I’ve been working on various Star Wars projects for almost three years now.

I’ve been able to post just a small part of them, as I’m never sure of what has been published. The working titles we get during production are always different from the final release, not to mention that the variety of products, expansions, rule-books and so on makes it difficult to keep track of what’s out and what isn’t.

The only way to have your doubts cast is to wait for your copy to be delivered at home, which usually happens a few months after the retail release, at least when your home is in Italy.

Anyway, it would appear that all this has come to an end, as Fantasy Flight Games has announced the end of its Star Wars products.

I can’t help but feel disappointed, as working on anything Star Wars related has been pretty much the highlight of my freelance career so far.

It’s not the artwork per se, or the compensation. It’s just, you know, Star Wars!
Getting an email with that in the subject never failed to put a smile on my face.

Oh well.

On a very selfish note – and as a very tiny bright side – Fantasy Flight Games used my artwork for the article I just linked, so I’ll take the chance to post it here uncropped.

The title of the image is Shien Mastery.

If you’re not nerds enough to have heard this word before, Shien is the fifth of the classical forms of Lightsaber fight. It’s characterized by its powerful counterattacks, and the most suitable to repel blaster shots.

In this image you can see Darth Vader kicking ass by deflecting two blasters at the same time, likely sending them back to their owners.

I have to confess that when I worked on this image I spent 80% of the time giggling and thinking to myself “Goddammit I’m drawing Darth Vader lol”.

Anyway, I’ve finished my last Star Wars pieces last month, so I think it will be at least a year before I run out of things to post.

I want to point out, if I haven’t before, that Art Directors at Fantasy Flight Games have been awesome throughout this time with no exception, and on top of Star Wars being Star Wars, it’s always been a pleasure working with them.

by Paolo Puggioni