Terese Nielsen - Fantasy Artist, Star Wars, MtG and Angel Art

French Magazine Features Terese Nielsen's Star Wars Minis Art

The French Star Wars Magazine recently printed an article related to several of the most recent Star Wars images that I've done for the miniatures line.  They also featured my Padme Amidala print, created for Star Wars Celebration IV.

Thanks so much for the press, Directeur de la Publication!

It reminded me of my trip to Paris in 2006 . . . MTG Worlds was held in the Louvre.  I had SUCH a memorable trip!  And true to form, I even fell in love with a beautiful Parisian!  We met on the 4th floor of the Hotel du Louvre . . .

Je t'adore, M'sieur Sharpier! (photo album of me and my French lover)

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StarWars.com Features Terese in an Interview, "War Nouveau: The Art of Terese Nielsen"

Most of you have seen some of the illustrations I've been painting for the Star Wars miniatures packages. Here's a brand new trio of images for the next set entitled The Clone Wars that is slated for  release on November 11th. I had the privilege of being interviewed by Pete Vilmer from StarWars.com. You can read the entire article at StarWars.com. Here's the first couple of paragraphs:

"One of the perks of working at Lucasfilm is getting to select a few pieces from Lucas' vast artwork collection to display around one's workspace. With Lucas Online's recent move into a new building with empty walls, the staff was able to choose from a collection of recently acquired paintings, illustrations, and photography to hang in and around the offices. As luck would have it, Terese Nielsen's original paintings for Wizards of the Coast's Legacy of the Force miniatures collection had just become available, which I and others immediately snatched up to display around the Online office.

Nielsen had first grabbed our attention with an elegant Padmé illustration she'd composed for Celebration IV, memorable for its decidedly Art Nouveau style and stunning depiction of the sultry blaster-packing senator. Padmé was soon followed by several more highly-stylized portraits of Star Wars denizens courtesy of Nielsen's work for Wizards of the Coast, who tapped her to illustrate the packaging for their new line of Star Wars gaming miniatures."

** Check out Terese's other Star Wars related posts.
** View Terese's Star Wars gallery on TereseNielsen.DeviantArt.com!
** See the video demo of Terese adding gold leaf to a Padmé print.

Obi-Wan Kenobi - Star Wars Miniatures: Knights of the Old Republic Packaging Art

Next up in the Knights of the Old Republic set is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I wasn't given a whole lot of direction on this one, other than to portray a young version of him with his lightsaber lit up. And, speaking of lightsabers. I just installed a new application on my iPhone called "PhoneSaber". You get to pick what color of lightsaber you want, and then as you swing your phone around, it emits all the familiar lightsaber sound effects. Yup, it's a total geek fest and I just couldn't resist trying it out. If you see me at Comicon, feel free to ask for a demo. 

Now, back to Obi-Wan. The art director provided me with background info and a link related to Obi-Wan.  From there I shot reference of various poses that I thought might work, and then jumped on into the sketch process. I would show you the reference photos, but I just don't think you need to see me in a fuzzy pink bathrobe, black boots from Hot Topic and a long fluorescent light tube for a saber. I'll only humiliate myself up to a certain point. The sketch was approved and I went ahead with painting it. The size of the final painting was 8 x 17" and created using acrylics and colored pencils, no oil in this one.

 
 

ART DESCRIPTION:
Obi-Wan (A young Padawan version)

Personality and traits:
In his youth (circa 32 BBY), the loyal and dedicated Kenobi possessed a dry sense of humor and sarcastic wit. Yoda said that he sensed Qui-Gon's defiance in him, but spoke very highly of him nonetheless. Qui-Gon himself reflected upon Kenobi's considerable knowledge and potential. Despite having been apprenticed to the radical Qui-Gon Jinn, Kenobi was relatively orthodox in his views.
As a young Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan was cynical, though wise beyond his years. His humble and soft-spoken demeanor belied his warrior prowess. Despite his numerous complaints during flight, he was also a quite skilled pilot. In many ways, he represented the strength of the old Jedi Order: steadfast, selfless, and modest. His later skill at resolving disputes without a single battle would earn him the sobriquet The Negotiator.
Over time, Kenobi lost some of his youthful audacity and assumed the role of a more cautious and conservative mentor to Anakin Skywalker, who was in many ways his opposite in personality. Kenobi carefully measured his actions in any situation, garnering him the aforementioned nom de guerre. Kenobi was also known to be an accomplished story teller. While hiding in the Jundland Wastes in his later years, he appeared as a kindly and eccentric old hermit (or, in Owen Lars' words, a "crazy old wizard") to those not familiar with the ways of the Jedi. In his final days, Kenobi retained his traits of patience and foresight as well as gaining some of the boldness reminiscent of his youth.

These booster packs will be available to buy August 8th! My next Star Wars post will feature Mandalore the Ultimate. Stay tuned for that. And by all means, if you have questions or comments please post them!

** Buy Original Star Wars Paintings (don't forget the Sketches!)
** Check out Terese's other Star Wars related posts.
** View Terese's Star Wars gallery on TereseNielsen.DeviantArt.com!

Darth Malak- Star Wars Miniatures: Knights of the Old Republic Packaging Art

"Go ahead, make my day." O.k., so Mr. Malak didn't actually say that, but that was the attitude I was going for. And you know, if I got my lower jaw ripped off and had to accessorize myself around that clunky muzzle everyday, I'd have attitude issues too. I have to hand it to him though, he knows how to compensate for minor setbacks. Darth Malak sports a serious set of pecs doesn't he? Probably one of those guys huffing away in the gym that spends all of their time on the top half, thinking girls only look at chests and arms.

So at this point, it may be obvious that I know far less about this character than everyone reading this...I'll move on to the information I was given when Wizards of the Coast asked me to illustrate him.

The art director provided me with the description below some reference images and a link to Wookieepedia.

ART DESCRIPTION:

Personality:
Malak was a bald, pale-skinned human who stood at an impressive two meters in height. His head was adorned with tattoos, and later in his life a large metal shield covered his face from the nose down. The shield was a prosthetic made necessary by a ghastly lightsaber injury that completely severed his lower jaw, which occurred at an unknown point in his life (possibly after he went to war and fell to the dark side as in the Jedi Exile's visions from the cave he had no injury to the face). A portion of this device allowed Malak to talk, but his voice now reverberated with a gruff electronic tone creating a very disconcerting effect since his jaw prosthesis didn't move. When Malak spoke, the only hint of emotion came from his cruel, sunken eyes.

During his time as Dark Lord of the Sith, Malak wore a set of skin-tight red-orange body armor that showed off his powerful and imposing physique, draped in a cape of black cloth. He was also thought to have had in his possession a powerful Sith sword recovered from Korriban, although he rarely used it in combat. Darth Malak also used a special lightsaber that produced a red blade, longer than the one produced by standard sabers.

I created the sketch which was submitted to Lucas for approval. The folks there didn't require any changes or additions so I went ahead with the final. I still prefer painting traditionally. The medium I used was primarily acrylics with a little colored pencil, and some final touches of oil here and there. The size of the finished piece is 8"x17".

I'll be adding this painting, as well as the sketch, to my website in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, if anyone is a huge Darth Malak fan and has a special place on their wall for the original art or sketch please feel free to email me for the purchase price information.

As for the actual miniatures, last I heard, these booster packs are slated to come out August 8th. The other two box illustrations in this series feature Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mandalore the Ultimate. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on both of those. And by all means, if you have questions or comments please post them!

** Buy Original Star Wars Paintings (don't forget the Sketches!)
** Check out Terese's other Star Wars related posts.
** View Terese's Star Wars gallery on TereseNielsen.DeviantArt.com!

Darth Talon - Star Wars Miniatures: Legacy of the Force Packaging Art

I know!
I think she is too. What could be hotter than a red-skinned chick with tattoos adorning every inch of her body, minimal clothes and two curvalicious tentacles swinging from the back of her head... o.k. well, somehow she still looks good.

So this is the third packaging illustration for the brand new Star Wars Miniatures: Legacy of the Force line. Illustrating bad-ass, sexy, strong women really works for me, so I liked this assignment. I wasn't very familiar with Darth Talon other than the piece that Jan Duursema did of her for Star Wars Celebration IV. Paul (the art director) did provide me with reference as well as some background info on her from Wookiepedia.

This is the art description Paul gave me:

ART DESCRIPTION: Darth Talon

This lady has a killer body with a killers focus. A stare without emotion. Lightsaber in hand. Beautifully evil. Pose? Not sure, lets talk about your thoughts on her.

I shot some photos for reference (sorry, I'm not brave enough to share this round of pics) and worked up the sketch. The sketch was approved as is, and I went from there directly to the final painting.

I scanned in the sketch printed it out on archival Epson Velvet paper, wet stretched it, taped off the edges, and started slinging paint. I do enjoy this phase of a painting. It's the time to obliterate the whiteness of the board and establish the general color scheme in a loose quick way.

Using acrylic washes I can create interesting textures by splattering paint with a variety of colors using dribbly, messy brushes and it's 'all good' at this stage... kind of hard to mess it up right here. Sometimes at this beginning stage I light candles, draw a pentagram on the floor, and channel Jackson Pollock.

After the initial washes are done, it's just a matter of building up the dark and light areas with acrylic and oil. I usually shift to oil when I want a smooth blended area and don't want to fight with how fast the acrylics are drying, but there are no hard and fast rules here. I just kind of layer it up as I go.

If I feel like  I'm mostly done with acrylics, then often I'll cover the whole piece with gloss medium and then slide around with oils on top of it after it's dried. This allows the oil to move around on the glossy surface much easier than if I'm just painting on top of the untreated paper. Obviously, paper "sucks" the oil right out of the brush and one needs a lot more medium to move oil around on raw paper.  So that's how oil on top of acrylic works.

In case you are wondering how acrylic sits on top of oil, and you should, keep reading. If, for some reason, I want to shift back to acrylic after I've used oil (thin oil, not big gobs of it) I usually heat the oil on my painting with a hair dryer for a bit (baking  it some) and then seal it with a couple generous layers of Crystal Clear.

After that, you can paint acrylic on top. If you find you're having trouble with the acrylic "beading up" on top of the Crystal Clear layer, then that's because you did it all wrong.  LOL *joking* (sorry I'm in a feisty mood today)

All you need to do is mix a wee bit of soap (any kind) in your brush and voilå, it sticks with no beading up or repelling the paint. Is anyone confused yet? I promise my paintings hold together just long enough to tiptoe across the room and lay them gently on my scanner.

Seriously, in case any collectors are reading this, I've yet to see any of my paintings fall apart.  : ) 

** Buy Original Star Wars Paintings (don't forget the Sketches!)
** Check out my other Star Wars related posts.
** View my Star Wars gallery on TereseNielsen.DeviantArt.com!