In 2008, a gentleman had seen me at the New York Anime Festival creating a giant Voltron chalk mural, and asked if I would be interested in attending the NY Toy Fair just two months later to create a piece for his booth. After some back and forth, we settled on an image of Star Wars. Oh, but not just any image, this was going to be a recreation of one of the original Ralph McQuarrie concept art paintings from the first film way back in 1977. A number of these concept paintings had recently been turned into limited edition action figures so the fit was perfect for the Toy Fair.

The event was a unique experience for me. The crowd was entirely business professionals instead of the comic book fans I am used to meeting, but I was happy to see that a number of them still got as excited about the art as any viewer at the conventions I have attended. These people work with toys for a living after all, so they have just as much geek inside as the rest of us.

I also wasn’t sure of a number of details going in to this chalk drawing. The exact size wasn’t even determined until just hours before the show opened, so I created the entire chalk mural on the show floor right from my size grid all the way though to the finished colors. It ended up being a fantastic time and I really hope to make it back again soon for another go round. Enjoy the images!