I’m settling back into life in Brooklyn after a brief trip to Taiwan which meant I missed out on sharing this work around May 4th as intended. Though what is time but a construct anyways!
From the end of last year to the beginning of 2025 I’ve been working on two Star Wars-related projects that I’m excited to finally be able to share.
✦ Previous work for Star Wars ✦
The first time I officially worked in the Star Wars universe was for the book Women of the Galaxy, written by Amy Ratcliffe, published in 2018 by Chronicle Books in collaboration with Lucasfilm. This book profiled 75 women from the Star Wars universe, illustrated by 18 female and non-binary artists.
I remember doing at least a triple-take at the email that popped up in my inbox asking if I was interested and available. It definitely didn’t feel real! After enthusiastically signing on, I’d literally stepped out of the theater after watching The Last Jedi to find a follow up email letting me know my first assigned portrait was Rey.
It was such a surreal experience to create work for a universe that I’d loved since childhood (shoutout to Star Wars: Battlefront especially), and one I still look back on fondly. It was also my first time ever doing IP work! Here are some of my favorite portraits of the seven total that I illustrated for Women of the Galaxy:
I worked with Chronicle Books x Lucasfilm again in 2020, this time as the sole illustrator for The Jedi Mind by Amy Ratcliffe, a book of 20 illustrations that paired quotations and lessons from the Star Wars universe with practices for more mindful living. It felt ironic to work on a project about mindfulness and tranquility while living through the beginning of the pandemic in New York City, but it did help keep me busy during a truly terrifying time and I’m forever grateful to have had the opportunity.
✦ Women of the Galaxy Updated and Expanded ✦
To my surprise, Chronicle Books reached out last year to let me know that a revised and updated edition of Women of the Galaxy was in the works and they wanted to include me again! Since the last time I worked with them in 2018, the Star Wars universe has expanded into television and video games which allowed for a lot of new characters to be introduced. I was assigned Kay Vess from Star Wars Outlaws and Mae and Osha from The Acolyte.
For the sake of email length limits I’ll be just delving into the process behind my portrait of Kay Vess:
Ideation + Sketches
Because I unfortunately hadn’t played Star Wars Outlaws, I put in extra time getting references and screenshots during while doing research to get a better feel for the world.
Beyond this piece being a portrait of Kay and her adorable companion Nix, I knew I wanted to be able to draw from the magenta-hued, windswept landscape of the main planet from Star Wars Outlaws, Toshara.
My style has changed quite a bit since the last edition of Women of the Galaxy, and it was a nice way to reflect on my growth by returning to the same project after six years. Women of the Galaxy Updated and Expanded is available now, wherever you buy books!
✦ Fortnite x Star Wars ✦
Not long after wrapping on work for Women of the Galaxy Updated and Expanded, I got another call from the galaxy far, far away—this time for a collaboration between Star Wars and Fortnite. The illustration would be loading screen art that would drop with the new Star Wars-themed season, Galactic Battle. I haven’t played Fortnite since I hopped on one time over ten years ago and immediately died (sorry battle royale games are just not for me), but I was excited to get the chance to revisit the Star Wars universe again through a different lens entirely.
I was given a brief description of the scene I’d be drawing, which features a Star Wars-themed redesign of one of Fortnite’s original characters, Evie as well as reference material to use. Beyond that, I had a lot of creative freedom which I did my best to run with. It was a unique challenge to play with existing characters and visuals from two different worlds and try to make them my own, but I definitely had fun with it!
If you play Fortnite, you can find my loading screen, ‘Explorer Evie’ on page 1 of the Galactic Battle Battle Pass as part of the Galactic Syndicate set until June 7!
Until next time, in this galaxy or another 💫
