The New Essential Guide to Alien Species

WOTC RPG stats for the Iktotchi already had them with precognitive abilities. And there's nothing about telepathic abilities stated. Their only other natural ability is a natural disposition to be great pilots.

 

Chris why wasn't there art for a Muun? You might've had the chance to draw Plagueis.

 

Or preferably a Muun who failed out of high school, began smoking spaceweed, bought a beat up transport and spent his days road tripping with a Togorian hipster named Fudgy.

 

Seriously man, you could blow the rest of us away doing those databank entries.

 

The editors made the decision of which aliens to depict.
I didn't realize Palgueis was a Muun, interesting.
I think you'll see a picture of him next year.

 

Chris, welcome to the boards! Love the art in the guide, great stuff as always; the Nelvaanian in particular is inspired. So's the Killik, incidentally; helps my mental image greatly.

Unrelated, but I very much liked the design of that stormie lightsaber you put together for that short a year or so ago. Is there really a physical one of them, or was that a really detailed CG mockup?

 

I don't know if anybody's said the art was stereotypical. In fact, I really appreciated some of the more unusual choices there: things like the Falleen Jedi, Mon Cal dancer, and Togruta, well, non-Jedi aren't things you see a lot (some of those might have been William O'Connor, I don't know), and they were quite welcome. And stereotypical or no, they were all great quality.

 

I pre-ordered this and I was very impressed by the overall quality---especially of the art! The Nelvaanian, Bothan, and Mon Calamari female are particularly worthy of note! Bravo!

 

Speaking of the Falleen Jedi, is he supposed to be Thann Mithric, the Falleen Jedi from Betrayal? And for that matter, are any of the images meant to represent a particular character? The Ongree could be Pablo-Jill or Coleman Kcaj.

 

The more and more I think about it, the more I'd like to try my hand at it. I was looking at the Mos Espa spacewoman and ROLO droid pics yesterday and got great story ideas for them.

Chris, I really liked your art, especially the Balosar, Ryn, Killik, and human images. I just wish the book's text had been as good.

 

I was wondering the same. Who is the Kaleesh, and the Skakoan?

I was thinking Domb Treetor for the Skakoan.

 

Thanks, the Nelvaanian was fun to translate from the animated version.
The Killik is William's, It is pretty cool. I think my favorite of William's is the Hutt.

Yes, I did actually build a Stormtrooper lightsaber. I have it sitting in my prop collection now.
I plan to build some other props for an upcoming Star Wars project to make them canon as well. It's a fun little thing to do since I'm into SW props as well as art.

 

Most of the aliens aren't supposed to be specific characters.
The Faleen Jedi was William's. I heard he drew many aliens as Jedi, but Lucasfilm only approved the two (Faleen and Ongree). I steered clear of Jedi characters just because the examples were supposed to be typical of the species.

The Skakoan came from the Visionaries comic. That whole story was very abstract and weird, but I loosely based my Skakoan on the Elder to the left - the one who says "This one has been chosen to be worthy of the mounds."

Some of the aliens came from my past Star Wars projects. I like to keep my own little background character continuity. I haven't named any of them, but maybe I will someday. I'm sure I will use my characters from the guide in future projects.
The Neimoidian came from the "Unseen Planets of Episode I" article I did for SW Insider (issue #56).
Seen here in my portfolio:
http://www.christrevas.com/starwars/swinside1.html
He's a wealthy plantation owner.
The Gotal is a famous swoop bike racer. He almost runs over Jar Jar on Coruscant in my Ep. 1 kid's book Anakin to the Rescue. His swoop appears on the cover of the West End Games book "Wretched Hives of Scum and Villiany". It's hanging on the wall in a racing bar. Costume design is based on the original Ron Cobb ANH concept art.
The Aqualish is a character I had painted for myself once so I decided to make him official.

The human was a piece of self indulgence. He's me. I was worried it might seem vain to put myself in there representing Humanity, but I couldn't resist and my friends encouraged me. Lucasfilm made me remove my goatee though because "it looks too much like the artist." - They caught me

 

Eh, could you explain your take on the Kaleesh female? What about Ronderu?

 

We need more artists that think like you do. Visual continuity can be just as important as the usual kind, and Easter Eggs like the one's you've mentioned are a real treat to find.

 

More props? Sounds great; I enjoy seeing photos of props even more (well, just as much) than I do good 2-D art-- it's great seeing a 'real' version of something Star Wars.

Are you, ah, at liberty to hint on what the project is?

I'm gonna have to go back and look at all your art now; easter eggs like that are fun.

You represent humanity well, incidentally.

 

Interesting choice of the Mon Cal female from the opera. I expected to see the standard "Mon Cal fleet officer", but it was interesting to see this choice.

--Adm. Nick

 

I just want to say that your art in the book is stunning Chris.

I wonder if we'll ever get an official picture of the Kaleesh without a mask...

 

There was a H'nemthe* Jedi too.

*I can't believe I spelled that from memory.

 

Kind of an odd thing to be posting here, but I loved "Anakin to the Rescue". The illustrations were great, and waaaaay back in the day I always wanted to make a LEGO version of the nanny droid in the comic. I always wondered who that lost kid grew up to be, too...

TC

 

Thanks! One of these days I want to get the nanny droid and/or the boy Finn (grown up) into a painting.

 

I'll buy whatever he makes it into...

TC

 

Mr. Trevas, did you come up with the idea of Neimoidian harvest beetles?, which btw appear as the mounts of battle droid "beetle trropers" in Galactic Battlegroounds.

Also, about your picof the Valley of the Borokii on Ansion, those are Suubatars in foreground, but what are the approaching antlered animals? and the red flowers?

i dont remember seeing the dargul in Ultimate Adversaries, was it cut?

 

The beetle idea came from the article text by Dan Wallace. I made up the look of the beetles for my painting. The black patterns on their backs came from the shape of Nute Gunray's hat. I thought maybe some of Neimoidian fashion design might come from the patterns in nature seen on their planet.
I hadn't seen the beetle droids before. Just looked them up on Wookieepedia though.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Beetle_trooper
They seem vaguely similar to the ones I drew, but of course so do all beetles (six legs,etc.)

It's been so long I forget what those animals were called in the Valley of the Borokii. I have detailed notes around here somewhere that I took while reading the book. I believe those are ears not antlers and they have 6 eyes. I can't find my copy of Approaching Storm right now either to look up the name. The plants I may have made up, again I'd have to see my notes (they may have been described in another part of the book).

The Dargul was cut from Ultimate Adversaries which was unfortunate I really liked that one. It's kinda like Dune but in a forest. I like the construction crane vehicles with legs too.

 

Me too. I've been doing research on varous walkers lately, and those caught my eye. Hopefully they'll get a backstory sometime in the future...