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Star Wars Artist Month : Eric Ehrlich

All of June we are celebrating those stellar pioneers of the visual arts, those people who help us see Star Wars through new eyes and with wildly beautiful variety! Today we shine a spotlight on Erich Ehrlich from the 501st Star Garrison in Texas. He has done SO much supporting Star Wars fan clubs, event,s campaigns, and causes with his stunning designs!

Eric considers himself to be one of the lucky ones who grew up with the original trilogy. He was seven years old when “A New Hope” came out and it has been a source of creative inspiration ever since. As a kid growing up amidst a backdrop of challenging situations, Star Wars served as way to imagine, escape, dream, and find hope. It still has that power for him. Eric studied fine art and creative communications at the Art Institute of Dallas and has spent the last 30 years as a designer, creative director and brand storyteller for many iconic brands including LEGO, Disney, VISA, Keebler, Coca-Cola, and AT&T. In 2015 Eric fulfilled a lifelong dream of being a Stormtrooper when he joined the 501st Legion and that opened a new door for new opportunities to combine his love of design with his love of Star Wars. Over the past 5 years Eric has worked with Rancho Obi-Wan, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and The Peter Mayhew Foundation as well as the 501st Legion, Astromech Builders and Rebel Legion clubs. He is most grateful to have found an avenue that allows him to celebrate his love of Star Wars and passion for helping others. It was through the 501st Legion Eric and his husband Zylo met Albin and. Eric recently had the honor of creating the logo art for the R2-KT Global Ambassadroid Group.

In addition to designing for a galaxy far, far away, Eric enjoys creating multi-media artwork that includes watercolor, gouache, charcoal, and photography. His work has been featured in gallery shows in both Dallas and Chicago.

Eric, his husband and their two corgis, Hux and Korben, live in Dallas, Texas

Creative Links:
Website: ericehrlich.com
If anyone is interested in a commission they can email Eric directly at eehrlich70@gmail.com or check out his gallery at RedBubble:
https://www.redbubble.com/people/eguy1970/shop?asc=u&ref=acco
Social: Instagram account e1970

Many thanks to our partners at Jedi News, Fantha Tracks, Rebel Scum, Force.Net, and Bantha Bricks for supporting SWAM 2020 and sharing our posts. What a great way to share the magic of the art community! Check them out and see just how big the galaxy really is!

Star Wars Artist Month : Emma McGowan

June is Star Wars Artists Month! Celebrating our talented designers, illustrators, and visual maestros of the #StarWars Community.

June 1st was all about Emma McGowan!

I am a classically trained artist originally from France now living on the Eastern Seacoast. My art is a mixture of traditional, colorful, and expressive oil painting portraits, and my rendition of pop / sci-fi / comic book culture characters. My mediums of choice are oil paint, graphite, and ink. I love to focus my work on very expressive faces, adding my own twist and / or colors.

I am a huge geek and love to use my art, gaming and cosplay to help raise awareness for multiple charities. I cosplay with the Rebel Legion/501st/Mando Mercs to raise funds for the Jimmy Fund and Make a Wish Foundation. I am also part of the Extra Life family: gamers who raise money for Children’s Hospitals nationwide (I personally play for the Boston Children’s Hospital).

Why Star Wars?:
There are so many reasons! The characters are amazing, the stories are compelling… But my first painting of SW characters has a funny background story. Growing up in France, my mother’s maiden name’s pronunciation made it sound like Star Wars. So, as a joke, I started drawing her SW characters as little presents any time I got a chance.
Today, I just love sharing my love of SW with everyone, even my students bringing Star Wars Art week to school every year!

My websites:
www.OriginalEmmArt.com
www.facebook.com/emmart
@OriginalEmmArt on Instagram
My originals, prints and commissions can be purchased through my Etsy page:
www.etsy.com/shop/emmartist

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Star Wars Artist Month : Jair Aranda

My name is Jair Aranda (TK1875), I am a graphic designer and member of the 501st Legion Mexican Garrison since April 30, 2006, I am an amateur illustrator.

I have done a couple of R2KT patch designs, as well as being part of the R2KT-5 Crew the Mexican Pink droid, as well as being the administrator of his Facebook page Katy Cinco.

I have made several illustrations of Star Wars, as well as illustrations for several legionaries from various countries, among them I made the image of the Galactic Academy campus Costa Rica.

I like Illustrating Star Wars because it is a very special part of my life, plus it allows me to meet so many great people.

Being part of the KT5 Crew is wonderful, returning to the community a little of what life gives us is very important to me.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jair.aranda.33/

Ilustration Page: https://www.facebook.com/TKtito-Ilustraciones-732017693650710
Facebook KT5: https://www.facebook.com/katy.pink.14661/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jair.aranda.33/?hl=es-la

Twitter : @JTktito

Star Wars Artist Month : Matt Busch

Matt Busch is an entertainment illustrator that has been producing numerous illustrations for all kinds of Star Wars products for over 25 years. His art can be seen on posters, books, T shirts, trading cards, and just about anything else you can think of, the world over.

The original Star Wars films inspired Matt as a Michigan boy to follow his passion of drawing, but never in his wildest dreams did he think he would actually be producing official art for the galaxy far, far away. Busch moved to Los Angeles where he attended the Art Center College of Design to pursue a career in the entertainment arts. During that time, he got his first big break in 1994 illustrating for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game books. From there, his career exploded, working directly for Lucasfilm and many of the Star Wars Licensees.

One of Busch’s career highlights was being a featured illustrator for the book You Can Draw Star Wars, from DK Publishing. In addition to producing over 300 drawings and paintings for the book, Busch also created a series of videos to promote the book. Originally airing on StarWars.com, these videos still inspire young artists Online to follow their dreams as well, just like Matt did so many years before.

In addition to Star Wars, Matt has also produced art for many other Hollywood properties, including Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, and Stranger Things.

However, the real Magnum Opus that Busch has been working on for over a decade is a trilogy of live-action science fiction films called Aladdin 3477. Essentially the tale of Aladdin, but set in the future and much more epic in scope. Busch claims that Star Wars fans will love it, as the film is heavy with robots and flying vehicles, all created with practical effects. The filming on all 3 films is already complete, but Matt is currently working in post to make them look and sound amazing.

You can check out all of the official Star Wars products and more at Matt’s Online Store here: www.MattBuschStore.com

Also, be sure to follow Matt on Instagram, where he constantly share new art and inside looks at his process: www.Instagram.com/Matt_Busch_Instagram

Star Wars Artist Month : Gina Canady

Gina Canady is an illustrator, concept and textile designer. She is a single mother, grandmother and illustration student from the Academy of Art University. Gina loves creating illustrations and designs for a great many things, including one of her strongest loves for Star Wars.

“I remember when my dad took me to see Star Wars for the first time in 1977. I was instantly hooked! I would study any star wars art that I could get my hands on, from books to comics I poured over the Art of Star Wars, The Empire strikes back till the binding broke and the pages started falling out. I still have that book and still use it to study the amazing images that were used in the movie. It has always inspired me how beautifully diverse the Star Wars Universe is and how hope can come from anyone and any place.“

Gina spends a lot of her time studying, working on her artistic skills, while creating art and star wars inspired art to make people smile and in the hopes of one day getting the opportunity to work for Disney and Lucas Films. Gina works in traditional and digital media and you can check out more of her work at https://runyajade.wixsite.com/serenitystudios and you can hire Gina for new designs and illustration work by emailing her at , RunyaJade@gmail.com
facebook.com/JadeRunyaArt

Many thanks to our partners at Jedi News, Fantha Tracks, Rebel Scum, and Force.Net for supporting SWAM 2020 and sharing our posts. What a great way to share the magic of the art community! Check them out and see just how big the galaxy really is!

Star Wars Artist Month : Becka Seashols

Becka Seashols aka Beckadoodles is an illustrator, designer, author, and crafter. She is known for creating extremely cute characters, mostly cats, and drawing adorable fan art from a variety of popular fandoms. She also designs cross stitch patterns and authors kids books and coloring books. Becka started drawing as a kid, imitating comics like Garfield and Peanuts straight out of the Sunday paper. For years she drew her favorite characters like Chewbacca, R2-D2, Strawberry Shortcake, and all the My Little Ponies, in her school notebooks. It was inevitable she would eventually venture into a career as an illustrator and artist.

In 2009, Becka started work on sketchcards for Topps and was finally, officially drawing Chewbacca and R2! And other Star Wars characters too! This was a great accomplishment, since her childhood was filled with paper towel tube lightsaber duels with her big brother, and pig tails turned into Princess Leia buns on the school playground. She spent a lot of time playing out her favorite scenes from memory, since VHS tapes weren’t available for her to rewatch the movies until she was in junior high. So all those scenes were sketched out and colored with crayons and watercolor and taped to her bedroom wall. The love of Star Wars continued into adulthood and was passed down to her son, who was one year old when Phatom Menace was released. They are now both, giant fans of Star Wars and spend a lot of time reading, watching, and drawing their favorite galaxy, far, far away.

Becka is active on social media, has an Etsy shop, and sells t-shirts, and housewares on a variety of websites. She also has a Patreon where you can support her creative endeavors.
Here’s a link to a list of popular Beckadoodles sites for shopping or information https://linktr.ee/beckadoodles and you can always reach out to Becka on her main website https://www.beckadoodles.com/ or her very active facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Beckadoodlestheartofcute

Star Wars Artist Month : Eric Siebeneck

Illustrator Eric Siebeneck (Findlay, OH) has had art published in the Star Wars Insider magazine as well as starwars.com. However, most fans may be familiar with his work on designing collectible patches, shirts, pins, stickers, etc. for Lucasfilm approved fan clubs like the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, R2-KT and others. Eric was also hired by documentary filmmaker Cris Macht for his third film “The Walkers Among Us” and reality series “The Real Fans of the Saga”. Cris is well known within the Star Wars community as being the director/producer of “The Force Among Us” and sequel “The Force Within Us”. All four projects can be seen on Amazon Prime Video. Cris is currently producing a Zoom interview series posted on YouTube titled “Machtails from the Cantina”. Eric not only created the logo design, but will also be a future guest on the show.

Siebeneck’s love of Star Wars was given a second life when George Lucas released the Special Edition in 1997. After graduating from BGSU, with a degree in Visual Communication Technology in ’98, Eric spent the next 20 years in the website design/development/marketing world. But it was his childhood love of Star Wars, now as an adult, which pushed him into the direction of designing and illustrating Stars Wars art. However in 2018, Eric reinvented himself and obtained his CDL, thus beginning a second career. He is currently a local driver (home nightly) for a trucking company out of Findlay, Ohio. Siebeneck is proud to be an essential worker helping keep our economy going during these difficult times.

Merch site: https://www.redbubble.com/people/siebo/shop
Sci-fi/Comic art: https://www.deviantart.com/siebo7
Fine art: https://www.deviantart.com/siebeneck

Star Wars Artists : Corinne Roberts

June is Star Wars Artists Month! We are celebrating all the magic that illustrators and visual artists bring to the fan community. Today we talk about Corinne Roberts, a weaver of magic and wonder to both kids and adults alike. Her subject matter spans a wide array of fan favorites, and Star Wars is just one of them.

Corinne Roberts is the creator of Bug Bites (published by Source Point Press), silent sequence comic adventure Out and About and children’s book Trip to Trekka. Along with her books she illustrated the game Unreal Estate and webcomic series, Kitty Game.

What drew you to illustrating Star Wars as a subject:

Adventure, new worlds and creatures. All of those things in Star Wars captured my imagination and launched me into creating my own adventures in new worlds. The most inspiring artist of the Star Wars universe is Ralph McQuarrie. His concept work and paintings still amaze me and was a main reason I wanted to learn how to paint (although all my illustrations are in watercolor and pen – unlike McQuarrie’s) He was a master of mood, composition and storytelling which I reflect on constantly and gave Star Wars a rich platform that has truly grown into a universe of stories.

Favorite pieces:
I attached my favorite “fanart” pieces of Star Wars. (To be clear – they are fanart – I’ve never had a book deal with Lucas/Disney)
I also attached a piece from my recent book, “Bug Bites”, so you can see my work of an adventure into a new world.
I also attached a single shot painting of a city/scene – which I love doing

You can find more of my artwork and store on my site:
www.corinneroberts.com
I’m also on:
Facebook: Corinne Roberts
Instagram: corinneroberts123

Star Wars Artists : Randy Martinez

This June we are celebrating STAR WARS ARTIST MONTH.
Every day we post an artist who has dazzled us with their amazing work. Great movies live on in our imagination – it’s artists like these who conjure up such spectacular imagery that our greatest fantasies come to life in our real world. And artists are fans like the rest of us. Get to know them, give them a shout-out, and find out where you can help support them! And by all means, go by their sites linked below – here we can only show you a tiny taste of their work.

Today we learn all about Randy Martinez. Randy is one of today’s most popular artists in the pop culture genre. His illustrations have been officially published for most of today’s biggest properties including Star Wars, Marvel Comics, The San Francisco Giants, The San Diego Padres, Aliens, Stranger Things, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Harry Potter, Back To the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

Considered the Swiss army knife of Star Wars Illustrators, Randy Martinez has been creating Cartoons, Caricatures, Illustrations, Paintings, and 3D art for just about every Star Wars media and merchandise since 1999. Chances are you own some official Star Wars product with Randy’s art on it.

Some of Randy’s most highlighted Star Wars projects would be the Key Art he created for Star Wars Celebration IV (Los Angeles, 2007), Celebration V (Orlando 2010), and Celebration Europe (London 2007).

His most recent Official Star Wars Project was illustrating two entire pinball Machines for Stern Pinball, Star Wars: Comics. “By Far the most art I’ve ever created for one project. I’ve never been more proud!” Says Martinez.

Randy’s art has been part of the Star Wars Universe since 1999. But how did the artist find such inspiration in this Galaxy Far Far Away?

“I was three when I saw Star Wars in theaters (1977), so Star Wars has been present through most of my life. Before Star Wars, I was obsessed with JAWS and Sharks. While kids were drawing flowers and teddy bears, I was drawing Great White Sharks eating water skiers and divers. I’m sure that was a little disturbing for my teachers. After I saw Star Wars, all I would draw was Darth Vader, lightsabers and spaceships. Like so many others of my generation, Star Wars completely changed my life and opened up my imagination. I knew, even at 3-4 years old, someday I wanted to make my living making Star Wars art.

Star Wars spoke to me because it spoke about the human spirit. Every character in those movies represents some part of every one of us. Han represents the sexy bad boys we want to be at times. Leia, the strong and confident warrior. Luke, the hero we all strive to be, and of course Darth Vader, when we have those dark angry days.
Star Wars was an incredible friend and source of serenity through a tough time in my life. When things seemed their darkest, I could find wisdom and guidance from the words Obi-Wan and Yoda, and inspiration to be brave from Luke Skywalker. This personal connection has kept Star Wars at the forefront of my creativity. Star Wars is such a great vehicle for me to express the feelings I have about relationships, my friends, the world, and the human condition.

My goal, as an artist, has always been to create art that is more than just “COOL”. I’ve always tried to express something personal and connect with the viewer in every piece of art I create.“

You can find my store at my official website www.randymartinez.art
There you can find all kinds of official Star Wars and more, for sale. Thats right, you could own a piece of Star Wars History!
I am alway open for commissions, so please feel free to message me through social media or send me an email through my website.

You can find Randy on social media at (click on the links for easy access):
Facebook: randymartinez40
Facebook Fan Page: randymartinezfanpage
Instagram: randymartinez40
Twitter: randymartinez40
YouTube: randymartinez40

Star Wars Artists : Darrin Brege

This June we are celebrating STAR WARS ARTIST MONTH.
Every day we post an artist who has dazzled us with their amazing work. Get to know them, give them a shout-out, and find out where you can help support them!

Today’s artist is Darrin Brege! Darrin is an illustrator, creative director, voice over artist, comic, and public speaker. Along with his wife Karen they’ve published numerous books notably the Mick Morris series.He has designed numerous Lucasfilm approved works including jersey designs for multiple sports teams. He’s worked for all the big dogs including Disney, Coke, Starbucks, and others but his real passion is fandom art and boy does he shine there!

He’s even found the time to design multiple patches for R2-KT and the 501st, which benefit numerous charities, including JJ Abrams ‘Force For Change,’ Make A Wish, and ‘The Peter Mayhew Foundation.’

Darrin’s family is all about imagination, creativity, and a positive outlook on life – they are a dynamic team and we are so proud of their accomplishments. We are even more proud to call him a friend of the Star Wars community!

You can order a wide array of stunning prints and artwork by Darrin over at his page at the Fine Art America site:
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/darrin-brege
I have several hanging in my house!

And check out his personal website for even more gorgeous work: www.darrinbrege.com

Remember: buy authentic art, not that garbage from bootleg dealers. Support our artists and bring some magic into your home!