Star Wars Artist Series: David Rabbitte

When Star Wars illustrator David Rabbitte first laid eyes on a peculiar press kit from 20th Century Fox, he knew his life would be forever influenced by images of bizarre alien creatures and dazzling spaceships.

"I was seven when the first Star Wars film was released," Rabbitte recalls. "I remember my brother came home one day and showed me the booklet that Fox was sending out to generate interest in the movie. I had a look at the photos of the characters inside and was so excited. When the film was finally released, my brother went to see it with his friend, but decided to leave me at home because he figured some of the images would be too scary for me. I was really upset. Thankfully, later my dad took me along with my friend and we went to see it at the drive-in. I'll never forget that day! Interestingly enough, just as one of the most exciting parts came up in the film -- the Falcon's escape from the TIE fighters -- the sound went out! You could hear people yelling to fix it quick!"

After seeing the film, as well as "The Making of Star Wars" televised special, Rabbitte's childhood fascination with a galaxy far, far away was further fed by his appreciation for artist Ralph McQuarrie's pre-production art and Industrial Light & Magic stop-motion creatures.

"Ralph McQuarrie has been a major influence in terms of his character and ship concept art," Rabbitte says. "Growing up I didn't see too many movies with designs that measured up to his work. I also love Joe Johnston's work. His storyboards are fantastic, and helped me understand storyboarding for my own projects. And of course, Phil Tippett's stop-motion creatures really inspired me."

Born in Massachusetts, Rabbitte and his family relocated to his father's homeland of Ireland when he was only eight years old. He remained there during college as he attended Galway R.T.C. (Regional Technical College) for a one-year foundation course in general art. He then went on to do a three-year course at Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design in Dublin, where he studied illustration, graphic design and animation. "I was in the same course and in the same art classes as another known Star Wars artist, Kilian Plunkett," Rabbitte says. "We kept in touch on and off over the years, and while he was busy doing comics he knew I wanted to get in on doing Star Wars art someday, so I think he was pretty happy for me when I eventually got to do sketch cards for Topps."

Rabbitte's first officially-licensed project for Lucasfilm revolved around the immensely popular Star Wars Heritage artist sketch card series from Topps. "I was at San Diego International Comic-Con in 2004 and was aware that sketch cards were becoming a huge hit with fans. So when I saw Topps Editor Matt Saunders sitting at the his booth I approached him and asked if he still needed any more sketch card artists and right away he said yes! After showing some samples of my Star Wars art he asked for my contact information and said he'd be in touch. Within just a few days after Comic-Con was over he emailed me and asked me to send him scans of my work so he could get them approved by Lucasfilm. I got approved pretty quickly and it was finally official -- the cards were sent out to me and I was drawing Star Wars characters...and getting paid for it!"

Of all the characters, Rabbitte admits he has a few favorites that he doesn't mind drawing over and over again. "I loved drawing Han Solo and Chewie as a kid," Rabbitte says. "I drew them all the time! My current favorite is Anakin because he's so central to the whole Star Wars saga. And I like drawing him with the dark scowl and his face has a lot of character. I also like drawing the clone troopers and stormtroopers because they have such a great design that never seems to go out of style!"

Rabbitte's work impressed Topps so much that they asked him to continue drawing sketch cards for the Revenge of the Sith series, and later the Lord of the Rings Evolution series. In addition to his work with Topps, Rabbitte illustrates for roleplaying games such as his Warhammer art for Sabertooth Games, Decipher cards, Fantasy Flight Games and Kenzer and Company. He was also commissioned to illustrate a set of three painted book covers for the X-Men novel trilogy X-Men: The Legacy Quest published by I-Books.

Traditional illustration isn't Rabbitte's only specialty. Fans paying close attention to the end credits for some of their favorite animated films might spot his name as an animator. Starting in 1993, Rabbitte worked as a background artist at Don Bluth's animation studio in Dublin, Ireland on a feature called The Pebble and the Penguin. Later Rabbitte relocated with Bluth and his company to Phoenix, Arizona -- home to 20th Century Fox Animation Studios -- where he did background art and concept art for the films Anastasia, Bartok the Magnificent and Titan A.E.. Most recently, with his new projects at Fat Cat Animation, Rabbitte served as a digital background artist for such features as Fat Albert and Curious George.