Star Wars Artist Series: Steve Anderson

The next projects on Anderson's list included more puzzles and calendars for The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi -- in which he made a job transfer to continue his stride as a licensed artist. "I found out that the next year the Return of the Jedi calendar and puzzle would be done by my company's Licensing Department instead of my division," Anderson explains. "Since Licensing was where I ultimately wanted to be, I immediately put in a transfer request. It took almost a year to make the transfer, but I made it just in time to do the calendar and puzzle! The puzzle was never produced, but there were several press proofs made, a few of which I still have. The Empire piece that is on my website with the logo is the puzzle illustrated back in 1995."

Proving his talent for game illustration, Hasbro took notice and asked Anderson to create art for a number of games and toys. "I've been fortunate to have been able to illustrate 28 Star Wars puzzles related to the prequels, the package illustration for the George Lucas Family Action Figure Collector Set, the box top illustration for the Trivial Pursuit DVD Saga Edition including the six triangular illustrations on the game board, the cover illustration for Monopoly: Original Trilogy Collection, the Revenge of the Sith lightsaber packaging, and additional action figure packaging. Most recently, Anderson illustrated the Star Wars 30th Anniversary Coin Album, the cover of which contains an illustration spanning the entire saga in chronological order.

His illustrations were also used for both the Lucasfilm Licensing prequel and classic style guides. As a result, his illustrations have been used for Star Wars posters, comic book covers, mugs, T-shirts, cell phone covers, calling cards, skateboards, backpacks, and more. "Some of the more unusual products my art has appeared on include birthday cakes, neckties, tables and chairs, trash cans, personal care products, popcorn buckets, bandages and the personalized pictures at Disneyland," Anderson says.

Anderson was also given the opportunity to try his hand at book illustration. "I enjoy illustrating Star Wars book covers because I know it's a product that is going to have a lot of exposure," Anderson explains. "The books always make it high on The New York Times bestseller list, so with that comes an incredible drive to do your very best -- even though you may be loaded down with other work. It's also quite a challenge to try to tell the story of the book with just a few images and very little (as far as finished story) to go by. The covers are used for solicitation purposes, so most of the time they are illustrated way before the manuscript is even finished."

For Random House Books, Anderson illustrated covers for the movie novelizations for both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Other cover illustrations include Labyrinth of Evil, The Cestus Deception, Tatooine Ghost, Survivor's Quest, The Approaching Storm, Shatterpoint, Jedi Trial and Yoda: Dark Rendezvous. From the New Essential Guide series, Anderson created cover art for The New Essential Guide to Characters, The New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology, The New Essential Guide to Droids, The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, The New Essential Guide to Alien Species and The New Essential Chronology. And from The New Jedi Order series, Dark Journey and Traitor showcase his art. Anderson even left his signature style on the E-Novellas Boba Fett: A Practical Man, The Hive - A Clone Wars Novella, Fool's Bargain and A Forest Apart.