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From Ad Art to Episode II – An Interview with Marc Gabbana

January 15, 2001 – When concept illustrator Marc Gabbana signed on for Episode II, he knew that a lot of people would potentially see his artwork. Little did he realize that his tight black and white marker illustrations would be the first piece of Episode II concept art to be seen by the public when it appeared on The Official Star Wars Website’s Episode II section.

“It’s so funny,” says Gabbana. “I followed some of the discussions on the net of people trying to figure out what it was. The big news that day was that Hayden Christensen was cast. People were talking about that. Then someone said, ‘Enough about that… what are those things on the Episode II web page?’ The speculation around anything Star Wars related is phenomenal.”

Even Gabbana had to look closely to identify some of the cryptic images incorporated into the page design. “When I saw the site for the first time, I had to do a double-take. I didn’t recognize it at first, because I had done those drawings months before. It was one of the early concepts, too.”

Though Gabbana remains tight-lipped about what exactly is shown in the website illustration, he did find the numerous theories about it amusing. “One guy wrote online that it’s probably some piece of throw-away art that they’re just giving us to throw us off. Another guy was the funniest. He said, ‘no, I know what it is.’ A friend of his friend’s dad whose son was in Vietnam with another friend now works at ILM or something, and they told him what it is. It’s amusing. These guys talk with absolute authority.”

Gabbana came in on the tail end of Episode I’s production, providing storyboard and production art. “I didn’t have much to do as far as concepts go, because everything was already designed. But on Episode II, I got in from the inception, and my responsibilities are far greater. I got to design many more things, which is good.”

Gabbana, whose background includes a lot of advertising art, finds concept illustration liberating. “It teaches you to be a lot more spontaneous, and if an idea sparks another, you just do another drawing. Production paintings are really the icing on the cake after all the design had been done. Star Wars designs have always been so strong and so distinct, that you don’t need to go through generations and generations of ideas before you hit it the final one.”

“Marc is a great talent, because he excels in the same way that Jay Shuster and Ed Natividad do,” says Design Director Doug Chiang. “He’s naturally a really wonderful artist, and he can draw all manner of shapes and environments. The underlying strength of the Art Department is that they all have a natural ability to draw, and an instinct for their subject matter, be it creatures or mechanical shapes or environments. It’s something you can’t really teach in some ways. You have to see it in your portfolio.”

Gabbana describes a strong level of trust between himself and Chiang, as well as the rest of the Art Department. This is quite important since, unlike most of the department, Gabbana does not work out of Skywalker Ranch. Instead, he works in a studio out of his house in his native Canada and telecommutes to the Lucasfilm headquarters.

“I’m in Windsor, Ontario, right across the river from Detroit,” says Gabbana. “It wouldn’t make sense for me to move out there. I’ve got my girlfriend here. I’ve got my life here.”

With courier services and e-mail, Gabbana kept in constant touch with Chiang and his fellow illustrators at the Ranch. “It’s very collaborative. I would send some drawings to Doug and then he would make certain revisions verbally. I would just send him a new batch, and go off on a tangent that I perhaps would not have thought of,” he says.

“I think Doug appreciates it too because I’m not influenced by what the other artists are doing in house,” adds Gabbana. “That’s kind of a mixed blessing too, because sometimes I want to see what’s going on. Doug e-mails me the relevant images for given scenes, but I’m not able to see what Jay or Ed are doing day-to-day. But that’s okay; I think this way I’m able to send fresh ideas, and not have it influenced by anybody in house.”

Before his illustration career took off, Gabbana studied architecture, a field his father wanted him to follow. “After a year I decided it wasn’t quite for me, so I transferred,” he says. He notes, with irony, that the training still applies. “I’m now a Star Wars architect. I’m very happy with that.”

Gabbana next studied illustration at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. “That’s where everybody went,” he says with a smile — both Natividad and Chiang studied there as well. After graduation in 1990, he stayed in Windsor to launch a career in advertising. “I did freelance work for a bunch of companies in the States and always kept up my own portfolio. The movie industry was something I’ve always wanted to do.”

In 1995, Gabbana met Doug Chiang at ILM, and showed him his portfolio. “Later, I heard of an opening on Episode I, so I just called him up and got hired direct on the spot,” says the artist.

“Everyone who works in the Art Department has it: a spark that went off when they were kids, ” says Gabbana. “That’s what happened to me when I was 11, in 1977, when Star Wars came out. What impressed me the most was Ralph McQuarrie’s work. The fact that you could make these fancy fantasy paintings, and someone pays you for it. I thought, Wow… this could be a job?”

A fateful freelance assignment brought Gabbana in touch with his inspiration. “Ralph McQuarrie was doing some freelance work for Galoob Toys, and so was I at the time. The Galoob art director got me in contact with him and introduced me to him. We struck up a friendship. It was great.”

Of his work and designs, Gabbana is eagerly awaiting the return of Coruscant on the big screen in 2002. “I did a lot of those big scenes. Hopefully I’ll be able to design some of the matte paintings. Even though I won’t personally be doing the finished matte painting myself, at least I’d like to get a chance to do some really tight color comps.”