you. =)

- The Boy Who Draws Star Wars

Expanded Universe Contest!

Today's entry is a bit later than usual, but it's here on Friday regardless! I'm hosting a contest over on DeviantArt for the best Expanded Universe sketch card! If you'd like to participate, here are the rules:
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Calling all sketch card artists, digital and traditional alike!

I'm hosting a contest for the best Star Wars Expanded Universe character, after doing a slew of them for Topps Star Wars Galaxy 6 sketch cards! This can be digital or traditional, and you can submit as many as you like! And best of all, THERE'S PRIZES! Read the rules CAREFULLY so you're qualified for some prizes!!

Rules:
- Any character established in the television series, any novels, comics, or video games, are eligible.
- Does not have to be a scene. Treat these like sketch cards!
- Cards MUST be in a 2.5 x 3.5 ratio. Traditional sketch cards are 2.5 x 3.5 inches, and digital cards may be at any size/resolution as long as they're proportionate to the 2.5 x 3.5 ratio! THIS IS A MUST!
- Illustrations not in card format will not be eligible.
- Digital cards and traditional cards both permitted. No limit to how many can be submitted.
- Movie characters are allowed, as long as they're EU versions of themselves. For example, Luke in Hoth gear isn't eligible, but Luke in his Shadows of the Empire vest, or Dark Empire suit, is!
- No original characters, unless they've made it to first party media!!
- It must be uploaded after this journal is live. Any submissions made that have a DA time stamp before this journal is posted will be disqualified. In other words, don't submit an old image for a new contest! Draw somethin new!
- Submit any and all submissions IN THIS JOURNAL THREAD, AND HERE ALONE! No images outside of DA permitted as submissions, they must be on DeviantArt.
- Any submission not pertaining to these rules will be displayed with all of the other submissions, but will not be eligible of winning any of the prizes.

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Prizes done by me:
1st Prize - A digital sketch card of your favorite Expanded Universe character AND a set of 3 personal full color sketch cards of any EU characters you like (one per card). The set of 3 original full-color cards will be mailed to you!!

2nd Prize - A digital sketch card of your favorite Expanded Universe character AND an original full color sketch card of the same or any other EU character that you like (one character per card)! The original card will be mailed to you!

3rd Prize - A digital sketch card of your favorite Expanded Universe character!
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The absolute latest day you can submit is February 15th. That's a little over a month to make it happen! No excuses!

I can't wait to see what you guys do!! Have fun!

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Finally, here's the first of ten digital sketch cards of a new series: Original characters and established characters appearing in my Order 66 comic pitch to Dark Horse! I'm working on the story now, but I thought this would be great practice. This character is named Timo Denn, one of the many Jedi Masters to fall the day Order 66 was passed. He's the twin brother of the story's protagonist, Peil Denn, and will make a brief appearance in a dream sequence! His costume is a direct homage to Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars microseries. Hope you dig him!

Interview with the Gould!

Hey guys! If you take a stroll over to the Official Site, your eyes will be treated with a slew of the slick art done by none other than digital/traditional Star Wars art guru, Grant Gould! Besides being a super talented artist, he's an all-around nice guy (Remember, he went out of his way to get me in touch with Topps!), and was able to find some time for an interview for you fine folks!

How long have you been doing art for Star Wars professionally? How did you get your first break?

My first Star Wars related gig was the "Revenge of the Sith" card set in late 2004/early 2005. Tom Hodges helped me get my foot in the door. He got me in touch with Topps. I signed on for a thousand sketch cards, which was ridiculous! I had no idea what I was getting myself into. So it was quite a crazy experience, but totally worth it.

What artists' styles have inspired you in developing your own unique style?

Some of my favorite artists who've inspired me are Wendy Pini, Jim Lee, J. Scott Campbell, Art Adams, and Joe Madureira -- just to name a few off the top of my head. I think I was also really inspired by a lot of stuff from my childhood, like G.I. Joe, Star Wars (obviously), X-men comics, ElfQuest, Robotech cartoons, and Dungeons & Dragons. I'm sure all that stuff has mixed and mashed into my drawing style in some way.

How did you come to realize that drawing Star Wars professionally would be a niche for you?

I'm not sure -- I just enjoy working with the crew at Lucasfilm and StarWars.com, and a lot of great opportunities have popped up that I've latched onto right away. Being a lifelong Star Wars fan (I was three when the first film came out), now that I'm actually involved with some of the merchandise, comics, etc. I've really tried to go out of my way to become associated with the brand. I mean, it was literally my dream as a kid to draw Star Wars stuff, so I'm embracing it completely.

If you had the chance to pitch a Star Wars project to Lucasfilm/Dark Horse, what would it be? What era would it involve (Clone Wars, Rebellion era, Post-ROTJ, etc)?

Oh, man, that's a really tough question, because there are a hundred different ideas I'd love to pitch to Lucasfilm or Dark Horse. :) I'd definitely prefer a post-ROTJ era, because I feel like there's so much that can be done. I'd steer clear of the Skywalker/Solo gang and create something with all-new characters that we can latch onto and fall in love with. You don't need lightsabers or sith to make it interesting -- it's a big universe.

What's currently your favorite Star Wars themed illustration you've done?

Hmm, that's another tough question, because I'm my own worst critic and it's hard for me to say I'm really happy with any of my drawings. I guess I'd say my "Ahsoka vs. Grievous" Galaxy card has a special place in my heart. It was my first base card for a Galaxy set, and that was a huge dream come true for me. And I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

You're clearly a super talented comic artist, as we can see in the Official Site's digital comics accompanying the seasons of the Clone Wars series -- Do you have any other comics out there on comic store shelves? Any personal projects?

I had a creator-owned graphic novel come out awhile ago called "The Wolves of Odin" ( http://wolvesofodin.com ). I keep meaning to do the 2nd book in that series, but I just haven't found the time yet. But hopefully that will happen sometime in the near future. I'd love to get more comic work out there -- it's just the problem of there never being enough time to work on personal projects.

If it isn't too top secret, what are you working on next in terms of Star Wars, be it personal or professional?

I just finished up some art for the latest Galaxy set, and I've got some more Clone Wars webcomic work on the horizon, but other than that, nothing to announce yet. I'm always looking for new gigs and trying to squeeze into whatever Star Wars projects are out there, but sometimes you just have to play the waiting game and see how things unfold. :) But hopefully there will be lots more Star Wars goodness coming in 2011!

You can check out more of Grant's art at his DeviantArt, or his blog. You can also become a fan of him on Facebook. Thanks to him for spending the time to answer my questions!!

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And to cap off an awesome interview from Grant, here's my 10th and final weekly Expanded Universe digital sketch card, my FAVORITE E.U. character, as well as one of my all around favorite characters anywhere, Kyle Katarn! Hope you guys dug this set of 10 cards!

More Sketch Cards!

More, I say! MORE!


AND! Finally! A digital sketch card, for your enjoyment! Here's the man I've had a lot of experience drawing lately, Captain of the Outrider, Dash Render from Shadows of the Empire!

Star Wars Galaxy 6 Sketch Cards

Hey guys!

I can FINALLY show off what I've been working on every waking moment of my existance...Some Star Wars Sketch Card love for Topps' Galaxy 6 series!! Enjoy!!!





Hopefully these make up for the FINAL LACK of a digital sketch card. These things just took up SO MUCH more of my time than I was expecting! Anyway, expect the 9th Digi Sketch card for the Expanded Universe series next week, as well as a few more Galaxy 6 cards! As of this moment, I am 6 cards away from completing my 262 cards!! YOWZA!! Wish me luck, tomorrow's my last day of working on this! Totally bitter sweet, as I really loved this project from start to finish!