| Posted: 31 March 2019 at 7:07am | IP Logged | 4
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Shane, you are completely correct. Robert made a name for himself doing WW II paintings. About the time Lucas was making "Red Tails", he approached Robert to do some work. Eventually, he asked Robert to try some Star Wars related subjects that Robert initially turned down. George siad , "If you can paint airplanes, you can paint X-wings" and Robert gave it a shot. He spent the next year submitting 5-8 pencil sketches to George per month that he would select from to do a painting. Robert would spend a month painting the one picked and then submit pencils again. He ended up doing 10-12 paintings for George's private collection before he told Robert that he had all he wanted and made Robert a Lucasfilm artist with access to photo reference and materials online. He encouraged Robert to keep doing Star Wars related work so Robert has been doing so for almost a decade now.
Robert always preaches persitence. I've been with him at conventions and people ask about the tools he uses, how he discovered his talent, etc. All the standard assumptions about artists and Robert explains that he was last in his class at art school, but he had the ability to sit at his table and create art all day. Robert says talent is 1-2% of the equation and that persistence is what truly defines an arts. Persistence to work, get better and ignore the desire to give up. All the other stuff can be learned, but if you can't keep working then it doesn't matter how good you are because you will never get anything done.
He is a very enjoyable man and I recommend you have a chat with him if you ever get to a New York convention to see him in attendance.
Edited by Eric Ladd on 31 March 2019 at 7:11am
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