Star Wars

Fan Art Friday: At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi

Mei-Mei6 Comments

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.

I have complicated feelings about Darth Maul.  How could such a cool character only get two lines in The Phantom Menace?  Why did The Clone Wars essentially replace him with his brother, Savage Opress, only to bring him back to life in a dumb way that is now canon?  Why is he from Dathomir, instead of the Zabrak homeworld of Iridonia?  Why did they bring him into Solo at all?

Yet despite all these questionable story decisions, I still have a fondness for the Sith apprentice with the awesome double-bladed lightsaber.  He has plenty of great storylines that have been told in books and on TV, and great actors behind his portrayal.

I had fun with this picture.  I didn’t have any grand plan for it, I just chose colors as I went along, starting with Maul’s portrait and working outward.

20181027_211200

In fact, I have reached the point where I need to sharpen my pencils again.  I discovered that the four colors I use the most are: jade green, aqua green, red, and golden yellow.  Obviously, I used several of those here.

20181027_223630.jpg
My shortest pencils

Check out Kiri’s subtle, dried-up color palette of Maul here.  As she points out, this was the very first page in the coloring book.  Kind of funny we’re only now getting around to it after a few years of doing this!

 

Advertisements

Fan Art Friday: It’s a Trap!

Mei-Mei7 Comments

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.

Admiral Akbar is from Mon Calamari or Mon Cala, an oceanic world.  Its other inhabitants are the Quarren, sometimes derogatorily called “squidheads.”  Going with the aquatic theme, all the floral decorations in this picture reminded me of seaweed, hence why I colored it in shades of green.

I was kind of bummed that Ackbar died basically off-screen in The Last Jedi, but at least he was fighting to the end.  And he will live on forever in every “It’s a trap!” meme on the Internet.

Also check out Kiri’s here, complete with sometimes-rhyming poetry and flowers that look like amoebas.  Her color selection was on point this time!

Fan Art Friday: Queen Amidala

Mei-Mei8 Comments

Amidala

Kiri and I are postponing our coloring book pictures this month, so I’m bringing you an original drawing.  Just as with Cardcaptor Sakura, I enjoyed drawing Queen Amidala because I could invent elaborate outfits for her.  This one seems a bit medieval-inspired.  The writing says “Queen Amidala” in Japanese katakana, though I made a small mistake in “queen.”  The date is 2006, when I was at university.  I was beginning to study Japanese and probably practicing the characters I was learning.

 

Fan Art Friday: Watercolor Mandala

Mei-Mei6 Comments

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.  This time Kiri picked the last picture in the book.

When I first looked at this image, the wavy designs reminded me of water and seaweed and Otoh Gunga.  So, I started with a mix of cool colors in light shades for a kind of watercolor effect.

That was when I realized that the designs are the Imperial Guard helmets. Soooo the very bright, very red, very military-esque guards are now represented by nice, soft watercolors.

20180731_195725
Imperial Guard helmets in another image for confirmation

Oh, well.  I like this one anyways.

Next month, we will do everyone’s favorite Mon Calamari, Admiral Ackbar.

 

Fan Art Friday: Cowabunga Clone Trooper

Mei-Mei14 Comments

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.

This month I decided I was tired of coloring everything in a symmetrical pattern, so I wanted to do the four Captain Rex clone trooper helmets all different colors.

For some reason, an inspiration immediately sprang to mind: my childhood heroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Four helmets, four Ninja Turtles.  The more I looked at the picture, the more I liked that idea.  The circle in the center even kind of looks like a turtle shell.

Thematically, it works really well also.  The Ninja Turtles may be an American creation, but they are inspired by the culture of Japan, just like Star Wars.  The style of the helmets of Vader (and consequently the storm troopers) seem partly inspired by Japanese samurai helmets.  Obi-Wan’s sojourn on Tatooine seems much like the life of a ronin.  And most specifically, the Kurosawa’s movie The Hidden Fortress was a huge inspiration to George Lucas when making the movie that would come to be known as A New Hope.

This one was pretty quick and fun; maybe not one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it.  And for the record, Michelangelo is the best Ninja Turtle.  Cowabunga!