S3 EP22: Art Design w/ Roberto Venegas & July in Review

Provellian's built on hope. Incoming transmission. Thank you, revenge on. Welcome to another episode of Radio Rebellion, a Star Wars podcast.

I'm your host, I've been back there on and thank you so much for joining us on another great Star Wars week. And how are you guys doing out there? It's been a fun week in Star Wars. A lot of fans out there, the bad match just came out last yesterday, the latest episode with two episodes away from the end of season one.

We don't know if there's gonna be a season two I'm guessing. It's very strange that only we're gonna do one season. So we'll probably do at least another one, maybe two or three. I don't know, we'll find out.

But we're gonna be talking about all these Star Wars news that happened in July. A lot of Star Wars news this past month. The last episode of the bad match. And we have a great guest that we're gonna spend some time with him.

It's for another show. He's been here in the chat. It's great to have him here just talking with him a little bit. But how are you guys doing?

Any Star Wars activities for you out this week? For me, we were out last week. It took a week off because the week and before, I was able to go to Galaxy's age. There's a short video about 25 minutes.

I posted last week. So if you guys haven't seen it, go ahead and check it out. 25 minutes. I talked about just my time there.

It's an exciting, tremendous time being in Galaxy's age finally after two years or three being open. It's been so close in Florida two hours and 15 minutes away. I had to make it over. I was able to go last week and had a great time.

So go ahead and check that video out. I'll put a link to it over here, here, here at some point later. But yes, it's all about the High Republic. Out of the shadows by Justina Arlan.

It came out last week or this week or this week on Tuesday. I just been reading that this whole week. I'm about almost 300 pages in. So reaching the last third of the book next week, we have Meg Dao from Follows of the Force.

I'm a project star. She does a lot of stuff out there. She's gonna be here next week and we're gonna dive deep into Justina Arlan's Out of the Shadows. If you guys haven't read it, go make sure you read that before you join us next week.

Great, great books among my favorite Jedi. I'm either a pre-end, so my favorite characters, there's a lot of now. Anyway, I want to follow you guys next week, so make sure to tune in. I also have a test of courage back there at some point.

I've read all different podcast stars where I send us. I should have read that first because there's something that happens in that book that's referenced in Out of the Shadows, but I couldn't wait. I had to jump into Out of the Shadows. I'm happy that I did.

So, oh, you guys, you guys. Again, if you're reading the High Republic Wave tool, let me know. Let us know in the chat, let us know in the comments. If you're listening to this later on, the audio podcast, just send me a message on Twitter.

I'll come back to the video and let us know. Especially if all the news that we're going to be talking about today, let us know in the chat, comments, Twitter, wherever, all your thoughts on all the latest Star Wars happens. And the bad batch, of course. Some people love it, some people are, you know, for sisting against it.

So, Star Wars for everyone. So that's what we like to say here. If you don't like something Star Wars or something else coming along, though, hopefully catch your attention. But if you're here, thank you.

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So, I think that's it. I just not only check real quick, who's here before now? I'm going to bring my guests in. We'll do that later.

We'll check who's in the chat and say hi to the chat. But let's bring our friend. Oh, man, I'm so happy that this guy's here today. We're going to be talking with him about a lot of Star Wars stuff.

But I think you know who it is. He's a great artist, Star Wars fan. The one, the only Roberto Vennegas. Oh, look at that art.

So yes, Roberto. How you doing? Hey, thank you for having me on your show. It's finally glad to be on your show.

No, no, no, man. I didn't want to say it before when we were talking a little bit before we started. But I'm always surprised a little bit when people want to come to the show. If I ask people to come to the show as guests, I'm just a guy talking Star Wars.

I always like when people show up. But you're not just, I guess here, you're being fun of the show. You're being on the chat constantly. Leave left us comments.

So that's even more, I get so overwhelmed sometimes. Oh, there's people other than enjoy the show. So thank you for being here. Thank you for all your support.

Yeah, there's so many fantastic podcast shows out there. And it's hard to kind of keep track of everything. But I like the fact that yours takes place in Saturday because it kind of allows me a little bit of time. And also the concept that you bring, the guests that you bring is really entertaining to tune in.

So whenever I can, I try to make sure that I always, you know, try to catch the show live. Yeah, thanks. Again, I appreciate it completely. And I understand there's so many great Star Wars podcasts out there.

It's a YouTube channel. It's hard to keep track of everyone. And to go week on week off to listen to a show or whatever, because I'm at fault. I follow a lot of podcast out there.

The great I can't find the time to listen to everyone. So it kind of depends what topic are they talking about. So I can jump in and check that out. So like I mentioned, we kind of someone on the chat or leaves a comment or whatever.

Always glad. So again, thank you. Thank you. So yeah, let's see who's here.

Our friends always Dale, Dale, thanks for being here. Rachel. How you doing? Rachel was here a few weeks ago.

We went deep talking about Ravel Rising, Rogue One, Teen episode. What's a great show? See, Gene and everything. That's story in a different way.

So thank you for being here. That's always Rogue One standing by. Of course, you're another friend Kate, better girl. Thanks for being here.

Very same height to you also. I mean, just stay called a praise, I'll send them. And our friends, Emotion Revolution High. And obviously, Sub, do thank you for being here.

Thanks to everyone. We have fun show. Everyone's here. You've seen the show before.

We'll take it easy here. So yeah, no worries again. Thanks for being here. And let's start because a lot of us started following you and knew about because of your Star Wars fan art out there.

But what got you into art or design and just making this part of your life, basically? Of your career? Oh, wow. You know, growing up I was kind of had this ability to draw and I got that from my father.

But it's something that I never really spent time in growing up because I was always this right now around. It wasn't until later in my mid-20s when I felt like I needed to do something more with my life. So then I started focusing on art. And that's when it started to become more than just a hobby.

It became a passion. And that's when I started thinking I want to take this further. I teach myself, but there were just some things that I didn't really understand and I decided to go to school. And then when I went to school, that's when art started to, I don't mean art, but I mean Star Wars started to come into my life.

So that's when the Force Awakens came out and the last Jedi and Rogue One and all those three movies were deep parts that threw me into the Star Wars universe. And it wasn't until after I was done with school that I actually finally had time to do fan art, which it was never probably already before to do fan art. But it went through a little bit of a hard time in my life after school. And it was Star Wars fan art that kind of like got me out of a little bit of a depression.

And it brought joy into doing art again. Because at that point, I wasn't, there was a month, I guess the stretch of a three month period where I wasn't doing art. I wasn't even touching it. And it wasn't until I started doing fan art that I just fell in love with art again.

And that's how it all started doing Star Wars fan art. So we'll come back to it, but it's still relates to what you just mentioned. I was watching your appearance a few weeks ago with Chase on that day yet on his show. And you were talking about your Star Wars trajectory, which it's funny because we're at similar age, we grew up with the real trilogy watching that at home.

And then you told him your whole trajectory and we want to hear about it. But then you mentioned it wasn't even though you were a fan and you were a fan and you saw it before, it wasn't until the sequel trilogy and all those movies are starting coming out. That kind of got you back into Star Wars and just fan art the convention. They found them to the point where you're here in a Star Wars show, which is interesting because for people like us, it's we grew up in the 80s.

So we're already know, two little guys, we've always loved Star Wars. I love hearing from people that even though we're similar in age, maybe similar backgrounds didn't get to Star Wars till 20, 30 years afterwards. The younger people got with Clone Wars and Rebels. And that's why we say Star Wars, it doesn't matter if you love Star Wars from 77 or with the bad viewers, Star Wars fan cuts, you can't.

It's not, I don't know, there's something Star Wars that will grab you. It can be 30 years ago, it can be yesterday. And that's what's great about Star Wars, this story that through 30, 40 years, there's still something that's going to grab a hold on us. But, and I don't want to repeat yourself, I just talked about it a few weeks ago, but can you go a little bit, your Star Wars story from when you first watched it to when, like you mentioned, the sequel to it came out and then it got you into fan art and bring this, going, diving into Star Wars, I guess.

Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny because we grew up in, like it's mentioned, we grew up in a similar time where, you know, Star Wars was kind of like really, I don't like the phrase that, but it wasn't really going on because it was when I started realizing what movies were and things like that. It was really at a young age when that's when I saw the first Star Wars movie when I realized what movies were, but I didn't quite understood them. And I remember that scene where Vader showed Emma Riers, that memory is imprinted in my head.

I remember where I was sitting in my grandparents living room in this big 70 style TV that had like a record player in it and all that stuff. But, you know, after that, it was like, there was nothing really nothing. Yeah, there was nothing. I know, you know, so it's a little bit weird for me when I hear sometimes people talk about it that, you know, Star Wars was in their life constantly, you know, that are near my age because it wasn't the same for me.

It wasn't the same for my friends. My friends, you know, they knew Star Wars, they liked it, but it wasn't the thing that everybody gravitated to. So, and I went through the whole, you know, prequel time. I was really excited.

We stood in line, you know, we were talking about what we were expecting out of, you know, the trilogy, but they were fine. You know, they were fine as movies. It wasn't something that, you know, held my attention, especially when other movies like The Matrix and others movies were coming out that were a little bit more, I guess, aimed towards us. It was, I guess, young adult, 20, 19.

I don't know. I don't remember how old that was. It wasn't until the Force Awakens because that movie felt like a roller coaster to me. It from start to end, I felt like it captured the original feel of the movies, of Star Wars movies.

And that was, and it captured it in such a fun way that I felt was really unexpected with these new characters that I absolutely loved it. It wasn't until The Last Jedi that everything kind of changed for me. It became something that, oh, I really liked it. I really wanted, I knew that I really liked it and I was a fan of it, but the Last Jedi was the movie that kind of pushed me over the edge and it became a recession.

That's, it was, it was strange because I was going to school and all of a sudden I'm thinking about The Last Jedi, all of a sudden, and somebody mentioned Star Wars up in the corner, you know, I'm turning to see who it is that I could talk to you about. And it was such a, it was such a hunger in me to want to know more about the books, want to know more about the originals, want to know more about the prequels that it changed my views towards some of those movies because it wasn't, like I said in the other show, it was, it was more like history now. This was part of a bigger universe that I didn't quite saw it that way when the prequels came out. And so it was a really, really life changing moment from, from The Last Jedi and on.

And yeah, it's just been fun to get to know a lot of these characters and express those characters through my art. Okay. Was there anything specific from The Last Jedi that you say, okay, I get it now or this is it, this is why I want to focus on this. And I'll mention so my Star Wars kind of trajectory is a little bit similar, but was it something about, because you saw The Force Awakens, Rolikos, you got to work into it, but then the Last Jedi came out and we all know that movie, very polarizing for a lot of people down there.

Was there anything specific about The Last Jedi that really grabbed you? It was, you know, it was really Luke and Rey's moments because I felt it was, okay, so it was Rey because she's my favorite character, but it was also Luke because of his story. And being familiar with the original movies, the original trilogy, seeing this Luke that's kind of a little bit fun and from the grace that he was in. So and seeing how much he's changed from the look that we knew was something that was relatable because it's a sports fan.

You kind of see your heroes diminish as they get older. So there was some truth into that. Is that saying never meet your heroes, right? Exactly, exactly.

That tied to, I thought it ties so well with what was going on with Rey and Ben and how it tied to the rest of the movies that was the thing that kind of just blew my mind because I wasn't expecting the whole movie, I wasn't expecting the way it went and it kept me out of my seat, but I think that was the key thing that I kind of related to the most. Yeah, I mean, I said here, last year, it's not my very movie and I don't go that polarizing like people, it's the best one or new song if you like that. I love about that movie and look and ray are some of my very parts, everything on a toe is great because yeah, it does make sense that after 30 years being this hero to everyone that looks welcome, scratching down. Of course, it's going to kind of act that way and then eating ray to be the one to bring him back up because she's been looking, oh, the legend of those guy walker than me and then find a meeting through the saver out and shit, do it.

Come on, we need you your sister and all this. So I do understand that part. So let's here, we have our friend Andres Rannett, he's right in love hearing from folks who came back into the front on the front, from the security, JJ knows how to reboot a franchise story track and Ryan made such a tricky film with the last year, which is true. Say love it or hate it, it is a different type of star wars movie and there's but there's a lot of the core star wars themes in there.

So I do remember the pre-cultural, coming out in 99. So similar to yourself, I grew up with the originals, first thing that I watched was there were those, but as you start going from a young kid being 10 teenagers, like teens, there's no star wars. So I didn't have the like to mention people, it's always been in my life, I always go back to the idea I had the VHS at home, but I didn't watch American, they came in on TBS or TNT, I would watch them. I watched Star Trek, the next generation, that was my sci-fi and the effects.

And then for me was when the original T movies were really late 90s, that's where I fell in love with them again. But in 1990, the Antomenas is coming out, I loved it because it was Star Wars, but then the Matrix comes out the same year and that kind of changed movie making. So when Star Wars did in 77, the Matrix did a few years later when Attack of the Clones comes out in 2022, I mean 2002, that's when two towers come out, comes out from the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, I love you Star Wars, but two towers was heads above Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

So those three years were all out of the rings for me. And then the sequel to it was announced and I'm excited, but I'm scared, it's been so many years and they still get it. The MCU is the thing that everyone's kind of falling in love with. The Galaxy just came out and changed it also for sci-fi, but then the first time we came and I love that movie, so I figured one of the sequels, one of my favorite Star Wars movies, and Ray became one of those characters I gravitated to and you mentioned it's your favorite character.

So using Ray as a way to then move to our next topic, talking about your art and I'm going to show this for a quick little money, so we are this park and has Ray in the middle with a bunch of characters around her. So what's your process first when you're going to do something like this with all these amazing characters? Do you sketch it out first? I love drawing, I like drawing, I took art classes in high school and it was pencil on a paper, that's how I like to do it.

I tried doing some on the computer with a little pen, I can't, I just, I don't know. What's your process just when you're creating art and then for something like this one, how does it go from your mind to what we see this end result? You know that's a good question because you know these big pieces like we are the spark on thank the makers and the most recent one the other again. What they don't know?

Yeah, but they don't start as this big idea or this big concept, they usually start with a small idea and while I'm working on it, it grows to be something bigger. But like we are the spark, it just really started with that centerpiece because I just wanted to put these female characters that really never met each other, like me, Leia and you know Padme and things like that where most of them, most of them haven't met each other, just wanted to put them in the scene together and that little idea, it started to grow with well maybe I could add some Jedi in the background and then okay if I'm gonna add the Jedi, I'm gonna add the pilots because they also need recognition. And so I remember when I was doing it, I wasn't familiar with a lot of these characters so I put it on Twitter, and you guys named me like female characters to add and people just came out of the world to help me with that and I had to research every one of them and that's where a lot of my art sometimes kind of helps me get to know the universe through research and characters and that's how this thing came to be. It was something that just grew over time because I felt bad leaving characters out.

And it's not that interesting. Yeah, so it's great for myself, of course I know that I know all the characters, when I see a piece like this because as Star Wars fans, we want more representation out there, we want more female characters and then we find out there's a lot of female characters out there, unfortunately a lot of them are background characters and don't get a lot of recognition but they are there and a lot of people love them and some something I did like we are this part, there's so many great characters that you just start focusing on different ones. You have the Jedi, everyone with Rey, all the mothers and then the pilots to one side, the senators from the other and it's this, if so kind of game, who can I find and then of course you get oh you missed one from whatever, from this book that you've never heard of, you just missed one but again it's so great. But I want to jump to this one.

This one is I think one of my favorite of yours and I want to know when you're, it might be the same process as I mentioned. Are you looking for some type of emotional connection when you're deciding on these pieces and who to add? And I'm talking, I mean you can talk in general but with this one the throne with George Maul and all the evil that he has brought, I love this piece so much but are you looking for some emotional connection when you're trying to decide and then for this one, how did you decide where to put his character, especially the ones on the bottom kind of holding the throne and Maul how do you decide how to go through all this? Oh that's a good question.

Again that's a good question. You know especially yes I am always looking for the emotional connection because that was what holds me, that's what holds my attention to complete a piece because otherwise why am I spending so much time if I'm not even invested? And something like that, it is an investment. I'm spending a lot of time on that.

And the way it's very similar process to what I mentioned that it just started with the idea of starting with Dark Maul sitting kind of evil in a chir and then it feels like when I'm doing that sketching it, it feels like something's missing. And then I started thinking about his past and who is he and the people that he kind of tortured. And that's when I started thinking about adding characters kind of like a marble statue type of thing. And the way I organized it is what makes sense.

What are the tragic, what are the moments that Dark Maul really would really like be proud of himself. Yeah exactly. And so I put the piece where Kenobi is holding Qui on because I think that is the moment that he cherish the most because he got Kobe, I mean Kenobi, he killed his master right in front of him. And he was more cring up than that.

And to kill his girlfriend or quote unquote girlfriend, it's a buff him. It's another dagger to his enemy. But the thing that I like the most is putting his brother above all because that's so much oppressed because that to me is the most tragic story of his life. This is his brother.

This is somebody that technically he should love but I don't think he has the capacity to really love. And when you watch the show, you see that he struggles with his death a little as much as he can. But I think it really represents how falling he is and how much this character is unfixable. I know people love Maul and think he's a baby or I don't know what the term is.

But there's really nothing nobody can do to help him. And he's the fallen character that could have been something more. I think Maul is always the one on Twitter that will gravitate to those guys. But Maul is one of those characters that you feel for them.

And you want to root for them that you can get over this one. But he's his own worst enemy. A lot of people have said it. He's right there.

He can if he wants. But he's greed and his avarice for power will always come a calm before everything like loving his brother. He can't get over himself. I guess at some point.

But I love that piece so much because even though I love Maul, everything he has done has hurt someone. Like you said, just killing Qui-Gon and the way he then just turns over one. It's kind of his proudest moments or the first one that I said, yeah, we're gonna have a long history together. So it was great seeing that one.

So then you mentioned together again, which is this piece you've been kind of teasing for a long time now. I'm sure it's taking you months and months. When you finally, I guess, when did you decide that this is what you wanted to do? And then when you finally finished it and posted it out there this week that you were kind of, okay, it's done.

I can finally relax. This piece was such a burden, but yeah, this piece actually came from the idea kind of came from the Maul piece. Because I remember when I was working on Maul. I was researching Marvel and how it reflects things like that.

And one of the pieces that came out was the Pieta, Michelangelo's Pieta. And I remember after, I've been wanting to do a piece of Padme for a while. And I didn't know what, so I was just sketching. And I was sketching trying to find some ideas.

And for some reason, I think I sketched Padme sitting down and kind of similar to Maul, and I was just repeating myself. And then the Pieta came into mind. And then that's when that idea of Padme became more of Anakin. And again, like all my other pieces, it was just that idea.

But I'm always, like I said, I'm always searching for more meaning, more connections and to make a piece a little bit better. When you see the Pieta, you see it in a church, you see it where there's lots of mural paintings, oh, fresh girl paintings. You see it with stained glass because of the church. So there's lots of art and lots of story usually around it.

So that's when that idea came about to put Anakin's story in this stained glass. It took me, it took so long because it wasn't something that I don't usually plan out everything. I usually just kind of go and try to figure it out and try to put as much as I can that makes sense. I wanted to make this a beautiful stained glass, you know, kind of mural.

So I think it away with the details, making sure that everything was right, making sure that everything makes sense, making sure that the characters, it represents what I wanted to represent. And I'm just so happy that when I posted it, people responded to it, responded well to it. It's always very shocking when a piece does well. I guess we're better for a lot of words.

Yeah. Well, there was a time where you thought, oh man, I'm a little more, a little more than I could chew with this piece. Always, always. With the more, with women, we are the slards.

And especially with this one. Because one thing that I struggle with is I don't try to make, I always try not to make busy pieces. But sometimes it's just kind of the idea. It's strong.

And so you just kind of have to bite the bullet. And when you have to do that, I have to find a way to make it a little bit more not as busy and have it to read the way I wanted to. And having a stained glass effect, that means a lot of colors. And I don't want that to overwhelm the centerpiece of the focal point.

And so sometimes I would have to, I would struggle with the colors. I would constantly shift and try to find the right colors in order for it to work with the whole piece itself. And that was something that was always very, very time consuming. Yeah.

No, I'm sure. And I mean, just so much that you can focus on here. But you still come back to that centerpiece of Padme, of course, with that great dress from the Phantom Menace. Anakin, in the Darth Vader, which I would have thought, yeah, I'll be Anakin from Revenge of the Sith, but since in the Darth Vader costume.

And I just love the lightsabers. For some reason, I gravitate to those especially the two that Padme is holding, paints and rays. I don't know. That's something about that.

How did you decide which lightsabers to put in her hand and then betters, both of betters like sabers and Anakin's on the floor? How do you decide who was going to be holding which lightsabers? That's a good, that's a good man with good questions. That one was, to me, with Raya and Luke's lightsaber, it was important for me to have Anakin hold them because he really never got to meet them together.

He did meet them, but not as father and kids. Maybe you can make an argument for Luke, but he never got to be, yeah, it's not the same. He didn't get to be the father that you saw that he wanted to be in the prequels. But so it was important for me to kind of hold that, to make that connection between them.

In a way, it's kind of like saying he's proud of them and he's sorry for what he became. For Padme, I needed to put Ben and Ray's saber in her hand because they represent the future. Everything that Padme worked for the Senate was for the future of the Republic. So what represents the future then her grandson and her, I guess, technically granddaughter produces quite an order, adopted.

But yeah, they represent the future. They were especially Raya represents the future of the Jedi Order. And so I think that connection about was strong with her then with Anakin holding those lights abers. Yeah.

And then you finally let out a huge sigh of relief when you were finished post it out. And like you mentioned, the reception has been great to it and will deserve. But I want to get to this one because I think if it was me, I would still be in shock because we all, we love Star Wars. I like writing.

That's what I do. I just want to my passions. I like writing. I've written different books and I always have in the back of my mind, oh, what if someone wants to buy the rights and make a movie or this book or whatever?

Well, you have this piece called Thank the Maker. And you had a certain email coming from a certain head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, kind of talking about this. So what was that like? First when you saw that email, this is a scam, something's going on.

How was that process? Are you still processing it? In some ways, yeah. Well, this just to be clear, this isn't Kathleen Kennedy that you know, it was the PR department at Lucasfilm.

But it was, it was well, I was in vacation in Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon. And I got a direct message on Twitter from one of the PR people that said that sent me an email. So I was like, okay. So I looked it up and I read it and I was floored that, you know, Kathleen Kennedy saw it and that they actually wanted to relay a message that she appreciated it and things like that.

And it was just mind blowing. I still, I still sometimes throughout the day or every once in a while, I think about, I just, I think Kennedy saw it and she was a print. It's absolutely, it's absolutely crazy. I thought, I think at some point I gave up that she would see it, like she wouldn't see it because I think enough time has passed that that art would probably get buried and yeah, we can't shoot and she'll probably never see it.

But it just floored my mind and the fact that she, you know, wanted me to, she wanted me to, you know, wanted to let me know that she appreciated it. And it was a fantastic, you know, and appreciative part on her behalf, you know. It's kind of, yeah, it's out of this world, especially when somebody that's on top of Lucas, yeah. Do you still have that email go once in a while and read it again?

Yeah, it happened. It happened. I won't lie already. Yes.

You have to. You have to. It's kind of like if Mark Hamill was to tweet or like, you know, people, yeah, you see people who act as writers or directors like or, you know, comment on people's and you think, and they use their mind. So it's the same thing right now.

It's something that is so real and very, very unexpected. Yeah. I sometimes post something about the high republic, for example, and an author would like it or comment back and like, this is it. I'm part of Star Wars now.

So I can imagine if someone that has, it's involved in Star Wars replies to you, but then you have the head of Lucas film. Then you mentioned just, okay, she saw it. She appreciated it enough to send your message through her PR. And then they want to print of this has to be as an artist, not just as a fan, because of course, as a fan will be elated, but also as an artist to be okay.

It's been recognized by someone out there. So it's kind of that double ratification, I guess, right? That's a Star Wars fan and also as an artist. Oh, very much so.

Especially I think at this point, because it's more of the as a Star Wars fan, I kind of like, you know, I'm more happy about it than than as an artist, because you know, this is, you know, she's somebody that through her work has shaped me. You know, we've been through the Indiana Jones, the Gremlins and all that, all the movies that she, you know, helped produce. And so to just have this moment where she says, yeah, I see it and I like it and I want it. It's a real moment that I could, you know, whatever, like down.

Yeah, I'm sure you want. And I'll finish this one. I'm guessing you talk to your family, talk to your wife. The reaction was already tougher.

Okay, that's fine. My wife was really, really, really happy because she knows how much work I put into a piece like this. She's seen me, she sometimes helped me because as an artist, sometimes when you work on something so long, you become blind to something. So she points out things, she helps me like, you know, make the image better.

But yeah, she was really happy and overjoyed. Yeah, it's such a wonderful thing to experience something like this with somebody that, you know, that supports you and she's been 100% supportive throughout this whole thing. Awesome. Right.

I don't have a picture of it. I showed it at the beginning for your intro, but you also gave your art to the Kittana cast that you have a great fundraiser out there for the Northland Foundation. So yeah, if you want to talk a little bit about that, we have a link to it for people to go and support them. They're about a few hundred dollars away from their goal, but that's, again, it's not just for us, we try to elevate others.

I think this is mostly for people of color, women of color to help out from different impressions and things of that nature. So how did you get involved in this part a little bit? You know, Ben, who's an awesome person, just an awesome person, came and contacted me about it. And I was more than happy to kind of lend it because it's such a good cause to help other people, but also to kind of use my art to, you know, for something for a good cause.

So, you know, I was more than happy to lend my art and I'll be more than happy to do it again. If, you know, for a good cause I've done it with the Kittana cast, I also done it with Catching Sabers, where they, I donated two or three prints, I don't remember. And they were raising money to buy books so they can give it to schools and things like that. And I also did it for, oh, Star Wars, sorry I'm blanking my pocket on the names, but yeah, Star Wars, S-W-E.

They have a great thing going for them, if you know who I'm talking about, please go check them out because they also, you know, do a lot of work that's very inclusive to characters of the LGBTQ and also characters that are, you know, minorities. So they do a fantastic thing. I did a little fundraiser with them for this Vegas fundraiser. So yeah, I'm more than happy to lend my work for a good cause to help other people.

Yeah. Yeah, that piece was the Cloud Riders, which has some great female characters in them, and Fissimas, Val and some other great ones. So go check it out, there's a link in the description of this video to go help out the Kittana cast and the Love Love Foundation. So make sure to support everyone.

We need to be able to come up. But you not only do Star Wars and we'll go through this week because at some point we're going to talk about what we came to talk about, which is Star Wars news and bad batch, but again, you don't only do Star Wars fan art, you have done a different type of arts, not just Star Wars, Marvel, young stuff, more, I guess, different styles that you play with if people go to your website, they can check them out. So real quick, what other work type of work can people expect from you? I'm current because the last piece took so long because I'm currently working on something on a special project with other people.

I've been working on this for years now. And now we're in exciting time where this is happening. So hopefully in a few months, we'll release something that will give you guys an idea of what it's about. And hopefully you guys will support it because we're doing a Kickstarter for it as well.

So because we need support, we want to make this thing. And I'm doing it with a lot of people, a lot of people that are different backgrounds. So I'm really, really, really excited about that. So I guess I should say it because it's a short animated film.

So please, so follow and please support it. So when you guys see it. Yeah, we'll be sure to spread the message to support again, Star Wars fans, we're all fans of this. So if we support you for Star Wars, we're not supporting your other ventures out there.

So yeah, animated short, of course, we're going to keep an eye out for that. So I think we got to keep talking about all your art out there. I think we need to get into some Star Wars news out there. So if you guys already know, I'm ready, let's start Star Wars.

Star Wars news. And since it's the end of the month, it's month in review and it's the end of July, July 31. So let's start some Star Wars news. Let me put some.

There we go. Star Wars news, July in review. So biggest news out there, at least for myself, some are huge, high republic fan. It's wave three of the high republic was announced.

Let me say announced during Comic Con at home Friday, the 23rd, the end of phase one of the high republic is approaching with the release of way three early in 2022. And then during an interview that was hosted by Christina Rio with the office of the high republic that titles on the next set of books were announced. And we saw more information about some late wave two books. So we're coming to this in a minute.

But have you been enjoying the high republic? You've been reading and you're still at the end of wave one, wave two? I finished wave one, but I haven't started with two because I'm still reading Jose Daniel's lecture in something fantastic book. But I'm happy to have it.

Hopefully I finished it this week, but I'm so ready to get started on the rising storm. I hear a lot of people, thankfully I haven't got spoiled, but people are expressing some of their feelings about it. Oh man, I'm so excited. Yeah, so rising storm, I don't think I've seen the main spoiler out there, but yes, there are feelings and people are happy with Kevin Scott.

I mean, he's like, I'm not a community with this job. And that makes me so excited. I know. What's the saying?

Well, as you read it, you're okay, this is it. Oh, no, this is it. Oh, it's what's this it? So that I can't wait for you.

And we did a review of it a few weeks ago with Ari Suamina with Maggie, love it. It's a great time with them. So after you read them, go check it out. Oh, absolutely.

Well, yeah, right in stone. That's something else. And then out of the shadows, so I'm reading now, it's great. So I'm still kind of midway through wave two, or the announced wave three, beginning of next year.

And there's really no spoilers in this one. So we'll just go real quick through some of the titles that the authors are going to be doing. And what we know, maybe we might expect because that might spoil some of this stuff, but just give you guys out there an idea what's coming. So the main ones are the fallen star by the great Claudia, great.

That's going to be the main adult novel. We have Charles Sol's doing Eye of the Storm, which is going to be a Marvel comic highlighting the backstory of now little, much more key on road mission to disaster, which is a middle grade by Joseena Arlan. And then Daniel Joseo there is coming with a young adult book called Midnight Horizon that he describes as a chaotic mess. So the thing is these titles, even though they don't spoil any of the story from wave two, do not the best titles if you want the happy ending.

No, the fallen star title has me wondering what the hell happened. Maybe you guys that read already the rising storm maybe have an idea that I do, but that title itself is like, oh my God, what's that going to be about? So first off is Claudia Gray, which if you're a Star Wars book lover, she's always in the top of favorite author. It's just my favorite author.

And a lot of that guys and girls, everyone from the High Republic, all those authors have gone up in Nightly's, because they all don't great stuff with Star Wars. But there's something about Claudia Gray and having heard something titled the fallen star after reading the rising storm, which I don't think the title has anything to do with the rising storm. But there's what is it? The falling star.

A lot of people are talking this is Starlight Beacon. Is it a Jedi that falls? Is it the chance that there is so much that you can read into in this title? And then I can go to that.

A lot of the Jedi and that spoilers for people out there with Mark Yum-Roe taking this Jedi master with him, torturing him and all that. You know things like that, rising storm, if you haven't read it, you've seen people out there having reactions to it. So these are the novels that heal us hard. And I don't know, this is going to be a tough one.

It's been an amazing start from the first wave and I've seen the reaction to the second wave and it just makes me wonder, where are they going to leave off for the third wave? And that's the key thing that has me really curious. This is the end of the third wave. Where is the cliffhanger before they go over the second wave?

I mean to the second wave. There's three faces. So it's going to be a full year of phase one ending in a cliffhanger. Sometimes it's going to break us and there's still two more.

And I don't have it here. I remember they had the titles for each phase and they weren't great either. They weren't the most positive ones. But what have you been enjoying most if it's possible to answer in one with just one thing?

What have you been enjoying most of the Harry Potter so far? It all comes down really to the characters, first and foremost. But beyond that is how different the Jedi are, how the Jedi Order is. Especially compared to when we last saw them in the prequels.

It's such a different take and it's really, really, really exciting to see these characters be a little bit more loose and expressive and maybe even have some relationships. Amongst themselves, like I said, they're having gone into the second wave. But all that stuff is really interesting and questions. Questions to Jedi Order from how they go from this to that.

And it's such an interesting spot. I think that's the thing that I'm joined, the world building. I'm on the same boat. Jedi Order and the Force is my thing.

The Harry Potter does in such a different way from what's different. It's familiar about different from what we know. And if you like that part, the writing stone is going to get you. And Jedi having been more loose with the morals, let's say, is there.

But it's not a way that's not how I told you how it extends for the era. And specifically for those characters. It makes sense that you say all sorts of characters. And it makes sense for those characters where they are in certain ways.

I can't wait for you to get into writing stories and read all that. So then we have like I mentioned, Charles Sol is going to focus on Mark Yumro and his backstory, which is great. He's the big villain out there. There's a little bit in that of the Jedi that he has some relationship or his family has a relationship with the Jedi.

Something happened between the Jedi and his family that has him angry. And this kind of also flows into writing stones. It's very, I'm very interested to find out what that is. And this is from Charles Sol, which is one of the best doing comics out there for Star Wars.

So this one has really interested. Are you liking Mark Yumro as a civilian so far? Yeah, definitely. And a lot of the Jedi towards the middle, I was like, OK, I don't see the appeal of Mark Yumro.

But it was towards the end where you said everything came together. It was like, OK, this isn't just. A-Pong, this is a queen playing the role in the chess pieces. And so I'm really excited about this comic.

And I'm really excited that it's Charles Sol because the light of the Jedi currently is my favorite Star Wars book. So we'll see how he does it and how he takes it. And I can't wait to see who the artist is going to be hopefully capture the Mark Yumro as of him. And yeah, I'm really excited about that.

Yeah, I know some of the other comics right now, the Marvel and I don't have to reach your Mark Yumro. I haven't really gotten to the comics just because I don't have the time to read Tony the comics apart from the novels. But from what I've heard are very good. So but yeah, having Charles Sol who is the one that created this character to now give us his match story is very interesting.

Then we have like I mentioned justina Arlen's gonna be doing mission to disaster, which really no information was given for that one. And this is also doing edge of balance, which is a manga style book that's coming that's coming that's right now. I did a Torah Etsy, she's helping set off some refugees from this great disaster. So that's gonna be interesting.

That's still part of phase two of wave two. So that's coming September 7th. And then the net hostel there has two Midnight Horizon, which is the young adult novel. And he also has a comic book called Tell of Shadows coming out that he destroys us a no or detective comic, moody, dark and complex, which is something we really haven't seen in Star Wars.

It's gonna be pretty interesting. And you're really last shot, which has some sort of kind of detective kind of new art thing for sure. They're chasing this guy and that's doing the weird thing with droids. So nice.

I'm gonna be able to write that in a comic. But in the Star Wars with the Jedi, it's gonna be very interesting also. Yeah, I'm excited for all these. And I love that these are the same artists that are working on phase one, phase two, phase three because it keeps it consistent and all of them are fantastic.

I heard Christina, I read the test of courage, which are absolutely low. And I can't wait to see what Jose Aldo does. This is exciting. Yeah, so, Christina, I mean, Christina, I didn't read anything before.

It's the first book I read from the Harry public. And I fell in love with the characters where Nestle Rose is one of my favorite. She is focused heavily here on Out of the Shadows and I just fell in love with that character. Still love her.

So I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't let you say to see what she does. And also they're the same.

And Kevin Scott doesn't have a main book coming out for wave three, but he does have Monster of Temple Peak with Tyurek, which is a new character that you'll meet in the rising storm. It was said as a graphic novel, but then they divided into four comics and that's coming out in a few weeks, actually August 11th. And then Tempest Runner, which is this audio book for Lorna D, this Tempest from Mark and Row. That's going to be another exciting one.

So very excited for what Kevin's going to be giving us. And if he wants to, that one comes out at the end of August, two more books from Kevin Scott. So if you're really now writing Storm, we're going to get into writing Storm soon. They have two more for Kevin coming in a few weeks.

So if you love Star Wars of the Harry public, I mean, we're being fed like the young people out there, you say. Yeah, it's a wonderful time. This project is just amazing. Yeah, it's something that I was extremely excited when it was announced as Project Luminous, but it has just blown it away and everything so far has been great.

So Harry public man, if you're hesitant because, oh, I like that EU or I don't want to get into Star Wars books, I think the Harry public is a great place to start because it's fresh. You don't need to know any back story, anything. Start from the first one with light of the data and just keep going from there. It's a great way to start.

So I do recommend that way. You want to percent agree? Yeah. All right.

So another thing that was announced at the beginning of the month actually, doing an anime Expo on, let me see what I have. I don't have the date right now. It was our first look at Star Wars vision. So it's this anime inspired new Disney plus Star Wars shorts, it's called Star Wars vision.

It's an anthology series that will be non canonical, but maybe some of the episode might have tie a little bit. There's also an overcoming outcome in that title one of the episodes, all nine episodes will be released in September 22nd on Disney plus we don't know if it's only one season or multiple. So Star Wars vision is this nine different manga studios out there doing nine, I believe Star Wars shorts, animated shorts, which is mind blowing to see Star Wars in these all directions. So when you first heard about Star Wars vision, this was announced month ago when they did that big panel in December or something, were you excited about this?

And then hearing the new titles coming out is it get you more in the mindset for it? Yeah. I'm a big animation fan. So this is something that is really off my alley.

So when I mentioned it, I was really, really excited about it. But I, you know, there was a part of me that just like I didn't quite comprehend what it meant. And so this came out and it just looks absolutely stunning. It looks amazing and fun.

And not only that, but the fact that I have like nine different studios working on, you know, each, on their own story is, I think it's freaking genius because it just to have many different anime styles in this, in this normal bag is just sounds, just sounds, you know, amazing. I don't know why people would be upset over this. Okay. How can you be upset at an image like this?

Exactly. With all two drawings, we're in one of those straw hats. And like Sabre has a sith, she, it looks amazing, like you said. And I understand some people have, oh, it's not, it's a canon.

I think a story like this works better as not being part of any canon. It's nine different studios with their own version of what's taught, which means to them or how they relate to it or whatever. And it just looks freaking awesome. And like you said, it's nine different ones.

So every episode is going to have its own feel and its own kind of way of why the episode, there is not this one story throughout. So I think it's a genius way to go about it. Some of the titles that were announced and I'll show a few more pictures where they might not relate to the titles as I'm talking about it. Tatooine Rhapsody, which is a rock opera that features that was a hard book, a few others.

It just sounds like a fun episode. One thing we don't know if these are shorts, five, ten minutes, 25. We don't know how long this episode is going to be. Love and also it has a space body person that really is bright.

This one sounds very, very fall in july. It's just a bright on her wedding day and unexpected choice. Of course, if you're unexpected choices, the twins, which is inspired by the original stories, twins look at Leia, but here one of them is a sith or one of them is on the dark side. The elder, which is a master and a prentis story with a twist, aka herring described as a beautiful yet painful story about a princess.

T0B1 is a droid who dreams of becoming a july. Again, you have to bring people with different backgrounds to think of stories like this. There's two things of having a story about a droid that wants to become a july, but it makes sense. I just, I don't know, it sounds awesome.

And then these are my two favorite ones just by the description. The ninth july, which is a story with eight people trying to figure out if they are for sensitive and the july are radiant at this point. The final one, that duel, which is a lovely two Star Wars, a Samurai S july and sith, black and white with a species of color on certain elements, which I'm guessing is this one here. But apart from some of those titles and images that we're kind of shown at the beginning of the month, is there any specific episode that really calls for you or are you just waiting for a lot of them to come out?

Yeah, I'm waiting for all of them to come out. There's not specific thing that really attracts me because it just all sounds freaking amazing from the droid to the twins, to what they're doing. The thing that I think I find interesting most is how is this, even though this is a consider canon, how is this going to influence Star Wars, how is it going to challenge it, how is it going to expand on things differently than Lucas and would have originally thought, and it's going to bleed into canon. Are we going to see some of these characters down the line maybe in actual canon?

So I think this is just a really great example of letting people do something and maybe down the line take a little bit from it. And I think that's a great idea to just have it be its own thing and let people run with it. I think there's one story that takes place after the sequel trilogy. I think that's, I don't know which one it is, but that might be the one that's easiest to make it part of canon because it's, it's after what we've just seen.

So it kind of makes sense that you can just run with it. But yeah, some of these stories just sound very interesting and the art behind them is great. Every studio like we mentioned before has a different style behind it. So everyone's going to have a different look.

So I can't wait for this September, whether it's September 22nd or something. Yeah. All nine I drop at the same time. So really, really looking forward to Star Wars vision that when it was announced, we really didn't know anything about it.

But now seeing all those images, I can't wait. Yeah. I can't wait to people when these come out and people talk about it. I want to see what comparisons they make and what people really gravitate to.

Yeah. All right. And this is a little spoiler out there that I mean it's rumors. I do have it as a spoiler here, but the reason I'm going to talk about it because it's things that we expect were going to happen anyways.

There is a bunch of rumors out there for the Kenobi series. I first thought about them, but they're just here saying I didn't want to go too deep. So these are casting rumors for the Ahsoka Disney culture that's coming at some point next year. So we know in Mandalorian season two Ahsoka mentions throne.

Where's your master? Where's your annual throne? If you talk about throne, you're going to talk about Ezra. And if they're building an Ahsoka show, you know that these two characters are going to show up at some point.

And the biggest rumor out there that a lot of us thought was going to happen was who's going to be playing this character? So we might not know where Ezra is at the moment, but we might know who's going to be playing Ezra. So this was reported, and I should put this up there we go. This was reported by L.R.M.

online Latino review movie. I believe it's online that Minama saw will be playing the J.L.F.M. Lotho that was last seen at the end of Star Wars Rebels being pulled into hyperspace by Perm goals, the space whales and taking his adversary Grand Admiral throne with him, who might be playing Grand Admiral throne. The actor who gave life and voice to him, Lawrence Nicholson is supposedly also playing him in live action.

So again, it's even though it's still rumors, I think these are pretty, they're going to happen. You have to have Ezra and throne in the Ahsoka show. And I said it here. I'll say nine months ago, whenever I said they were the first rumors of Ezra being live action.

I said Minama saw, he played Aladdin brilliantly. Everyone says that Ezra is the space Aladdin. It just makes sense. And for the time frame where this is happened, yes.

And then Lawrence Nicholson did a great job with him as a voice actor. He's a great actor from the James Bond movies. And I mean, not James Bond. Where was he?

I know he, I know he just blanked. But he was in House of Cards. He played one of the characters there and some of the movies. But yeah, really excited about these castings.

What are your thoughts about it? And do you want to see these characters in live action? Oh, yes, absolutely. You know, like you said, once you're in the show, you're going to be able to see the character because if you saw Aladdin, you saw Ezra pretty much on screen already.

And so I'm really excited for Mena to play Ezra because I want to see what he brings. I want to see what he does differently from Aladdin because it's basically the same character. And I want to see him stretch his acting muscles, which I'm really, really excited about it. But as far as Lawrence Nicholson playing Ron, I'm not familiar with this work.

And I'm somebody that's not a big fan of casting the voice actors for the show into live action. I'm more of a, you know, let the producers or directors cast what they want. But if this is who they chose for Ron, then maybe they see something that we're not familiar with. We don't see yet.

So I trust them if this is the route they want to go. And yeah, but I'm really, it just makes sense to have Minamazal as well. I can't see anybody else playing. And there were a lot of people out there that could play this character.

But I think, like you said, Minamazal, what he did in Aladdin, I just be preparing for this role. And then Lawrence, for Ron, it's going to be the makeup. It's going to be about the makeup. I'm just going to splash blue paint on Lawrence or it's going to be CGI, a combination with the red eyes, throwing kind of different type of character, just a blue painted human.

I think the facial features of Lawrence Nicholson kind of allow him to play through on what I've seen about his acting. I do think he fits the profile, this cool casual kind of political, even though he's not a political person. But I do think he can pull it off. But it's all going to be about the makeup and the design of Toronto, see if it's believable.

I know just when they did it with Avatar, all these blue aliens out there, I think, 20 years later, Star Wars can do something. True. So like I said, this is rumors still. And I have a fight always with Lucas from Cosine, come from marketing background.

My bachelor degree is in marketing and my master is in advertising. Not that I ever worked a single day either. My path to me is in a different way. But I have this problem with the way that they market and promote their show sometimes.

They keep these mystery bugs so close to their chest and then we have all these leaks and stuff. And telling people, hey, Ezra and throw an Agambina Soka show is not a spoiler because we know that these characters, that's the reason for these shows, these characters. So why is this so much a secret and why don't you just go up in front and tell us these are the people that are going to be playing those characters because that gets stuck in an official way. We don't have to put all these spoilers and stuff.

So I don't know. Do you sometimes get frustrated or do you think that it might be better for them if they kind of lose a little bit when it comes to these types of announcements? Like everyone knew it. Everyone that was going to show up in season two on Mandalore and even though none of them were announced.

Do you think it might be better if they kind of come up front and say, no, of course, I'm telling Lucas coming. But if we know about that, it's going to be there at least that's going to be a Soul Cup cake that a secret. But I don't know, be a little bit more open with what they're trying to do and the stories behind each of the shows. Yeah, I absolutely agree because everybody knows what that's going to happen at the PR kind.

Well, they're not the best. But yeah, I think in this case, Ezra is really well known. And if you know, if you mentioned Tron, you're certainly going to get Ezra. So this is in a secret that should be really kept and it's just going to be in a favor to kind of just say it, to put it out there and get people that are not familiar with Star Wars and these characters to get them kind of interested.

This is the actor that played a lot and that is huge. So if this is true, then put it out there, let the people that enjoy a lot and then enjoy his acting, that enjoy him as a person to kind of be like, hey, interested in maybe install this new Soul Cup show. So yeah, I think it makes sense to keep certain things as tightly as possible. And other things you said towards their advantage, use the actors that played, you know, Vocal Tan, that would have been a good thing to put out there because she's huge and people know her and love her from better star Galactica.

So that's a name that would definitely benefit the Mandalorian from the Technica. That was the one I was about to mention, spoke at times. Tell us that Katie's side of his only playing Volcatan in season two of the Mandalorian. It will have gone nuts.

It was great in her. It was a surprise. But we knew that this season he was searching for Mandalorian. Tell us that one of the most famous Mandalorians out there from Clone Wars and Rebels is going to show up.

We're going to go nuts and have Katie promote this and I'll be all secretive. Come on, it's, we have to. I don't, again, whatever. They're doing fine, but I think they should be a little bit more open.