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"Lab tech by day – artist by night, Robin is like a superhero with amazing powers (Looks good in hats!) and a secret identity, complete with lab coat and glasses. They are a trans-masculine, non binary artist based in the wilds of Canada."
―Robin Pronovost's "About" description on their website[3]

Robin Pronovost is an artist who created Star Wars works from 1999 to 2015. Their art tutorials and artwork were published in Star Wars magazines and the Star Wars Kids section of StarWars.com, and they contributed several hundred Artist Sketch Cards for multiple trading card sets released by Topps.

Pronovost designed the Amaran and bursa species for Daniel Wallace's cancelled reference book The Essential Guide to Episode I. Wallace and Pronovost collaborated again for the Hyperspace article "Castaways of Endor," with Pronovost both illustrating and co-writing.

Biography

Overview of art career

"When I was a kid I loved Return of the Jedi because of the Ewoks. I was a total Ewok nut. My brother, our friends, cousins and I would wrap towels around our heads (like Ewok hoods) and run through the woods with spears. I was always Teebo."
―Robin Pronovost[1]
RobinPronovost-Jaxxon

Art for the tutorial "Drawing Jaxxon"

Robin Pronovost was born in 1975, and their interest in Star Wars began in early childhood. They would play with their cousin's Star Wars toys such as C-3PO and saw Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back during its theatrical release. However, it was Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and the Ewoks featured in the movie that turned them into a fan; they saw that film multiple times in theaters and would play being the Ewok Teebo with other children in their family. Pronovost considered becoming a veterinarian or an animator before becoming a primarily self-taught artist, eventually taking independent classes and going to school for graphic design.[1] Although they are based in Canada,[3] they have dual CanadianAustralian citizenship.[2]

As an artist for Star Wars publications, Pronovost illustrated online features, magazine articles, and trading cards.[3] In 1999, they began contributing artwork to two magazines that shared the title Star Wars Kids.[4][5] Their first contribution was the art for the "Star Wars License Plate Game," which was written by Jef Czekaj and published in both the fifth issue of The Fan Club, Inc.'s series[4] and the first issue of the Scholastic Inc. series launched that year.[5] The game involved placing descriptive phrases for five characters on the blank license plates of their associated vehicle or creature, such as "JEDI NME#1" ("Jedi Enemy #1") for Darth Maul with his speeder bike. Along with Maul, Pronovost's cartoons depicted Anakin Skywalker in his podracer, a B1-Series battle droid riding a STAP, Jabba the Hutt by his sail barge, and a Jawa wrangling a dewback.[4][5] In Scholastic's fourth issue, Pronovost contributed that issue's "Star Wars Funnies," with cartoons of Jar Jar Binks as "Tar Tar Binks" and Sebulba as "SeBULBa."[6] They also contributed the "Star Wars Funnies" feature published in both The Fan Club's eighth[7] and Scholastic's eighth issues,[8] depicting "Lord Sidious" shopping at the "Darth Mall," "Leonard Neimoidian" performing a Vulcan salute, and a toddler "Mini Maul."[7][8]

Beginning in 2005,[9] several art tutorials created by Pronovost were published in the Star Wars Kids section of StarWars.com as[3] "Learn to Draw"[9] and "Star Wars Drawing"[10] features. Their first tutorial was "Drawing Boga," the varactyl ridden by Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.[9] They were also profiled as part of the site's "Artist Series,"[1] and they created a printable Boga mask for Halloween.[11] Another art tutorial, "How to Draw Admiral Ackbar," was published in the "Padawan's Corner" section of the ninety-second issue of the Star Wars Insider magazine in 2007.[12]

AshaDulok-SWG4

Art for the "Night of the Red Ghost" trading card

Pronovost was one of the artists who contributed Artist Sketch Cards to the Topps trading card set 2005 Topps Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.[13] From 2007 to 2012, they contributed several hundred more Artist Sketch Cards for at least one Topps Star Wars trading card set per year.[14][15][16][17][18][19] The base set of 2009 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 4 also included their artwork on the card "Night of the Red Ghost," which featured the Ewok Asha preparing to strike a Dulok with a slingshot. In Pronovost's quote on the card, they said, "I chose to show Asha protecting the woods from Dulok poachers. She is known as the 'Red Ghost' and is perceived by the Duloks as a forest spirit, rather than an Ewok, due to her ferocity. I really love Ewoks, and while the cartoon series was lighthearted for the most part, the Asha episode was serious and touching, for the most part."[20]

In 2015, they produced a final sketch subset for 2015 Topps Star Wars Rebels.[21] Since their last work for Star Wars,[3] they have become a medical laboratory technologist.[22]

Amaran and bursa designs

"Early during the writing of the Essential Guide to Episode I, I came across a George Lucas reference that the Gungans may have kept an army due to a past conflict with "bear-like creatures." Thinking this would be a cool thing to flesh out, I asked [Robin] Pronovost to come up with some designs. [Their] creature, the bursa, didn't make it into this product but did appear as a dangerous antagonist in the computer game Galactic Battlegrounds, and as a lavishly-illustrated beastie in the beautiful Wildlife of Star Wars. (Another of [Robin's] designs for the Essential Guide, the fox-like Amarans, also made it into the Wildlife book.)"
―Daniel Wallace[23]

While author Daniel Wallace was working on The Essential Guide to Episode I, an announced reference book that was in development from 1999 to 2000, he requested that Pronovost design the bursa species based on one of George Lucas's undeveloped notes that a past conflict between the Gungans and "bear-like creatures" may have led the Gungans to maintain an army. Pronovost also designed the Amaran species for the planned book[23] when Wallace requested a fox alien species. The pair decided that this species should be called Amarans after "Amara," Pronovost's fox fursona that they had created as a university student[24] and named after the character Amara from The New Mutants comic books.[25]

Amaran concept art

The original concept art for the Amarans

The book was eventually cancelled, but Pronovost's work inspired the canonical Expanded Universe depictions of Amarans and bursas in The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide,[26] a 2001 reference book which was illustrated and co-written by Terryl Whitlatch.[27] Whitlatch's version of bursas also appeared in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds,[23] a video game released in the same year.[28] Pronovost later shared their original Amaran designs and non-canonical backstory on their blog for personal use in roleplaying games.[26]

Although it was noted on the Wookieepedia article for Amarans that there appeared to be a connection between the species and Pronovost's character Amara Fox,[29] the artist previously denied it[30] and would claim that it was coincidental. Their denials were due to concerns that attitudes towards the furry fandom would result in negative impacts on their professional career. When this did not occur as they had feared, they subsequently shared the truth through a series of tweets.[24]

"Castaways of Endor"

"Eight years ago, Dan Wallace approached me with an awesome idea - co writing an article about the inhabitants of the forest moon of Endor, based on Pablo's shipwreck colony theory. Being the [E]woks fan I am, I accepted and by [F]ebruary 2001, the article was approved, we had illustration pitch sketches out and then Star Wars Gamer ceased publication. D'oh."
―Robin Pronovost, in a 2008 blog post about "Castaways of Endor"[31]
Wistie and Ewoks

Wisties play with Ewoks in artwork from Castaways of Endor.

Beginning in 2001, Pronovost and Wallace collaborated again on writing the article "Castaways of Endor," with Pronovost also providing illustrations for the story. The Ewoks cartoon was a favorite of both growing up, and they developed information and roleplaying details for several species, such as the Duloks, Jindas, dandelion warriors, and tree goats. The pair drew inspiration from the ongoing feature The University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life in the magazine Star Wars Gamer.[32] The article would be based on a theory originated by[31] Pablo Hidalgo[33] that the Forest Moon of Endor was a "shipwreck colony."[31]

Pronovost was largely responsible for the sections on the Duloks and the Jindas. In researching the latter, Pronovost discovered that A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded,[34] a 2000 reference book by Bill Slavicsek,[35] had described the Jinda leader Bondo as an Ewok despite numerous visual differences between the two species in the Ewoks cartoon. Additionally, Jindas were depicted with Ewok models in[34] the 2003 video game[36] Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. The discrepancies were ultimately reconciled within the article[34] by establishing that the Jindas seen in Ewoks were just one tribe out of several non-Endorian species that had been stranded on Endor, and that some stay-at-home Ewoks used the term "Jinda" as a disparaging term for Ewoks who were nomadic.[37]

According to Wallace, the pair pitched the article for the Star Wars Insider and it was rejected, then it was repackaged for Star Wars Gamer prior to that magazine's cancellation; another Insider pitch was attempted before StarWars.com purchased it as a Hyperspace exclusive.[34] "Castaways of Endor" was released on Hyperspace on December 1, 2008.[37] In a StarWars.com blog post, Pronovost wrote that during the eight years it went unpublished, the article was in limbo in their e-mail archives and survived two hard drive crashes.[31]

Works

Bibliography

Year Title Contribution Notes
1999 "Star Wars License Plate Game" Art[4][5] Published in The Fan Club's Star Wars Kids 5[4] and Scholastic's Star Wars Kids (1999) 1[5]
1999 "Star Wars Funnies" Solo credit Published in Scholastic's Star Wars Kids (1999) 4[6]
2000 "Star Wars Funnies" Solo credit[7][8] Published in The Fan Club's Star Wars Kids 8[7] and Scholastic's Star Wars Kids (1999) 8[8]
Cancelled The Essential Guide to Episode I Species designs With Daniel Wallace[23]
2005 "Drawing Boga" Art tutorial "Learn to Draw" feature in the section Star Wars Kids on StarWars.com[9]
2005 "Drawing Tarfful" Art tutorial "Learn to Draw" in Star Wars Kids section[38]
2005 "Revenge of the Halloween Masks" Printable mask "Crafts & Projects" in Star Wars Kids section; Halloween mask of Boga[11]
2006 "Drawing Kit Fisto" Art tutorial "Learn to Draw" in Star Wars Kids section[39]
2006 "Drawing an Ewok" Art tutorial "Learn to Draw" in Star Wars Kids section[40]
2006 "Drawing Hammerhead" Art tutorial "Learn to Draw" in Star Wars Kids section[41]
2007 "How to Draw Admiral Ackbar" Art tutorial "Padawan's Corner" feature in Star Wars Insider 92; tutorial for Admiral Gial Ackbar[12]
2007 "Drawing Gonk the Power Droid" Art tutorial "Learn to Draw" in Star Wars Kids section[42]
2008 "Castaways of Endor"—Hyperspace Co-writer and artist With co-writer Daniel Wallace[37]
2009 "Drawing Biohazard Suit Jar Jar" Art tutorial "Star Wars Drawing" in Star Wars Kids section[10]
2010 "Drawing Jaxxon" Art tutorial "Star Wars Drawing" in Star Wars Kids section[43]

Other works

Year Title Contribution Notes
2005 2005 Topps Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Artist Sketch Cards[13] At least 216 cards,[44] not individually named/numbered[13]
2007 2007 Topps Star Wars 30th Anniversary Artist Sketch Cards[14] At least 161 cards,[44] not individually/numbered[14]
2008 2008 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars Artist Sketch Cards[15] At least 109 cards,[44] not individually named/numbered[15]
2009 2009 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 4[16] "Night of the Red Ghost"[20] Base series card of Asha and a Dulok;[20]
Artist Sketch Cards[16] At least 100 sketch cards,[45] not individually named/numbered[16]
2009 2009 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars Widevision Artist Sketch Cards[46] At least 48 cards,[44] not individually named/numbered[46]
2010 2010 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 5 Artist Sketch Cards[17] At least 106 cards,[44] not individually named/numbered[17]
2010 2010 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars Rise of the Bounty Hunters Artist Sketch Cards[47] At least 74 cards,[48] not individually named/numbered[47]
2011 2011 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 Artist Sketch Cards[18] At least 53 cards,[44] not individually named/numbered[18]
2012 2012 Topps Star Wars Galactic Files Series 1 Artist Sketch Cards[19] At least 47 cards,[44] not individually named/numbered[19]
2015 2015 Topps Star Wars Rebels Artist Sketch Cards[21] At least 26 cards,[44] not individually named/numbered[21]

Sources

Wiki-shrinkable
Explore all of Wookieepedia's images for this article subject.

Notes and references

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 StarWars Star Wars Artist Series: Pronovost on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  2. 2.0 2.1 TwitterLogo Robin Pronovost (@artyewok) on Twitter: "2016 marks 20 years since I left Australia. Did you know I'm a dual Aussie/Canuck citizen" (backup link)
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 About by Pronovost, Robin on Art by Robin Pronovost (archived from the original on October 21, 2020)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Star Wars Kids 5 (1998)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Star Wars Kids (1999) 1 (1999)
  6. 6.0 6.1 Star Wars Kids (1999) 4 (1999)
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Star Wars Kids 8 (1998)
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Star Wars Kids (1999) 8 (1999)
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 StarWars Drawing Boga on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  10. 10.0 10.1 StarWars Drawing Biohazard Suit Jar Jar on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  11. 11.0 11.1 StarWars Revenge of the Halloween Masks on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  12. 12.0 12.1 SWInsider "How to Draw Admiral Ackbar" — Star Wars Insider 92
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 Topps logo 2005 Topps Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith – Artist Sketch Cards
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Topps logo 2007 Topps Star Wars 30th Anniversary – Artist Sketch Cards
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Topps logo 2008 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Artist Sketch Cards
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Topps logo 2009 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 4 – Artist Sketch Cards
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Topps logo 2010 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 5 – Artist Sketch Cards
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 Topps logo 2011 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 – Artist Sketch Cards
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 Topps logo 2012 Topps Star Wars Galactic Files Series 1 – Artist Sketch Cards
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 Topps logo 2009 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 4 (Card: Night of the Red Ghost) (backup link)
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 Topps logo 2015 Topps Star Wars Rebels – Artist Sketch Cards
  22. Greetings fellow lab folk! by Pronovost, Robin on Art by Robin Pronovost (August 4, 2020) (archived from the original on March 5, 2021)
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 StarWarsDotComBlogsLogoStacked "Lostwords: The Essential Guide to Episode I" — Continuity, Criticisms, and Captain PanakaDaniel Wallace's StarWars.com Blog (backup link)
  24. 24.0 24.1 TwitterLogo Robin Pronovost (@artyewok) on Twitter: "Happy 20th Anniversary to The Wildlife of Star Wars and, by association, the birth of the Amarans, the fox aliens I designed. Here is a hilarious story about their genesis. A lot of this is in the wookieepedia article, but without my ADHD rambling. Strap in folks. 1/?" (backup link) (thread)
  25. TwitterLogo Robin Pronovost (@artyewok) on Twitter: "Fun fact, I named Amara after Amara from the New Mutants comics because I am a gigantic nerd." (backup link)
  26. 26.0 26.1 Amarans Backstory and History by Pronovost, Robin on Art by Robin Pronovost (January 31, 2010) (archived from the original on January 23, 2021)
  27. The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide
  28. Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
  29. Wiki-shrinkable Amaran on Wookieepedia, revision at 10:39 UTC, 20 August 2005, by user JustinGann
  30. Wiki-shrinkable Amaran on Wookieepedia, revision at 22:55 UTC, 9 July 2006, by Robin Pronovost as an unregistered user
  31. 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 StarWarsDotComBlogsLogoStacked "Castaways of Endor" — Pronovost's Artyewoktastic BlogRobin Pronovost's StarWars.com Blog (backup link)
  32. StarWarsDotComBlogsLogoStacked "'Castaways of Endor,' New Article on StarWars.com" — Continuity, Criticisms, and Captain PanakaDaniel Wallace's StarWars.com Blog (backup link)
  33. TwitterLogo Robin Pronovost (@artyewok) on Twitter: "It is M. Hidalgo!" (backup link)
  34. 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 JCF-favicon Castaways of Endor sees the light of day on the Jedi Council Forums (Literature board) (backup link)
  35. A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
  36. LucasArtsIcon LucasArts Announces Star Wars Galaxies™: An Empire Divided™Will Release June 26, 2003 on LucasArts.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  37. 37.0 37.1 37.2 HyperspaceIcon "Castaways of Endor" on Hyperspace (article) (content removed from StarWars.com and unavailable)
  38. StarWars Drawing Tarfful on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  39. StarWars Drawing Kit Fisto on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  40. StarWars Drawing an Ewok on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  41. StarWars Drawing Hammerhead on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  42. StarWars Drawing Gonk the Power Droid on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  43. StarWars Drawing Jaxxon on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
  44. 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 44.4 44.5 44.6 44.7 Star Wars Sketch Cards by Pronovost, Robin on Art by Robin Pronovost (archived from the original on April 10, 2021)
  45. 2009 Star Wars Galaxy Series 4 Sketches #NNO Pronovost on Beckett.com (archived from the original on November 21, 2021)
  46. 46.0 46.1 Topps logo 2009 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars Widevision – Artist Sketch Cards
  47. 47.0 47.1 Topps logo 2010 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars Rise of the Bounty Hunters – Artist Sketch Cards
  48. 2010 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars- Rise of the Bounty Hunters - Sketch #NNO Pronovost on Trading Card Database (archived from the original on November 21, 2021)

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