Star Wars - Jedi Survivor (Patreon)

Hey Patrons,

I finally got the go for sharing the artwork I made for the Star Wars - Jedi Survivor game, and would like to show it to you guys exclusively today, before posting it on socials. ⭐😏

As a Star Wars fan and gamer, I'm incredibly proud that I was able to work on this project. I'd also like to give you some insights into the process and how this came together as I've not been allowed to share any WIPs with you earlier.

Attention, there's spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order below!

First Steps

So how did I get to work for Star Wars? Electronic Arts, the game developer of Jedi Survivor, already worked with me on a campaign for Need for Speed Unbound last year. They have a talent agency that onboards artists for campaigns to raise awareness around the game, in the artist's individual voice which is actually quite cool! And they asked me if I wanted to join this project as well 😊

I've been a big fan of the previous game, Fallen Order, so I thought about making a bridge between the two games by showing Trilla, the Second Sister (the end boss), as a silhouette and Cal Kestis, the main character, moving on to new worlds after the fight.

The feedback coming in from Lucasfilms & Disney was that they liked the idea with the silhouette. However, Trilla shouldn't be visible, as the artwork should be focused on Cal Kestis and his upcoming journey, instead of past battles.

So I changed the scene to what you see on the right here. And I added some Storm Troopers because how stupid would I be to make something officially for Star Wars and not draw some Storm Troopers?! 😅

The Visual Idea

Let's get into the artwork concept a bit: Star Wars as a brand is retro and contemporary at the same time for me, as it's been around for literally my whole life. I guess it's the same for many others, so I wanted to represent this in my work. The composition and pose of Cal Kestis have a kind of old school heroic look, and that silhouette trick is something I've seen on old movie posters as well:

My aim was to connect the described visuality with the present, state-of-the-art videogame lore (that also is built nicely into the whole Star Wars storytelling).

Drawing Process

I used some references from screenshots and concept art from the games, to stick as close to the original character as possible. You can see in the timelapse below how I used the help of references for Cal Kestis, and later for the landscape of planet  Koboh (that in the end actually turned out to be more freestyle).

 (Patreon really needs a YT video embed function..)

For the scene-in-scene landscape, I wanted to include lots of details as well, so the whole artwork flashes the viewer at first sight with so many things to discover.

It's always a balancing act between offering overwhelmingly details, but still keeping a structure and order within a composition. I wanted to achieve this balance through coloring - as you see in the final artwork quite clearly, the upper part is more purple, while the landscape is mostly orange and red with an earthy flavor. The plants on the side give a nice frame, so it's not like a clear cut but blended into another more smoothly.

That's all the basic thoughts that went into making this artwork. I hope you like the result! 😊 You can also download a high res file below - I'm not yet sure if I'm allowed to sell prints of this (I think it would look great printed), but with that file you're also able to print it yourself!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your Fridays!Stefan