The first three are my return cards. If you’d like to put one on hold, just fire me an email. The others will be inserted randomly into packs.

Steve Sansweet with helmet. Click for bigger

When Celebration V hit and my Ewok Trooper helmet made $900 (!) for Make-A-Wish foundation, I’d been wondering who the awesome and mysterious person was who purchased the helmet.

Well, it turns out that good ol’ Steve Sansweet (Who will sadly be leaving Lucasfilm in the spring ) purchased the Ewok trooper and he has let me know it will have a very good home. I don’t doubt it Steve has many awesome Ewok things that I am unbelievably jealous about (like a first cast of the unproduced Chief Chirpa cartoon action figure.. *grabby hands*) that have very good homes.

He sent me a photo as well! Thanks a ton, Steve.

I have an enormous issue with this, and not just because I draw Star Wars stuff. I actually think the whole girl/boy line in the sand has gotten too solid. Making everything pink to appeal to girls is sickening in itself.

Anyhoo, about this girl.

Bullying over something as silly as what a girl likes is ridiculous. Especially at such a young age.

While there are a ton of strong female characters in the Star Wars galaxy, girls can like Star Wars for anything. The story, the ‘splosions, the droids and action. I loved Boba Fett when I was Katie’s age. He was my absolute favourite character. When Return of the Jedi came out I was Ewok AND Boba Fett crazy.

Boys and girls would play together. It was awesome. Care bears and Cabbage Patch kids were also marketed as gender neutral toys.

Aayla Secura - a strong female character

Go support Katie, let her know the boys are being silly and that the people who market things to girls by making them pink are silly, too.

The photo accompanying this post is me, at 11, wearing a pink PJ set (That matched the PJs for my cabbage patch kid, my younger brother had the same PJs, but not pink, including the PJs for HIS cabbage patch kid) with my GT Snoracer and the Grimlock Transformers action figure I wanted more than anything else in the world. I still have Grimlock. When i asked for the transformer I was not told ‘Those are for Boys’.

Parents, kids, everyone, let’s go back to that. The child has a gender, the toys do not.

Cnet has my helmet featured in the photo gallery on this post (With my name misspelled, but I have sent an email to the author)

Starwars.com featured my helmet and a bunch of other sweet ones in their artist roundup!

For those of you who missed it, this is the helmet I customized for the 501st project – for Make A Wish foundation!

Here are a couple of fun pieces. One is a commission of Yoda, and the other is a bookmark I’ll be selling once I get my hands on a laminator.

How to Draw Jaxxon - Starwars.com

Here is the full final piece:

And, hey kids! Download a larger version of the inks, print it out and colour it in.

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Materials used:

• Ceramcoat paint (lots and lots)
• Pigeon feathers (picked up off the ground)
• leather cord
• dollar store faux tribal necklace for the beads
• Air dry clay
• faux suede (I wanted another colour, but it was on for next to nothing a yard, and this was all they had left)

Check out the 501st project site for more details!

The Amarans

Physical Appearance

Amarans are small, vulpine aliens, 3.5-4 feet tall. They are digitigrades with long, slender arms and legs and a lithe, sinewy body. Their tails are long and fluffy and serve as a counter balance as they move, making them very agile. An Amaran’s tail is a source of pride, and they are always well groomed. They have four digits on their hands and feet.

Their fur colour ranges from white, to orange to black, with the most common colours being a yellow-orange, grey and white. The usual eye colour for Amarans is black, but green, blue and red eyes are also seen. Their faces are long and slender, lending to their sleek appearances.

Gender dimorphism

Female Amarans are slightly smaller than males, and males have slightly broader shoulders. For the mostpart, they are very similar in size. Females do not have visible mammaries unless they are nursing young. Amarans generally give birth to one pup and they reach adulthood at about 18 standard years.

Characteristics of Amarans

Amarans are, in general, a fairly playful race and are sly and shrewd, making them excellent traders, pilots and con artists. Of course, as with all races, there are variations, but Amarans love nothing more than to trick or play their way through various situations and they enjoy fine food, fine wine and clothes made of the finest materials. Amarans have an uncanny knack for taming beasts, even ferocious ones that are much larger than they are. Some Amarans are force sensitive and have served as Jedi Knights, but an Amaran with the discipline to go through Jedi Training is a very rare beast indeed and Amaran Jedi Knights are seen as curious oddities by their fellow, more playful, bretheren.

Amarans in the galaxy

Amarans are usually found in the galaxy as traders. Their primary trade is on Naboo, where they tame and sell the local wildlife to Gungans, offworlders and the Naboo people. As Naboo is teeming with life, this is very lucrative of them and Naboo is a second home to the Amarans, where they have a settlement on the edges of the swamp. The Amarans are the reason the fierce Bursa of Naboo is not extinct. The Gungans nearly wiped out the species, which is now extinct in the wild, but the Amarans spearheaded a breeding program and have established a Bursa sanctuary well out of the way of any Gungan settlement.

Other than beast tamers, Amarans can be found as pilots, fast-talking con artists, gamblers or just as travelers. Amarans worship the stars and love nothing more than to be among them.

Amaran Homeworld and technology

The Amaran homeworld, Amar, is located in Mid rim, near the outer rim – between Naboo and Zhar. It is a world lush with forests, plains and vast bodies of water. It has a climate similar to Naboo, which explains the Amaran love for their sister planet. Like Naboo, Amar is teeming with life which the Amarans manage with great reverence, ensuring that their wildlife trade does not interfere with the balance of the planet. Laws are in place to prevent poaching and poachers, both Amaran or offworlders, are severely punished with fines and imprisonment.  Even the Amaran cities, mines and resource collection are constructed and operated as non-invasively as possible. Amarans have tamed many of their local species, such as the Vrrryyyk, a flying reptilian bird like species which Amarans enjoy riding more than they like flying actual spacecraft.

Other than Wildlife and Amaran art, Amaran exports include food, ore, textiles and energy crystals.

Amarans are fairly technologically advanced and had developed limited, and primitive, hyperspace capabilities which lead to them discovering Naboo. After the language barrier was broken, the Naboo and Amarans established trade relations and the exchange of technology, which opened the galaxy up to the Amarans, who have been exploring since.

Amaran Religion

Amarans worship the stars and their moon. An Amaran creation myth is that the moon, Rurrri, was lonely and one day came to the land as a white fox-like creature. He was very lonely and wept through the night. When the sun came up, she took pity on Rurri and she, Surru, came down as a golden Amaran. It is said on Amar that the stars are the children of Rurri and Surru.

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Here are my Star wars Galaxy 5 sketch cards, allllll of them. These first six outside the cut are my returns. I am not preselling, but if you’re interested in putting one on hold, drop me a line.

I hope you like ‘em

More behind the break…