Robin Pronovost
- "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
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
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 Canadian–Australian 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]
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]
"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"
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.[24] The article would be based on a theory originated by[23] Pablo Hidalgo[25] that the Forest Moon of Endor was a "shipwreck colony."[23]
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,[26] a 2000 reference book by Bill Slavicsek,[27] 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[26] the 2003 video game[28] Star Wars Galaxies. The discrepancies were ultimately reconciled within the article[26] 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.[29]
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.[26] "Castaways of Endor" was released on Hyperspace on December 1, 2008.[29] 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.[23]
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 1[5] |
| 1999 | "Star Wars Funnies" | Solo credit | Published in Scholastic's Star Wars Kids 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 8[8] |
| Cancelled | The Essential Guide to Episode I | Species designs | With Daniel Wallace[30] |
| 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[31] |
| 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[32] |
| 2006 | "Drawing an Ewok" | Art tutorial | "Learn to Draw" in Star Wars Kids section[33] |
| 2006 | "Drawing Hammerhead" | Art tutorial | "Learn to Draw" in Star Wars Kids section[34] |
| 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[35] |
| 2008 | "Castaways of Endor"—Hyperspace | Co-writer and artist | With co-writer Daniel Wallace[29] |
| 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[36] |
Other works
| Year | Title | Contribution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 2005 Topps Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith | Artist Sketch Cards[13] | At least 216 cards,[37] not individually named/numbered[13] |
| 2007 | 2007 Topps Star Wars 30th Anniversary | Artist Sketch Cards[14] | At least 161 cards,[37] not individually/numbered[14] |
| 2008 | 2008 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars | Artist Sketch Cards[15] | At least 109 cards,[37] 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,[38] not individually named/numbered[16] | ||
| 2009 | 2009 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars Widevision | Artist Sketch Cards[39] | At least 48 cards,[37] not individually named/numbered[39] |
| 2010 | 2010 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 5 | Artist Sketch Cards[17] | At least 106 cards,[37] not individually named/numbered[17] |
| 2010 | 2010 Topps Star Wars: The Clone Wars Rise of the Bounty Hunters | Artist Sketch Cards[40] | At least 74 cards,[41] not individually named/numbered[40] |
| 2011 | 2011 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 | Artist Sketch Cards[18] | At least 53 cards,[37] not individually named/numbered[18] |
| 2012 | 2012 Topps Star Wars Galactic Files Series 1 | Artist Sketch Cards[19] | At least 47 cards,[37] not individually named/numbered[19] |
| 2015 | 2015 Topps Star Wars Rebels | Artist Sketch Cards[21] | At least 26 cards,[37] not individually named/numbered[21] |
Sources
Notes and references
External links
- Official website (backup link)
Robin Pronovost (artyewok) on DeviantArt
Robin Pronovost (@artyewok) on Facebook
Robin Pronovost (@artyewok) on Instagram
Robin Pronovost (@artyewok) on Twitter
Castaways of Endor sees the light of day on the Jedi Council Forums (Literature board) (backup link)