"May the Fourth be with you"

Happy Star Wars day everyone, this is a bit of a sudden quantum leap as it may appear, but I was hard at work a couple days ago playing with a lot of the schemes by which I do full color art like this. Lots of techniques I've picked up from painting and watching some of my favorite artists draw have been put into making this a reality. So Hopefully you like how the new color art looks, this is a lot ahead of schedule I have two other color images that will come up later once I get to them past the mountain of sketches.

Ark has come a long way over the years, and wow do differences really stand out. My previous Star Wars day picture for ark was Imperial Ace and a picture of Ark as a Tie Defender pilot for the Empire. He's jumped a bit back in time for this one, and is fighting with his plastic boys once again, but this time as an Advanced Recon Commando. I tried my best to make it be similar to the original Mk I Clone Commando armor from the old 2003 clone wars animated clips, because those were my first real exposure to ARC troopers and I thought they were awesome. Right down to the inclusion of the collar armor and kama, I don't know why I liked the clones wearing a skirt so much, I guess I always viewed it as a waist cape more than a skirt. Yes Ark troopers wouldn't have had lightsabers, but maybe he's a Jedi who attached himself to an ARC trooper unit. Leading his commando clones deep into separatist lines to cut off crucial droid supplies and intelligence. And yes, even the Green blade was selected based on the "Peace when possible, but force when necessary". Opting for jedi mind tricks, and subterfuge over outright combat. Probably why I enjoy Tau so much in 40K, you can happily join the super power and benefit the many, or if you refuse we will make your empire crumble under our precision strikes.

Had a lot of fun drawing this one and you can really tell how much things have advanced in terms of color and detail since "Imperial Ace". While the 'sharp' detail of things like the hangar background may be dropped, the actual detail and composure of the background I think is miles better. Lots of little accents, lighting and color improvements, even using lighting to make it look like the dismembered droid on the floor is still sparking from being cut in half.

Hope everyone enjoys the pic as much as I did making it.

art © ArcticFox7(2)