BB-8 On the Run
Written by Drew Daywalt • Disney Hyperion, 2017
Ever wonder what happened to BB-8 before Rey rescued him? Find out!
Joining a Legacy
Was painting a book for Star Wars intimidating? Yeah. Hard? Yeah. Fun? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When the people at Lucasfilm asked if we'd be into filling in a missing day in the life of BB-8, Drew and I didn't need to think twice. Not that we had time to think twice. When I look back on the challenge of having to paint thirty-eight illustrations in a little less than two months, it makes me wonder why I wasn't totally freaked out. Must have been using the Force.
Scroll down for a peek at some sketches.
Click on any image to enlarge it.
And check out the video below to watch Rey—I mean Daisy Ridley—read the book!
Cellmate • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
Teedo • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
Cover Art • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
Night on Jakku • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
The Ship • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
Almost There • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
Attacked! • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
Rey • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
Safe • Acrylic and Oil on illustration board
First sketch for the cover. Note how much smaller BB-8 is here than in the final art.
Sketch for a spread showing BB-8 about to be captured by Teedo (left) and then being dragged along in the net. Very little changed from this first drawing to final art.
Sketch for The Ship, shown above.
An early sketch showing BB-8 and Fez running into a massive sand worm. The metal-eating birds (shown in Attacked, above) seemed much more chaotic, so we went with them. Note the early version of Fez, too.
Color study for the huge loading droid Fez. Note the different head.
One of the dozen or more designs for Fez, the character shown above in Cellmate. This was the only part of the sketching process that took a lot of time, since we were introducing a new character into the Star Wars lexicon.
If we'd had the luxury of space and words a movie affords, it would have been fun to make Fez bashful about not having any covering below his waist. Here, in an early concept sketch, he covers himself with various found materials.
Teedo studies. He was the most fun to illustrate, with his beer gut. Grog gut?
I wanted to show Teedo blowing steam out of his respirator device, but the publishers were worried it looked too much like a cigar!
And here’s the best reading ever, by Daisy Ridley!