汤米·李·爱德华兹：传奇艺术家

August

（Tommy Lee Edwards: Saga Artist）

2003年1月2日

内部艺术（Interior Art）

Over the decades of Star Wars publishing, many artists have captured the characters, depth and emotion of the saga through striking works depicting key events or personas. A lucky few have been invited back time and again, adding new pieces to their Star Wars portfolio because their work so perfectly captures the spirit of space fantasy. Such is the case with illustrator Tommy Lee Edwards.
在《星球大战》出版业创立的几十年来，许多艺术家通过那些令人惊叹的描述了关键的人与事的作品，捕捉住了这个传奇的特色、深度与情感。而这些艺术家中那些幸运的一小部分人一再地被邀请回来，在他们的“星战”作品名录中再添新的一页，因为他们的作品是如此完美地捕捉到了这个太空故事的精髓。插图画家汤米·李·爱德华兹就是这些幸运者中的一员。

His cover and interior illustrations have so far depicted all the major players of the saga, but there are still a few on his wish list he has yet to touch. "I'd really like to do something on Hoth," he admits. "Something with the tauntauns, snowspeeders, snowtroopers and the walkers. I always used to draw that stuff when I was a kid, and I loved all of Joe Johnston's designs for the speeders, and the costumes were so great."
目前为止，汤米·李·爱德华兹的封面画和内页插图已经涉及了这个传奇中的所有主要角色，但是在他的心愿表上，仍然还有一些他从没有触及过的部分。“我真的很喜欢画霍斯星球的部分，”他承认说，“比如唐唐，雪地飞车，雪地突击队和步行机。在我还是个孩子的时候，我总是喜欢画那些东西，我爱所有那些乔约·翰斯顿为飞车所做的设计，那些服装真是棒极了。”

Edwards has been illustrating professionally for about ten years, but Star Wars has been part of his sketches since he was a child. "I was four when the first Star Wars came out. I would always draw Star Wars when I was a kid and staple pieces of paper together and make Star Wars books. It was one of the first things that really got me drawing. I'd do my little adaptation of the movie, and create my own stories too. I remember doing one where Artoo fought Darth Vader."
爱德华兹从事职业插画家大约有十年之久，但是从孩提时起，《星球大战》就是他绘制的草图中的一部分。“当第一部《星球大战》上映时我才四岁。在我还是个孩子的时候我总是在画《星球大战》，并且把几页纸钉在一起，作成《星球大战》图书。这是真正促使我开始绘画的一件事。我为电影作了一些我自己的改动，也编写我自己的故事。我记得一个故事就是阿图大战达斯·维达。”

Edwards says he always knew he wanted to be an artist that tells stories through illustration. "I've never really been that interested in advertisting art, but I've always loved comic books and movies and animation," he says. "I was lucky enough when I was a kid to have good teachers and have some great private schooling by an illustrator named Ed Hubert, who helped solidify what I wanted to do for a living." After graduating high school in Michigan, Edwards moved to Los Angeles and attended the Art Center College of Design, studying illustration and film.
爱德华兹说，他一直就知道自己想成为一名通过插图讲故事的艺术家。“我从未真正对广告绘画感过兴趣，但是我一直都喜爱漫画书、电影和动画，”他说，“我非常幸运，在我还是个孩子的时候就得到了出色的老师，并且接受了一位名叫艾德·菏伯特的插图画家的了不起的私人学校教育，正是他帮助我明确了自己想以什么为生。”从密歇根州的高中毕业后，爱德华兹搬到了落杉矶，就读于设计艺术中心大学，学习插图绘画和电影制作。

Getting a start in the comics industry, Edwards tried to get work from Dark Horse Comics illustrating Star Wars. Circumstances, however, dictated that he would have to wait a while. "It was frustrating, but two years later my friend and neighbor John Van Fleet, who has done some Star Wars stuff in the past, was talking with Random House about painting a Darth Maul book," recalls Edwards. "Deadlines couldn't allow it for him. I got the Art Director's name and emailed him some stuff and I got the job."
在漫画行业有了一个开始后，爱德华兹力图从黑马漫画社得到一份为《星球大战》画插画的工作。但是，环境要求他不得不等待上一段时间。“这很让人感到丧气，但是两年后，我的朋友兼邻居约翰·凡·弗里特与蓝登书屋谈到关于绘制一部达斯·摩尔图书的事宜，他以前就作过一些‘星战’作品，”爱德华兹回忆道，“但作品的截止时间不允许他这样做。我搞到了艺术指导的姓名，通过E-MAIL给他发去我的一些作品，于是我得到了这份工作。”

That project was Darth Maul's Revenge, a Step 3 Young Reader book by Eric Arnold with cover art by John Van Fleet. "It was fun. There are about 30 ink drawings colored in Photoshop. I was really wanting to do another one after that. When Lucasfilm and Random House asked me to do one for Episode II, I wanted to paint it, because I thought it would be fun. Boy, it was a lot of work to fit into just a few months."
那项计划就是《达斯·摩尔的复仇》，一部由埃里克·阿诺德撰写，由约翰·凡·弗里特绘制封面的第三级少儿读物。“这很有趣。在Photoshop里有大约30幅彩色墨水画。在那之后我真的想另画一幅。在卢卡斯影业和蓝登书屋要求我为EP2画画时，我想要画它，因为我认为这会很有趣。天啊，短短几个月时间里有这么多工作要做。”

Edwards' second young reader book was Anakin: Apprentice, written by Marc Cerasini and also published by Random House. The story of young Anakin's exploits allowed Edwards to explore new locales and develop new designs as called for in the manuscript.
爱德华兹的第二部少儿读物是《阿纳金：绝地学徒》，作者Marc Cerasini，同样由蓝登书屋出版。这个关于少年阿纳金的成长的故事使得爱德华兹可以凭原作要求发掘新场景，开发新的设计。

"There were certain things in the story that I was waiting for the reference art, then I learned that there was no reference," says Edwards. "Like Anakin's bedroom; Lucasfilm said there is no reference, so just make it up. On one hand, I was really excited for the creative freedom. On the other hand, I was terrified because I'm looking at the calendar and at my deadline. But the fact that I could come up with something, and now it's part of the Star Wars universe is pretty fun. There's this scene where Anakin's flying in a race, and he has these wing things on his back. It reminded me of a lot of the film projects I worked on as a conceptual designer and as a storyboard artist, because the most fun part of those jobs is working from a script where not much if anything has been designed already."
“我在等故事里几个特定场景的参考图样，然后我认识到，根本没有参考图样。”爱德华兹说，“比如阿纳金的卧室，卢卡斯影业说没有参考图样，所以只好把它虚构出来。一方面，我对这种自由创作感到兴奋。而另一方面，我也很害怕，因为我得看着日程表和我的截稿日期。但实际上我能够及时交稿，而且现在它已经成为‘星战’宇宙中的一部份，这相当有趣。在这个场景里是阿纳金在一场比赛中飞驰，在他背上有这些翅膀状的东西。这让我回忆起，我是以一个概念设计师和一个情节串联图版画家的身份绘制了电影计划中的许多场景的，因为那些工作中最有趣的部分就是为一份并不是每件东西都已经设计好的剧本进行创作。”

史诗的封面（Epic Covers）

One of the most complex Star Wars pieces completed by Edwards was the cover art for the Revised Core Rulebook of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The front and back covers would include over a dozen major heroes and villains of the saga, though the original request from Wizards of the Coast consisted of an even larger cast of characters.
爱德华兹完成的最复杂的一件《星战》作品是《星球大战》角色扮演游戏的《中心规则手册修订版》的封面画。这本书的封面和封底画包含了该传奇中超过一打的主要英雄和反派形象，虽然最初“海岸巫师”要求画的人物形象甚至比这还要多。

"Basically I was given a list of everything they'd like to see in the cover, and we chopped that in half," says Edwards. "My favorite part of the whole job is coming up with the composition, just trying to figure out how I can fit all this in. They wanted a little bit of every single movie except Episode III, and even an aspect of the novels, Mara Jade."
“基本上我得到的名单里列出了他们想在封面上看见的所有东西，我们把名单砍掉了一半，”爱德华兹说，“这整件工作里我最喜欢的部分就是交出构图，。他们想要除了EP3外每一部电影的画面，甚至包括小说里的人物——玛拉·杰德。”

Edwards then hashed out the composition through a series of rough sketches. Once approved, he broke out the art supplies and went to work. "It's a lot of mixed media, acrylics and gouache and watercolors and colored pencils and ink and dyes... whatever is going to work."
然后爱德华兹用一系列草图表现他的构图。一旦得到核准，他倾尽所有绘画方式开始工作。“这是一种大量的混合画法，丙稀酸树脂、树胶水彩、水彩、彩色铅笔、彩色墨水还有染色法等等……，无论什么都用上了。”

The finished piece measured an impressive 19 inches tall by 38 inches wide, much larger than the 11 x 17 printed final. "Part of the reason for working that large is because I have a really hard time doing the likenesses on the actors any smaller than that. Obi-Wan is on the front, and he's got a really small head, and it's really hard to do it that small."
完成后的作品是一幅19英寸高、38英寸宽的触动人心的画作，比11 x 17英寸的最终印刷版要大得多。“把画画得这么大的部分原因是因为，如果在比这更小的地方画的话，就很难画出演员与角色的相似处。奥比万在前排，他的头部就相当小，要在这么小一块地方画实在太难了。”

After the piece is painted, Edwards scans the artwork into his computer for digital manipulation. "I might punch up a lightsaber effect, or the glow of an explosion, or I can punch up the blacks a little bit," he explains.
在作品付印后，爱德华兹把这幅画扫描进他的电脑作数字处理。“我也许可以加上一些光剑的效果，爆炸的火光，或者可以把黑色加深。”他解释说。

Because Edwards typically juggles three or four projects at any given time, he says it's hard to estimate specifically how long it takes to complete a given piece. "Usually a Star Wars cover like that would be a week to just do sketches and get reference. After I've done the sketch phase, it usually takes me about a week to do the painting. Sometimes I've had them take up to a week and a half or so, and I work a pretty regular nine-to-five kind of thing."
因为爱德华兹在任何限定时间内完美地完成了三或四项计划，他说很难明确估计完成每一件作品要多长时间。“通常一个象那样的《星战》封面，仅仅是画草图和找到参考书目就需要一个星期的时间。一旦我完成草稿阶段，一般我要花大约一个星期的时间来着色。有时画他们需要大约一到一个半星期的时间，而我工作一般总是从上午九点到晚上五点，相当有规律性。”

For Star Wars reference, Lucasfilm and its licensees would supply Edwards with photographs and turn-around art of the subject matter to ensure accuracy. "There's such a level of realism on the stuff that you just can't fake any of it," says Edwards. "It's all in what you do with the reference, how you translate it and have fun with it. I'm always walking that line of how can I please the client and the actors and anyone who is involved and how can I have some fun artistically and make myself excited about it and not feel like I'm just trying to replicate a photograph. There's a piece I did recently for the Alien Anthology roleplaying game cover. It's got Kit Fisto on there, fighting some guys, and there really wasn't a lot of reference. So, in the end, Kit Fisto is my wife's body, in a Jedi costume, with somebody else's hand and Kit Fisto's head and a lightsaber," he laughs.
作为《星球大战》的参考书目，卢卡斯影业和获得它授权的人会向爱德华兹提供照片和主题相关的造型发展图，以确保精确度。“这些东西是如此的写实主义，以至你根本不能捏造其中的任何一样，”爱德华兹说，“这就是你要依据参考书目作的一切，以及你怎样才能表达它，并且从中得到乐趣。我总是尽量在如何取悦顾客、取悦演员以及任何牵涉其中的人物之间保持平衡，同时我还要考虑如何让我在艺术上感到愉悦，让我对此感到兴奋，而不是觉得我只是在努力复制一张照片。我最近完成的一副作品是为Alien Anthology角色扮演游戏绘制的封面。上面是Kit Fisto与几个人在打斗，而且真的没有多少参考画。因此，在最后，Kit Fisto有我妻子的身体，穿着绝地袍，有着另一个人的双手以及Kit Fisto的脑袋和一把光剑。”他大笑起来。

Edwards has a hard time picking his favorite Star Wars piece. "I'm so hard on myself I always feel like the next thing I'm going to do is going to be better than the one I just did," he admits. Pressed for an answer, he cites the Revised Core Rulebook cover as the highest profile Star Wars piece he's done.
要爱德华兹挑出他最喜欢的《星战》作品很困难。“我对自己总是很刻薄，我总想让我将要画的下一幅画好过我刚完成的这一幅，”他承认道。因为一定要有一个答案，他将他为《中心规则手册修订版》画的封面画定为他最好的《星战》作品。

"It's something that I do feel proud of when I see it, which is nice because my wife always teases me that I always cringe at everything," he says. "I was glad I was able to come up with a composition that has a lot of adventure and action in it but was kind of romantic with the two leads. And, it has some of the characters that I have always really wanted to draw."
“每当我看见这幅作品，都确实为之感到自豪，这太好了，因为我妻子总是为我对任何事都畏首畏尾的毛病而戏弄我。”他说，“我很高兴我能交出一份作品，其中有许多冒险和动作场面，但两个主角间又有着几分浪漫。而且，这里面有几个角色是我一直真正想画的。”

Though Edwards admits he is hypercritical of his own work, he does have the support of a rather enthusiastic fan: his four-year old son, Henry (named after a certain fictional globetrotting archeologist from Lucasfilm, no less).
虽然爱德华兹承认，对于自己的作品他相当苛刻，但是他还是拥有一个绝对热诚的读者的支持：他四岁的儿子亨利（仍然是以卢卡斯影片中某个环球旅行的虚构考古学家的名字命名）。

"The most fun part of Star Wars for me now, as a professional being able to get paid for this stuff, is sharing it with my son who is four. He's at that age right now that I was when the first one came out," he says. "When he was a baby his favorite thing was Darth Maul. I think it's the graphic black and red shapes to his face, and I was drawing Darth Maul's Revenge for Random House and my son would always walk around saying, 'Maul! Maul!' That was one of his first words. I think he thinks every daddy does this stuff for a living."
“现在《星球大战》对我而言最有趣的部分在于，作为一个可以为这些创作得到报酬的职业人员，能和我四岁的儿子分享这一切。他现在这个年纪正是当年第一部《星战》公映时我的年纪，”他说，“当他还是个婴儿的时候他最喜欢的就是达斯摩尔。我想是他脸上那些黑色和红色的花纹让他感兴趣，当我为蓝灯书屋画《达斯·摩尔的复仇》的时候，我儿子总是在房间里四处转，边走边说，‘摩尔！摩尔！’那是他最先学会说的几个词之一。我想他是认为爸爸画的每一幅画都是有真人为范本的。”

补充：《中心规则手册修订版》封面和封底大图

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