Before long, Wilkinson would find herself in good company of other talented
Star Wars comic book artists and illustrators as she was added to the
Revenge of the Sith Artist Sketch cards by Topps, and ended up creating over 500 cards featuring such characters as General Grievous, Yoda, Chewbacca and numerous others.
"Matt Saunders at Topps was looking for upcoming artists to be a part of the series, and he asked to see some of my current professional artwork, as well as some sample
Star Wars sketches that had to be approved by both Topps and Lucasfilm," Wilkinson recalls.
"I've opened up a pack of trading cards and received an artist sketch card too, so I know how exciting it is to receive an original piece of art," Wilkinson continues. "It's a neat thing for collectors because no one else in the world will have the same one."
In addition to her collectible cards, Wilkinson was also one of the few artists selected to create a limited-edition poster for this year's Celebration III.
"Creating the poster image for Celebration III was such a good experience," Wilkinson confesses. "The hardest part was deciding what element from
Star Wars I wanted to focus on with my piece. Since Episode III was soon to be released, I was most excited about the new movie and finally being able to see Anakin become Darth Vader. That became the main theme of my poster -- Anakin on Mustafar with his dark fate looming in the background. The equally important characters come down either side in a totem pole fashion; their background is secret messages written in Arabesh."
"As homage to the earlier Star Wars movies, I used photo reference from earlier movies and incorporated them with the newer looks of the characters," Wilkinson adds. "For example, the Yoda is from Empire Strikes Back. Once I was happy with my layout, I painted the 14 characters with acrylic paint and colored pencils. The entire process took about 2 1/2 weeks of solid work, and I am very happy with how it turned out."
