Gregory Manchess

Gregory Manchess (born 1955 in Kentucky, United States), also known by the pseudonym "Ravenwood," is an American illustrator and painter. Manchess is known for narrative-driven art pieces, including his graphic novel Above the Timberline. For the Star Wars franchise, Manchess illustrated the cover of the 1999 hardcover collection of the comic book adaptation Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace and the 2022 Essential Legends Collection reprint of the novel Kenobi and its audiobook adaptation. Manchess also worked on an unreleased cover for a canceled Star Wars novel from publisher Del Rey.
==Biography==
===Early work===
Gregory Manchess was born in 1955 in Kentucky, United States. In 1977, Manchess began to work professionally as a painter and illustrator. He would become known for narrative-driven art pieces, including his graphic novel Above the Timberline.
Manchess first began working on the Star Wars franchise when illustrating the cover art for the hardcover collection of the comic adaptation of the 1999 film . He also contributed an interior illustration featuring the Sith Lord Darth Maul.Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace hardcover The collection, written by Henry Gilroy, was published by Dark Horse Comics on December 8 of the same year. Wanting to separate his work for film and comics from his mainstream painting, Manchess was credited under the pseudonym "Ravenwood" when working on The Phantom Menace artwork. For his later Star Wars work, Manchess is credited under his own name.
===Canceled novel and Kenobi===
At some point prior to November 2021, Manchess was approached by Penguin Random House Senior Art Director Scott Biel to work on the cover for an unreleased Star Wars novel. Shortly after beginning work on the project, the novel was canceled. After the cancellation, Biel brought Manchess on to design new cover art for John Jackson Miller's 2013 novelKenobi Kenobi in preparation for its rerelease as part of The Essential Legends Collection novel series from publisher Del Rey. Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of Manchess's favorite Star Wars characters, so he considered working on the project to be a good match.
Manchess began work on the cover by creating small black-and-white thumbnail sketches and watching Star Wars films to get key screengrabs of Kenobi. Based on around fifty screengrabs, Manchess drew freely, trying to capture the poses and motion Kenobi would make, while keeping the potential reader of the novel in mind. The thumbnails were then sent to Biel who gave feedback. Afterward, Manchess began to color the thumbnails that he particularly liked.
Before sending the colored thumbnails back to Biel, Manchess found a reference photo of Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor that he particularly liked. Manchess included a colored thumbnail sketch of the reference photo in his next batch of work sent to Biel, and the piece was selected to be developed into the final cover. With feedback from Biel, Manchess went on to make several adjustments to the piece, including adding Kenobi's lightsaber. The final cover was painted using a palette knife and brush. Manchess hoped that the piece would portray how he felt about the character of Kenobi.
Manchess's involvement and cover artwork were officially announced by Del Rey on Twitter on November 3, 2021. The cover, both used for The Essential Legends Collection reprint and its accompanying audiobook, was released on April 5, 2022.
==Works==
===Bibliography===
Year	Title 	Contributions 	Note
1999	Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace hardcover	Cover art, interior art	Credited as "Ravenwood"
2022	Kenobi 	Cover art 	The Essential Legends Collection rerelease
2022	Kenobi audiobook 	Cover art 	The Essential Legends Collection rerelease
==Sources==
*Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 1999 hardcover 
*Star Wars: Panel to Panel 
*Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 2016 hardcover 
*Star Wars: Darth Maul — Son of Dathomir trade paperback 
*Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: Rise of the Sith Vol. 2 
*Star Wars Legends: Rise of the Sith Omnibus 
*Kenobi
*Kenobi audiobook
==Notes and references==
==External links==
*Official website 
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Category:Cover artists