Four years ago, to celebrate the release of The Force Awakens, the first Star Wars movie from Disney, the contributors of Super Blog Team-Up each wrote pieces dealing with various aspects of the SW phenomenon. My contribution was to showcase ten of the best pieces of artwork I had gotten drawn in my Star Wars theme sketchbook.
Now here we are four years later, and the final installment of the new trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, will be out in theaters next month.
The movies produced by Disney have inspired quite a bit of disagreement among fandom. However, I think it is very important to point something out: They have been very popular with younger fans, and with newcomers to the series.
It’s crucial to recognize that just as my generation who grew up on the original trilogy were fans of Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbacca, so too has that happened with the subsequent releases. Kids who watched the prequels in the early 2000s grew up with Padme and Anakin. A few years later another group of kids had their first exposure to SW with The Clone Wars animated series, and for them Asoka was probably their hero. And now in 2019 you have kids who are growing up watching the adventures of Rey, Finn and Poe.
In any case, even as a 43 year old I am able to look at the new movies and enjoy these new heroes. I think they are great, and I’m happy younger viewers are connecting with them.
Here are the sketches I’ve gotten in my SW book over the past four years of some of these great new characters:
Finn by N. Steven Harris
This really detailed sketch of Finn from The Force Awakens was drawn by N. Steven Harris in June 2016 at the White Plains Comic Con. Harris penciled Aztek: The Ultimate Man for DC back in the mid 1990s. He’s recently been doing great work on the creator owned series Ajala and Brotherhood of the Fringe, and on Michael Cray for DC / Wildstorm.
Rey by Russ Braun
Russ Braun draws great convention sketches, and he also does such amazing likenesses. I was very happy with this sketch he did for me at New York Comic Con in October 2016 of Rey from The Force Awakens. He really captured actress Daisy Ridley’s features, and her character’s personality, in this piece.
BB-8 by Nik Virella
This was a quick sketch of the adorable BB-8 by artist Nicole “Nik” Virella, who drew the fan-favorite droid in the first Star Wars: Poe Dameron annual published by Marvel Comics in 2017. Virella had previously drawn some really funny, wacky Deadpool stories, but she really demonstrated her versatility with that SW annual. She did great work on it, and I hope that one day soon Marvel asks her to return to a galaxy far, far away.
Jyn Erso by Glyn Dillon
After a short career in comic books Glyn Dillon became a storyboard and concept artist for movies and television. He was a concept artist and costume designer for the SW movies The Force Awakens, Rogue One and Solo. Dillon was sketching at New York Comic Con 2017 to raise money for the Hero Initiative. He drew this sketch of Rogue One protagonist Jyn Erso in my book. Dillon did a wonderful job capturing the likeness of actress Felicity Jones. It was cool getting someone who actually worked on the movies to contribute to the sketchbook.
Vice Admiral Holdo by Lynne Yoshii
The Last Jedi provoked some really divisive reactions among fandom, and the character of Amilyn Holdo, portrayed by Laura Dern, definitely epitomized that. People either seemed to love her or hate her. My girlfriend and I both liked Holdo a lot. In any case, I had the idea that Lynne Yoshii would do a really nice sketch of Holdo. Yoshii draws beautiful convention sketches with very vibrant colors, so I felt she would be perfect to draw a character with lavender hair. Yoshii drew this at the Diversity Comic Con held at Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. She did a wonderful job capturing both the character’s personality and distinctive appearance.
That’s all for now, but hopefully I will have future opportunities to obtain sketches of the other great characters that have appeared throughout the Star Wars universe in its myriad incarnations.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 