sketch

Happy Star Wars Day!

Well, was yesterday and I posted this Hoth maze from the book all over my social media.

04 hoth 200.jpg

Below is the sketch for the maze. You can see it is very similar! Phil Szostak, content and asset specialist at Lucasfilm, asked me to rotate the Millennium Falcon and add additional snowspeeders.

The yellow lines are the gutter. Though the book can open flat and my publisher is has excellent precision, I wanted to be sure there were no bridges or vertical paths in this area.

The yellow lines are the gutter. Though the book can open flat and my publisher is has excellent precision, I wanted to be sure there were no bridges or vertical paths in this area.

All the mazes in the book had to be canon or canon adjacent. I made adjustments to create a fun maze in my style, but it was important to feel like the recognizable Star Wars from the films.

I used tons of research! Screen grabs from the film, 3d model references, images from the Battlefront video game, Wookieepedia, and the DK Star Wars Locations books. The Hans Jenssen cross-section of Echo Base is amazing! His illustration includes much more than I needed and a lot of information not in the film. It was especially helpful because relationships between the scenes is never shown in the movie. Jenssen’s illustration is the best, canon-approved overview I found.

sktech hoth peeps scj.png
These people are drawn 600dpi, so are very small on the page! They look jagged because soft, anti-alias lines are not so friendly for print. Also much easier to work with my preferred flat colors

These people are drawn 600dpi, so are very small on the page! They look jagged because soft, anti-alias lines are not so friendly for print. Also much easier to work with my preferred flat colors

While doing research, I found this cool picture of director Irvin Kershner on a tauntaun

While doing research, I found this cool picture of director Irvin Kershner on a tauntaun

Visit My Instagram

Want something new almost every day? Follow my Instagram! It’s much less formal than this blog. Sometimes I post mazes, but often I post other projects I’m working on. Here are my last three posts: 

I made this especially for IG, you can tell because it is exactly 2:1, taking advantage of the panoramic feature. It’s simple but fun. The statues are based on IG NYC folks I follow.  

I made this especially for IG, you can tell because it is exactly 2:1, taking advantage of the panoramic feature. It’s simple but fun. The statues are based on IG NYC folks I follow.  

IMG_1938.JPG

Ballpoint practice with White House chief of staff John Kelly. I’m not a fan, just think he has an interesting face.  He reminds me of the cop played by Richard Burgi in the Firefly episode “The Message”. 

IMG_1969.JPG

Also getting into relief print. I was totally into woodblock as a younger man and have been carving again. You can see that my skills are a bit rusty, but my work translates well. Follow my progress on Instagram! 

Path Notation

Although the mazes are often free-form and doodle-like, I need to keep track of the paths. Here is an example of my notations tracking paths alongside the final pencil drawing. Arrows are typically the "hero" path that will lead to the end. O's are paths open on both ends that I will eventually attach to a hero or false path. Letters or numbers refer to a specific fork, usually close to the start, so I know where to reconnect looping false paths or eventual solution paths.

Left: Path notations help keep track of the maze.  Right: Final maze layout with notations still visible.

Left: Path notations help keep track of the maze.  Right: Final maze layout with notations still visible.

Guidelines!

Laying down guidelines for this large garden maze. Usually I let the perspective kind of wander, but I wanted to try something with a little more discipline. I hope it won't feel too uptight when done.

Reigning in the chaos with guidelines!

Reigning in the chaos with guidelines!