Return of the Jedi

Fan Art Friday: Remembering Leia

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Welcome back to our Star Wars coloring book club, where Kiri from Star Wars Anonymous and I color the same image every month to compare and contrast.  We’ve been doing this since 2016 and still haven’t run out of pictures to color!

I just got a new set of colored pencils for Christmas, so I was eager to try out all the new colors.  It was nice to be able to have a different color palette, but I felt like I did a lot of blending to get it to look closer to how I wanted it.  The new pencils are really nice to color with though!

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This isn’t the best picture because I had bad lighting and had to do some photo editing to make it look better.  The background is actually shaded with a light blue though it doesn’t show up well here.

ETA: Here is a slightly better picture, though I left the original for posterity 😀

I picked shades of pink and purple for the flowers for a couple reasons.  First, these feminine colors seemed appropriate for Leia here.  Although she didn’t have any agency in choosing this outfit (ugh), Leia does show that it is possible to be feminine and badass at the same time.  Remember, she kills Jabba while wearing this bikini!  Femininity can be powerful.

Second, these flowers look like Forget-me-Nots to me, which can be pink, purple, and blue.  I thought this was also appropriate as a tribute to Leia as well as the actress that played her, Carrie Fisher.  I was so pleased with how they were able to include her character in The Rise of Skywalker in order to give her a fitting send off.  The use of previous footage and visual effects worked so seamlessly, and it was wonderful to see Leia as “Master Skywalker,” even if just for a bit.

Also, check out Kiri’s version that uses the botanical details to reference Queen Amidala’s famous red gown.

Fan Art Friday: Center Switch!

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Welcome back to our Star Wars coloring book club, where Kiri from Star Wars Anonymous and I color the same image every month to compare and contrast.

Anticipating the release of The Rise of Skywalker later this month, I picked an image with the original Skywalkers: Luke and Leia on a speeder bike chase through the Endor forest.

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This one was extremely busy and I didn’t quite know how to handle it. I did the background designs in earthy tones, like the Endor forest flying by. Then I wanted something to stand out from that, so I went very bold with the flowers and other top designs. The blue reminds me of the air rushing by as they are speeding along.

Check out Kiri’s excellent version of the siblings here.

This scene always made me laugh a little. Like, how did Luke even know how to jam their comlinks? But then again, if an Ewok can figure out the speeder, I guess it can’t be too hard.

I can’t wait to find out how the stories of Luke and Leia (and their family) end later this month!

Fan Art Friday: AT-AT Blues

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Welcome back to our Star Wars coloring book club, where Kiri from Star Wars Anonymous and I color the same image every month to compare and contrast.

Can you tell what this month’s mandala is made up of? It has parts from an AT-AT walker, including the feet, head, and joints.

AT-AT stands for All Terrain Armored Transport, and they most notably appears in The Empire Strikes Back during the Empire’s ground assault on the Rebel base on Hoth. Seeing the AT-AT brought Hoth to mind, so I used a lot of cool colors to represent that frozen, snowy place.

I was intending to be a little more daring with this one, but I really ended up playing it safe, using a standard limited color scheme and a lot of symmetry. But I still like the way it turned out, even if it is a bit boring.

You can check out Kiri’s summer fiesta version here.

If you want to see more of Hoth, enjoy this Bad Lip Reading of the Battle of Hoth put to song. I even analyzed the rap for you.

Fan Art Friday: The Mighty Jabba

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Welcome back to our Star Wars coloring book club, where Kiri at Star Wars Anonymous and I color the same image every month to compare and contrast.  You can check out her version here.

I’m not sure why Jabba was juxtaposed with pansies here, but sure, we’ll go with it.

The flowers in the top part reminded me of the wisps of smoke coming from Jabba’s water pipe, so I colored them very lightly like smoke.  But maybe too lightly, because you can’t really tell I did it at all here!  Haha here are some close-ups so you can better appreciate my intention.

Next time we are returning to mandalas with this one that appears on the back cover:

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Fan Art Friday: Ephant Mon

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Welcome back to our Star Wars coloring book club, where Kiri at Star Wars Anonymous and I color the same image every month to compare and contrast.  You can check out her version here.

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This one is nothing spectacular, but I kind of liked that it is simple.  Ephant Mon is a very colorless character, both literally and metaphorically.  He has grey skin (like an elephant) and a very neutral robe, so I put in some happy, spring-like colors to liven up the picture.

Ephant Mon is a very overlooked character from Return of the Jedi; he is one of Jabba’s cronies and appears in one scene in the palace.  His name is literally a corruption of Elephant Man; as a kid I got him confused with Max Rebo, because I thought he looked like an elephant, too.  In Legends stories, Ephant Mon was the head of Jabba’s security force and got his own short story as part of Tales from Jabba’s Palace, called “Old Friends: Ephant Mon’s Tale.”

I have no idea why they felt the need to include him in this coloring book, but I like it!  I had a good time coloring this one because I am watching the end of The Clone Wars before it leaves Netflix.  I had never gotten to see the Lost Episodes.  And there will be more new episodes when TCW moves to the new Disney streaming service!