from StarWars.com:
Thumbing through the pages of the recently released Star Wars Art: Visions from Abrams, one is confronted with an image on page 80 that both amuses and captivates — Will Wilson’s “Dawn of Maul”, which re-imagines the tattoo-faced Sith Lord as an enfant terrible in a Byzantine-era portrait. It appears to seethe with symbolism, from the two-headed serpent gripped in Maul’s left hand to the eclipsing Death Star at sunrise. It’s an image that immediately commands our attention — and provokes our imagination.
Artist Will Wilson was tapped by Lucasfilm Executive Editor J.W. Rinzler for the Visions project after discovering his work at the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, a gallery which actually provided a handful of artists for the project. “Dawn of Maul”, Wilson’s stunning contribution to Visions, speaks to both the classic nature of the Star Wars saga and the mythic underpinnings of its storyline. It’s an image that begs intimate exploration — a journey we begin with a few questions for the artist:
I understand your painting was inspired by a dream?
You know I get a lot of ideas for my work from that lucid state when you’re waking up in the morning — when you’re kind of dreaming and you’re half-awake. For some reason I can solve problems when I’m stuck on a painting… it’s kind of a netherworld I can get a lot of ideas from and solve a lot of problems in. The very first night I was trying to think of something, I had this image, this dream of a red baby writhing around in a cradle of eels. And I woke up kind of excited because I immediately made the connection to Darth Maul, who was one of my favorite characters — albeit his appearance was brief in the movies.
I immediately thought I could paint Darth Maul as a baby. One of my best friends who’s also a painter has a one-year-old girl, so I went over that day to take photographs and started the painting — which is almost unheard of for me.
So you were pretty much given carte blanche in terms of direction?
It was the best kind of illustration job where they let you do whatever you want. I didn’t feel there were any guidelines at all as long as you were inspired by the Star Wars movies in some way.
Read the rest of the Will Wilson interview here, and read the second Star Wars Art: Visions artist interview with William Stout here.