Darth Vader

So it's been quite a while since I last drew something for myself. Something that wasn't for a client or to pitch an idea. I had been watching a lot of Star Wars recently as well as playing the Star Wars Lego game (absolutely love it) and decided it had been a while since I tried to draw any Star Wars characters.

I knew the piece I wanted to draw, but having recently put my comics in storage I couldnt find the actual image. All of that led me to my search online. The above piece is a recreation of a great Star Wars Tales cover. Star Wars Tales was a very well-written Dark Horse anthology series. It told lots of the in-between off camera moments in the Star Wars mythos. This story happened to take place on cloud city where after 3PO gets blasted by Storm Troopers, Vader gives the order not to have him destroyed, but rather placed in the cell with Chewie. Knowing full well that Chewie will repair this robot that Darth created on Tattooine years earlier. It was a very tenderly written story which humanized the character of Vader a lot more than in an of the films. The above piece was the cover for the issue. It was a iconic pose that stuck with me for years.

The pencils took quite a bit of time. The detail in the arm, hands, and head is very intricate. My guess would be a little over 2 hours. The inking is a whole other story. Probably another 2+ hours. Making this image clock in at close to 4.5 hours... phew, quite a task, but an image that I'm really proud of.