Free PS4 Star Wars Battlefront II Theme Available Now, Behind The Scenes With The Artist

It's Star Wars week and the recently released Battlefront II title from EA has just launched their The Last Jedi expansion to correspond with the new film in theaters now! To celebrate the exciting franchise, Sony has just released a free theme to show off that Iden pride - the protagonist in the game's single player story mode. But it's more than just a new theme, the artist and creator of the new tribute took to the PlayStation Blog to sound off about the creative process.

Artist Russell Walks opened up about why he chose the more retro style of this theme, and how the final product came to be. Here's what he had to say about his creative venture and his feelings on his contribution to the Star Wars franchise:

"I was incredibly excited when the opportunity of creating a Star Wars Battlefront II inspired PlayStation theme was presented to me and had all sorts of ideas as to what could be done. In my mind I was looking for color, for action, and for a sort of "retro/propaganda" feeling, and I believe that comes across nicely in the work.

To take you behind the creative process here is that path I take on a project like this. First I spend a couple of days doing research – I'm sometimes looking for images of the characters I'll be depicting, but I also spend time just checking out art, sort of free associating and following whatever trail the web lays out for me. In this instance, I started by looking at vintage racing posters, WPA artwork from the 30's, and street art created by folks like Banksy and Shepard Fairey. This an important step. Inspiration is a collaborative process, and seeing what others have done almost always gives me an idea or ignites a spark in the creative part of my mind."

He then went on to show several prototypes that he came up with, and nixed ideas that he felt didn't quite capture the feel of Star Wars the way he wanted. After showing off several stages, several scrapped ideas, and several headaches - he finally came to the final product, the one available now for free. He later added:

"I look at these pieces over and over, and while they are inspiring, I don't look for elements from them to include in my work. It's more accurate to say that these pieces, and many, many others inspire me to do my best, and to find a new/different way of looking at a property so many of us love. It's not a stretch at all to say that Star Wars changed my life, and if you told twelve-year-old me that this is what grown-up me would be doing for living – creating artwork for a Star Wars game! – twelve-year-old me would probably have a heart attack. Doing this is hard work, no doubt, but it's also fulfilling, and rewarding, and most days – when I'm deep in the heart of a single-player campaign, for instance, and I'm laughing in amazement at how freaking cool Battlefront II is – I can't believe how lucky I am."

To read his full blog, you can check out the post right here. The Star Wars Battlefront II theme is available now in the PlayStation store for free.