The Star Wars franchise has always fascinated Ed Binkley. He was in college when the first film (A New Hope) hit theatres.

Now, he has a new connection to the Star Wars series – as an illustrator.

Binkley has been an artist for Raven Software, Mattel, and Publisher’s Toolbox. He has even been featured in the last 10 issues of Spectrum, a yearly collection of contemporary fantasy art, where he won a gold award last year.

Binkley, the Animation and Concept Development program director at Madison Area Technical College was recently selected to develop artwork for the new Star Wars novel, “Visions.” In the production of “Visions,” LucasArts selected 100 artists to develop art for the novel.

The artists that were chosen by LucasArts were given the assignment of taking a Star Wars character and re-creating the image of that character. Binkley was originally contacted by Abrams Publishing, the company that publishes the Star Wars novels. They were the ones who informed him that he was one of the 100 selected to submit artwork for the new novel.

After discussing the opportunity with his wife, Binkley decided to go ahead with making the artwork. As for the character re-creation, he chose the Tusken Raiders. Tusken Raiders, or Sand People, are located on Tatooine, a world in the Star Wars series. The raiders are the reason why Tatooine inhabitants don’t stray far from their communities, according to StarWars.com.  With the raiders appearing to have no objective other than to spread terror, he felt that should be portrayed in the image of the Tusken Raiders.

“I always thought in the movies the Tusken Raiders were not frightening enough,” Binkley said. “They sat in the hills with high-powered weapons and took potshots at anybody who drove by. It occurred to me that they were the Star Wars equivalent to terrorists. So I thought they should appear terrifying.”

The painting that Binkley submitted was made into a poster. The poster, which debuted at Comic-Con in July, has been good for him, Binkley said.

“The poster has gotten a lot of publicity,” Binkley said.  “It was nice to be a part of the book, but the poster was the big thing when it came through.”

In addition to the publicity, it has been fulfilling from a personal standpoint as well for Binkley. It is a unique experience being a part of one of the most entertaining brands in history, the Star Wars franchise.

“I was stunned. It never occurred to me that George Lucas would have heard my name,” Binkley said. “An assignment like that doesn’t come along too often.”

Yoda was an inspiration to Binkley. Yoda had a powerful mentality in the eyes of Binkley and that is why he was able to be successful in the Star Wars Trilogies. Binkley has tried to duplicate that mentality in his life.

“I don’t think I have a great mentality, but I am living proof that you can outwork your competition,” Binkley said. “I am a workaholic. I think I’ve been more successful than a lot of people I’ve known who had more ability than me and probably were more intelligent than me. I outworked them.”