With her eagerness to learn various art techniques, Pronovost also became passionate about working as a successful artist, and sent her art portfolio to numerous publications including the Lucasfilm licensee West End Games, but ended up getting a helping hand from a Lucasfilm employee known for helping artists get their foot in the door.
"In 1998, I submitted some art to West End Games and got my first rejection letter, so I worked on improving my art," Pronovost recalls. "Little did I know that I had a fan by the name of Steve Sansweet (Lucasfilm Director of Fan Relations). We'd talked back and forth via email a few times, about toys and Ewoks and the like. One day I got this email from him saying to look at the most recent issue of
Star Wars Insider. As it so happened,
Star Wars Kids magazine was looking for artists. My heart fell to the floor when I read that they were looking for published artists. I found out that the editor liked the '
Star Wars Funnies' I had on my website. It was the most awesome feeling ever. Not only was I getting my first published work, but it was
Star Wars!"
Soon after that, Pronovost found herself illustrating the License Plate game in Star Wars Kids #5 and as well as the "Star Wars Funnies" section of the magazine.
"My biggest hit was a baby Darth Maul in a black sleeper with a pacifier -- Mini Maul," Pronovost smiles. "I actually got fan mail for that one! The magazine vanished before two of my approved funnies were published, one of which was a long shot -- 'Pikachewie.' Unfortunately, I thought I was cursed for a while as a big pitch was accepted by
Star Wars Gamer shortly before that magazine vanished. This is a little known fact, but the designs for the Bursa and Amarans in
The Wildlife of Star Wars were based off of some of my pitch sketches author
Dan Wallace sent off."
Of course, even with a few of her freelance gigs fading away, Pronovost was soon back in the swing of things with an interesting new project from Topps where some of the most talented artists around where making mini portraits of their favorite Star Wars characters in a series of collectible Artist Sketch cards.
"One day I checked my email and there was a message in there from artist
Joe Corroney, which was copied to some folks at Topps," Pronovost says. "Topps was looking for more artists for the sketch cards and Joe poked me in the right direction. After leaping around my house with glee, I calmly composed an email and within two days, 206 cards were winging their way to my house. I had so much fun! Now over the past 3 years I haven't done much more than sketch, so to draw hundreds of little sketches made me absolutely giddy! It was a challenge as up until January 2005 I hadn't even looked at anything Episode III related. Even after drawing these cards I had no idea how most of the characters relate to the plot, aside from the obvious. I produced a little over 200 cards in less than two weeks. My favorite characters to draw were Boga, Tarfful, Yoda, Kit Fisto and Aayla. Once I got my mojo on, the sketches flowed easily. By the end I'd developed styles for several of the characters. In hindsight I probably could have handled 300 or even 400 cards, but I didn't want to push myself.""I think these are an absolutely awesome collectable for people," Pronovost adds. "How often do you get to own an original piece of art by so many talented artists? There are people who collect exclusively one artist, some people who collect a single character. It's really exciting. I'm hoping someone gets some enjoyment out of my work. Maybe someone will start a Boga collection."
