While I normally work on Minimate projects, I thought I would write this time about one of the non-block-based pieces I have worked on.

I’m a huge Star Wars fan. I have been for some time, so it was a great pleasure to be able to design the Jedi Council Yoda bank. Being a huge fan, I had no shortage of reference available. I gathered what I had and set to work with the soundtrack to Attack of the Clones cheering me on.

While Yoda’s shown in the Prequels as a fairly active fellow, he still manages to have his moments of tranquility that we all know him for. With this bank being of his Jedi Council chair, there was no place for a drastic springing-into-action pose. I wanted to make sure that while he had to be sitting quietly, he was still interesting to look at.

I started with some roughs of his traditional cross-legged pose, and went with the arms crossed pose of him at rest or in contemplation. Instead of having Yoda look directly forward, I wanted to make him a little more part of a scene by moving his head to one side. It’s as if he’s listening to another Council member, waiting to make his own comments or decisions.

In most of the reference I looked at, Yoda seemed to look somewhat upset during the Prequel era. While those times are fraught with the Clone Wars and impending dark times, I wanted to give Yoda a calmer look. I though it would be better for him to look contemplative rather than distraught.

I probably ended up doing a bit more on the colouring than I had to, but I got caught up in the work. I pretty much knew what colours I would use based on the many drawings of Yoda I had drawn for myself in the past. One thing I did have to look up though was the colour of his nails. I paused for a moment, thinking “are they green…?” but found myself wrong. Hey, I may be a huge fan, but sometimes the tiny details need to be double-checked.

I only saw the painted sculpt the other day, and I have to say I’m really impressed with it. Had someone told me I would work on a Star Wars product back when I got into the Saga, I would have said they were crazy. I usually sum up my blogs with this type of sentence, but it’s always a true statement: I really cannot wait to add it to my own Star Wars collection.