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 Art tips and techniques, reviews and interviews from my studio. Archived here and at World Famous Comics. Comics 101 for 01/23/2003 Star Wars Gamer #9 - Wraith Squadron: The Art of Infiltration -- Week One: Photo Reference 
Having photo reference is a useful and sometimes necessary tool for any artist creating illustration. Knowing when to take or find photo reference can be instrumental in making successful art. And researching the material you are trying to illustrate, especially in some cases where the subject of your artwork may be unfamiliar to you and just making it up out of your head won't cut it, can be very beneficial for your art to look more believable and convincing to your audience.Actually, the Star Wars universe is far from unfamiliar to me. I've researched it inside and out so much I probably could have used the time over the years brushing up on more academic feats I need to work on like math or even writing. But the reason I relied on photo reference so heavily for this assignment was simply because I sometimes enjoy shooting my own photographs and dressing my friends up as Star Wars characters in my artwork. They usually get a big kick out of it too. And since I've been pushing my style towards a more hyper-real look I decided working from models would influence this approach more successfully. One imporant thing regarding reference though. You should usually resolve and develop your concept first. Then gather the necessary reference you'll need to tell your story. Otherwise your work and thought process will be dictated by and limited to your existing reference. But this was one instance where I already had some of the photo reference I needed before I was actually commissioned for the artwork. 
For this new article in Star Wars Gamer #9 featuring the Rebel pilots of Wraith Squadron who's specialty was infiltration, it was my job to come up with an opening illustration that caught the flavor and feel of the text and featured some of the characters spotlighted in the story.I love drawing Star Wars. Even moreso, I love drawing Stormtroopers, Rebel heroes and Imperial hardware. The exact parameters of the assignment were pretty open for me so I definitely wanted to include Wedge Antilles, leader of Wraith Squadron, into the art and be able utilize original photo reference I took of some of the Stormtroopers I met from the 501st Legion at the San Diego Comic-Con earlier that year. Once I realized my friend Corinne would make a perfect Tyria Sarkin, another Wraith pilot from the article, I had the action scene visualized in my mind pretty quickly for the piece. My idea for the scene was to have my Rebel heroes, Tyria and Wedge, infiltrate an Imperial base and sneak up on a squad of Stormtroopers. So I photographed my friends in a variety of poses to give myself some options later when I composed their characters into the illustration with my previous Stormtrooper reference I had shot. The idea was to end up with the right poses from each set of references that would work best together, hopefully getting all the characters to gel into one scene. I had my pal Justin pose as Wedge for the photo shoot mainly for positioning and lighting purposes. Plus it gave Corinne another person to play off and allow her to get abit more into character. Even though Justin helped provide inspiration for my art with some various poses, I was already planning to use some photo reference I had of the actor, Denis Lawson, who played Wedge in the Star Wars films for the character's portrait.  
What also helps my Star Wars art is the fact that Justin builds near perfect replicas of actual Star Wars props as a hobby. He's kind of insanely talented in that regard. He actually had replicas of the same World War II guns Lucasfilm used to make some of the blasters seen in the original trilogy. Justin had used them to create accurate Star Wars blasters that were perfect for my Rebel characters since the weapons fit the era of the Star Wars scene I was illustrating. Props and costumes are always fun to set the mood and can also help get your models more into character. This made my job that much easier since I could reference these props separately and at my liesure to make my illustration that much more accurate. One of the best things about the Star Wars universe are all the fabulous details in the weapons, costumes, hardware and vehicles and since I'm very detailed oriented in my work it's one of the things that has always attracted me to illustrate Star Wars in the first place. 
I took a multitude of photos of my friends with a digital camera but I'm sparing you download time by just showing a select few here. After the photo shoot I finally decided on one pose of Corinne's that I thought would work really well for my composition. Unfortunately, as great as Justin worked out for me during the shoot, I felt I didn't end up with a pose for Wedge that would work well enough off of the one I had now chosen for Tyria.I contacted another friend of mine about the project who was a Star Wars fan and she had made her own custom Rebel pilot outfit since she was also a costume designer. After I explained the idea behind the art she took a variety of photos of herself for my project and emailed a batch back to me. I found one that ended up being the exact pose I was needing for Wedge to complement the Tyria pose. With all of the poses in place, I could begin designing the rest of the composition including background details and environment for my illustration. Next week we'll take a look at my rough sketches and line art I created based off of this photo reference. See ya next week, Joe Recent Columns:
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