Not everyone can boast that they've been a published artist since the age of five. Star Wars cartoonist Randy Martinez has been exhibiting his work ever since his Halloween mural was photographed by a local newspaper photographer in Ventura, California. Since then, Martinez's personality-saturated illustrations and drawings have graced the pages of such well-known publications as Star Wars Insider, Star Wars Kids, Cracked, Amazing Stories, Sci-Fi World, Dungeon magazine, and The Los Angeles Times.

"I really don't remember not wanting to be an artist," Martinez confesses. "It has always been something I just did. It helped that I grew up around art my whole life. My father is a cartoonist in my hometown of Ventura, and my mother is an art teacher at the same high school I graduated from -- Ventura High School. I was lucky enough to not only get an equal dose of talent from both parents, but also great tutelage in the arts, as well as an unlimited amount of support and encouragement to pursue my art."

"My parents and supportive teachers would regularly challenge me," Martinez continues. "By the end of each year my classroom would be a virtual gallery of my work. I had a great art teacher in middle school named Tori Sepulveda who had a knack for encouraging me to draw what I loved, but also taught me about the master artists and different approaches to art. She is the first person to show me I could do more than just draw cartoons."

Martinez's high school experience was dominated by basketball. Once he began his college studies at California Lutheran University, where he played basketball for two years, he also enrolled in an art class taught by Professor Jerry Slattum that changed his life.

"This teacher used to make me so mad because he'd challenge everything I said or drew," Martinez recalls. "But I finally got what he was trying to do, and he really opened my eyes to the world, opened my mind about art and what I was doing with my talents. It was then that I decided to hang up my basketball shoes and pick up my paint brushes again."

Martinez found himself crossing paths with another inspiring teacher when he studied at a local junior college after returning to his hometown of Ventura.

"His name was Richard Peterson who was a great photo realistic painter who taught fundamentals of color and painting," Martinez remarks. "This guy taught me how to mix every color imaginable with a 5-color palette. I then enrolled in the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. By my second semester there my teachers had given me the confidence that I was ready to think bigger, and go get some real work."

And that's exactly what he did.

"I would do cartoons for local papers, but technically, my first 'professional' job came when I was in college. I drew illustrations for a magazine called Sci-fi World. At that same time rumors that were floating around concerning about the filming of Star Wars: Episode I and part of my job was to paint my interpretation of all those characters."

Of course, success didn't come to Martinez overnight. Like many talented artists, he had to earn his chops before impressing the right people in order to catapult his career.

"Sometimes, it's very stressing, other times it feels like you just can't catch a break," Martinez says. "When I was first trying to get into the publishing world, legendary Star Wars poster artist Drew Struzan once told me, 'Patience is a virtue I'm sure you have.' The funny thing is, at the time I didn't. But I think he knew that, and he was basically telling me I needed to gain that virtue. I've never forgotten those words, and they have guided me to gain patience. Drew was right. Once I gained patience, and just did what I do best, work started coming in for me."