Chris Trevas Christopher J . Trevas has been an official " Star Wars " artist since 1995 . He began as an illustrator for West End Games ' s " " , producing artwork for publications such as " Heroes & Rogues " , the " Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook " , " Instant Adventures " , and the " Star Wars Adventure Journal " . He has contributed to numerous other projects , including Wizards of the Coast ' s " Arms & Equipment Guide " and their " Star Wars Miniatures " line , for which he designed many of the figures as well as the packaging art . Some of Trevas ' s other works include " " from " Star Wars Galaxy Magazine 12 " , the " Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic , " and " A Two - Edged Sword " , as well as two children ' s books : " Meltdown on Hoth " and " Anakin to the Rescue " . He is the author of the ongoing feature in " Star Wars Insider " magazine titled " Set Piece , " which began in " Star Wars Insider 54 " . More recently , Trevas co - illustrated " The New Essential Guide to Alien Species " with William O ' Connor , " " with Tommy Lee Edwards , and " " . He has also illustrated the " Legacy Era Campaign Guide " by Wizards of the Coast and " The Essential Atlas " where he cameos as a Human in a game of holochess . Biography . Early life . Chris Trevas was three years old when he first saw " " in 1977 , but claims that he has more memories of playing with the toys than of the films themselves . He always aspired to be an artist , initially interested in animation , but he later found that the drawing style did not suit him . Trevas took art classes throughout his school years and served as art club president in high school . After that , he attended the in . While in college , he created technical illustrations for automotive manuals and worked for a public relations firm . The first publication of his digital work came with his cover for " Restructuring Electricity Markets : A World Perspective " . A career in " Star Wars " . In 1994 , when Lucasfilm began recruiting artists for art department , Trevas submitted a portfolio including various alien sketches , but he was not hired at that time . However , at a science - fiction convention in 1995 in , , he shared his portfolio with West End Games , who at the time held the " Star Wars " role - playing license , and was hired by them a few months later . Trevas produced interior artwork for numerous roleplaying game ( RPG ) books for them , including " Heroes & Rogues " , the " Star Wars Adventure Journal " , and supplements for " The DarkStryder Campaign " . In 1996 , Trevas graduated from college with a degree in Illustration . He then became a full - time freelance artist , continuing to create interior art for West End ' s " Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook " , " Shadows of the Empire Planets Guide " , " Instant Adventures " , " Star Wars Trilogy Sourcebook , Special Edition " , as well as cover art for " Wretched Hives of Scum & Villainy " , " The Black Sands of Socorro " and " Cracken ' s Threat Dossier " . In 1997 , the year before West End Games ' collapse , Trevas began doing work for other " Star Wars " licensees , including " " for Topps ' " Star Wars Galaxy " magazine and became a regular artist for Scholastic ' s " Star Wars Kids " magazine . He continued to branch out to other companies , illustrating " Meltdown on Hoth " for Golden Books and " The Unseen Planets of Star Wars " for " Star Wars Insider " . In 1998 , Chris Trevas and Chris Reiff created an unofficial fan site called " The Parts of Star Wars , " a guide explaining how many of the props in the " Star Wars " films were made and how they could be recreated . The next year , he illustrated " " magazine ' s " The Lost City of Tatooine " and the Random House children ' s book " Anakin to the Rescue " . In 2001 , " Star Wars Insider " called upon the expertise of Trevas and Reiff for a new section called " Set Piece , " a recurring feature — beginning in issue 54 — which takes a shot from one of the films and then points out behind - the - scenes facts about props and sets ; it also features line art by Trevas of selected props . He also illustrated " Unseen Planets of Episode I " in issue 56 , a follow - up to the 1998 classic trilogy article . For " Star Wars " ' 25th anniversary in 2002 , Trevas wrote and illustrated " Star Wars Prop Art : Creating a Believable Universe " for the Celebration II souvenir book and created " Star Wars " art for souvenir book . The same year , he began working for Wizards of the Coast , illustrating numerous weapons and technologies for their " Arms & Equipment Guide " . In 2003 , he created the Jedi Temple computer screens that would appear in " " , published by Dorling Kindersley . In the following years , he would do more work for Wizards of the Coast : illustrations for " Ultimate Adversaries " and the " Ultimate Missions " series , for the latter of which he would design the accompanying figurines . Trevas was also one of the many artists who began drawing sketch cards for Topps , after a recommendation by his friend and fellow artist Joe Corroney . In addition to his regular " Set Piece " feature , Trevas illustrated three articles for " Insider " in 2005 : " The Unseen Planets of Episode II , " " Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic , " and the short story " A Two - Edged Sword " . For the story , which featured lightsaber - wielding stormtroopers , Trevas created a physical lightsaber prop to use as reference . He also created a work for " " which shows Darth Vader ordering the execution of Owen and Beru Lars . For Celebration III that year , he created a piece called " The Circle is Now Complete . " Trevas continued to contribute to the Wizards of the Coast RPG with either artwork or design sketches for their , , and " Miniatures " series . In 2006 , Trevas received from Del Rey his biggest " Star Wars " project yet : " The New Essential Guide to Alien Species " . Trevas created fifty - three species images — half of the images in the book ; the other half were done by William O ' Connor . Trevas ' s illustrations included the acklay , bantha , dewback , Human ( based on his own likeness ) , Kaleesh , rancor , Rodian , tauntaun , Twi ' lek , and many others . Several of his aliens in the book were intended to be as - of - yet unnamed characters from his previous works . For the 30th anniversary of " Star Wars " in 2007 , Trevas was one of almost fifty artists to create a work for Celebration IV . His piece , titled " Star Wars : 30 Years of the Force , " celebrated " A New Hope " and was obviously inspired by an early by Ralph McQuarrie . Prints of the work were sold in limited numbers at Celebration IV and Celebration Europe , both of which Trevas attended . Trevas ' s most recent work is " " . The book , written by Ryder Windham , is illustrated by Trevas and Tommy Lee Edwards . The two evenly split the workload of 120 illustrations . Trevas , who came onto the project in January 2007 , created sixty pieces for the book , with pieces including the funeral of Mara Jade Skywalker , the Jedi Academy confronting the spirit of Exar Kun , Shmi and Anakin Skywalker arriving on Tatooine , Jedi historian Tionne Solusar , a young Palpatine with Darth Plagueis , and many others . One of his favorite pieces was of Obi - Wan Kenobi ' s Force ghost visiting Luke Skywalker on Hoth . Trevas again collaborated with Ryder Windham for " " , which was released in August 2008 . In 2009 , Trevas worked as one of the artists on " The Essential Atlas " , alongside Ian Fullwood , Modi , and Chris Reiff . Other works . Trevas has worked on a number of projects outside the " Star Wars " universe . He has done many illustrations for the , including the , , and sets . He has created various illustrations of all sorts for " " magazine . Trevas also made the poster artwork for the 2002 – produced independent film " " , and he has done illustrations for several of souvenir books . Additionally , Trevas has worked for advertising agencies , creating work for the and television commercial storyboards for clients such as , , and . Trevas even created team logos for two leagues : the and the . Style . Influences . Both as a child and in his professional career , Trevas cites " Star Wars " conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie as one of his major influences . McQuarrie ' s work inspired him to concentrate on illustrating environments , not just characters . Another important influence , particularly because of his mixing of pencil and paint , was poster artist Drew Struzan . More recently , Trevas has looked to the work of digital artists such as Ryan Church and Craig Mullens . Technique . The illustrative style of Chris Trevas has evolved over the years . While he used colored pencils during high school , he began to mix them with paint and eventually moved to using acrylic exclusively . Years later , Trevas switched to painting digitally in via a . He also uses for line art drawings .