The print was a hit at the show, yay!  Some people didn't understand the reference I think, but those that did  super appreciated it.  They wanted to actually buy the game!  Might have to wait thirty years but this game, just as it is in the movie, will exist one day.  Science fiction, for the most part, is just science yet to be, right?

I did an interview for Backstory.net (check it out for those with Ipads, really killer content, was honored to be asked) a couple months later about the piece so the following is a extended version of that feature. Anyway, the Holochess game always was fascinating to me from the very first moment I saw it.  It was one of many moments, little and big, in Star Wars that just blew my mind as a kid.  To em, the inclusion of the game helped deepen the history and culture of this strange world in a really interesting way,  gave it a more "lived in" inhabited feel.  I was also a rabid Ray Harryhausen (Rest in Peace, my friend) fan, loved all the movies he was part of, esp. the Sinbad movies.  The holochess monsters were created by Phil Tippett and Jon Berg using that same old school stop motion animation techinques that he used. So to me, it also connected these films in a really fun way.

 

I did a TON of research to create this.  I basically found every image available online, watched the scene a couple times then put it all in a blender  Most of the reference was blurry so I had to just make the details work.  That was ok though, I wanted to create a slightly different take on all the creatures, make them my versions.  They all have crazy names, I included them in the design, and a highly detailed history.  Check out Wookieepedia for info on all.  Mantellian Savrip, for example, is super smart, looks more like a bruiser to me so ya never know.

 

Then do some rough photoshop collages that look really bad but you have to start somewhere, right!  I use Manga Studio to draw and ink all the elements in the piece separately.  At the same time I am working on the overall design and compostion in a main file, moving things around, seeing what works, then I’ll add the finish drawings to the mix and color, add effects. Design wise I wanted it to looked like a beat up board game cover so it was a double whammy.  Design the boardgame cover, then age it.  But it was more fun than anything.  I look forward to using more of my design skills in the future.