Star Wars Science Questions

Art: Mother and Daughter

Padmé and Jobal Naberrie.

Sketched in pencil on watercolor paper, outlined in pen, and then used paintbrushes to fill in with pigment from Derwent Inktense blocks. I've barely touched the Inktense blocks since receiving them about ten years ago, so it was really cool to actually, finally use them for a finished piece, rather than just messing around! They worked super well for both intense and subtle coloring, too.

The scene is based on the image from the Wookieepedia Legends page for Padmé's mausoleum.

Something funky's going on with Padmé and Jobal's arms, and the angle of the stone under the stained glass ended up a little off somehow, but on the whole, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! (Especially Padmé's cloak; I don't quite know how that happened, but glad it did!) The stained glass worked out much better than expected, and Inktense was a really nice medium for getting the tonal variations. Could just be me, but it seemed easier to move around on the page than watercolor, which made it more forgiving if an area ever became too light or too dark.

Characters keep getting ideas and running with them.

So, uh, Piett and Starkiller... yeah, this was definitely not the plan when I first decided to include those characters in Fortune's Rule. (Heck, they weren't originally supposed to be in the fic at all, but then neither was at least half of the story that's happened thus far, so....)

They were supposed to have pretty separate parts in the story, and they were both going to be much more minor than they're turning out. Until Piett apparently decided Starkiller needs a friend. And he's definitely not wrong, so who am I to say no?

The unfortunate thing here is that now I'm going to have to figure out how the heck Vader is going to deal with the news that his admiral and his apprentice are in cahoots behind his back.

*looks sternly at characters*

Do you see how much extra work you are making for me? Now, behave!

(This seems to have become a recurring theme in the writing of this story. Ahsoka and Padmé weren't originally going to have as close a relationship as they do, but then they decided to take the reins for just one chapter, and look how that turned out.)

Just had a question pop up in my mind .. if padme steals Vader’s tie fighter…curious how she’s going to get back to base without getting shot down by the rebels. …☠️😁

Plus having a funny image of Vader calling Revanant and having his holographic image pop up on her dashboard while she’s flying away in his ship. ☠️😁☠️

Looking forward to your next chapter in the near future! And thx as always for your time and dedication 🙏

Oh boy, I'm now imagining Padmé calling Mon and being like, "Hey... so... a thing happened, and I need you to tell everyone not to panic when a TIE shows up over Yavin," and Mon just wondering in what outlandish scenario stealing one of the few hyperspace-capable TIEs became the preferred way home.

Lol! That would certainly make for some distracted flying on her part. This isn't the route I'm actually taking, but it would be kind of funny if he only caught up with her because she got pulled over in Kafrene realspace for reckless flying brought on by his distracting holo.

I'm hoping to get the next chapter out by Sunday night!

Hope you get to post next chapter of fortune Rules soon after your move!

Me too! This chapter is taking so much longer than I expected! It's a bit of double whammy, because this one wasn't at all planned out in advance. After last chapter, I realised I needed to include a few things as transitions/setup for later events, so I'm having to write this one out of nowhere, while dealing with all the moving stuff. Can't wait to be done with all the chaos, can't wait to hopefully get back to writing and posting on a more regular schedule, especially as we're on the cusp of more interesting things starting to happen.

I've been trying to wrestle out some more of the current chapter this evening, actually, and your comments have been a nice bit of encouragement, so thank you! 💛😊

Missing Pieces No More

Trying something new, thought I'd do a fluffy ROTJ fix-it oneshot. Excerpt below!

“No, you're coming with me.  I'll not leave you here.  I've got to save you!”

Anakin looked up at Luke with mingled pride and sorrow.  “You already have, Luke.  You—”

“Luke!” an unfamiliar voice shouted.

Luke looked back over his shoulder to see an old soldier in the green of a Rebel unit hurrying across the hangar bay toward them.  Instinctively, he leaned over his father in a defensive attitude, reaching to his waist for a weapon that wasn’t there.

“It’s okay!” he told the soldier.  “He won’t hurt you!”

“I know, kid.”  The soldier clapped a reassuring hand to Luke’s shoulder before turning to his father.  “Another close one, eh, General?”

Happy New year!! Hope you made it through grad school applications! Looking forward to that crazy call in FR! Cheers!

Happy very belated new year! I did make it through applications, with a couple acceptances, and am now just hoping the funding holds! And I am pleased to announce that the new chapter in Fortune's Rule is finally posted!

Ahsoka!

All-grown-up Rebel Ahsoka! (Aka, another bout of productive procrastination to put off writing a tricky chapter. What else is new?)

This was supposed to be just a rough study type of sketch in pencil, but then it was going well, and really, why stop at rough sketch if it's going well?

Sketched in pencil, outlined in 01 Pigma micron pen (except the facial features, where I used 005), colored in Ahsoka with Crayola Supertips that somehow aren't dried up after I-don't-even-know-how-many years, then shaded her and filled in the background with Prismacolor pencils. (Ever so many thanks to my artsy mom, who suggested the pencil-over-marker technique!) My Prismacolors have been through the wars (aka 4 moves and a clumsy adolescent owner), and it's quite evident every time I sharpen one, only to have the tip fall out.

Drawing Ahsoka was interesting, because although I used a reference from the Clone Wars show, it wasn't quite in the position I wanted, so I had to take weird selfies of me holding a water bottle in lieu of a lightsaber in order to get the arms right. But, hey, it worked!

I considered leaving it at the middle image, just a finished figure on a white ground, but decided that a background provided context and made the picture feel more alive.

Question, if Vader could strangle people via holo, why didn’t the Empire just hire a bunch of slicers to get access to Alliance leaders' comms?  Don’t need to know where they are, just get ‘em remotely.

And another question, does the Force choking stop once the holo is turned off?  I'm just imagining some officer being like,

“Milord, we weren’t able to—ackackack—”  Okay, I've had enough of this shavit!  *fumbles around but manages to turn off comm*  Whew, problem solved.  Temporarily.  Well, kriff. Guess it’s time to start reading up on defection options.

Petrichor, Chapter 4

It's not abandoned! There's just been a severe idea drought for... oof, the past few months? (This is my other SW fic, a time travel fix-it focusing on Obi-Wan and Anakin.) I guess the upside of struggling with the last chapter of Fortune's Rule Part II is that it led to the productive procrastination that resulted in this chapter?

Chapter 4. In which first thing in the morning is a bad time for delicate discussions.

I fell asleep last night to the comforting sounds of Anakin working away at repairing my appliances.  It was the most restful sleep I have enjoyed since the commencement of the old war, and now I feel unusually refreshed—fortunately so, for today I shall be required to soothe my fractious padawan’s anxieties anent returning to his own era.

Anakin slumbers still.  I rise and set about breakfast preparations; when they are complete, I take a moment to study him.  In sleep, he is peaceful, and despite the deep shadows under his eyes, his youthful features pretend an innocence to match that of the boy who lives across the wastes.  A smear of grease adorns his cheek, and I obey an irresistible impulse to wipe it away.  My hand lingers to brush a few stray hairs out of his face. As he shifts like a sleeping tooka under the touch, tension melts away which I had not realised he was holding.  Even now, I cannot read him as well as I ought, and so I withdraw to the table with a sigh.  His presence in this time, beneath this roof, is no mere chance.  The Force has placed him under my auspices.

Midnight fluff-drawing strikes again!

I used an old picture of a WWII soldier and a kid as a reference for this one (see below). I cheated a little by using Krita to create a basic sketch directly over the photo. Then I used that sketch as a reference for the actual drawing, which I did freehand on paper and colored using alcohol marker, with the addition of colored pencil for some depth and texture.