Ahsoka Tano Lowers Her Sabers in Brooding Shadow — Print & Oil Painting

Built like a coat of arms. The figure is placed dead centre and painted almost perfectly symmetrical: shoulders level, arms straight down and mirrored, one hilt in each fist, the two blades running out to the lower corners at matching angles. Fold the canvas down the middle and the halves would very nearly meet.

The technique is flat and graphic throughout: hard-edged shapes, no blending, contours drawn in rather than modelled. The costume comes across as a set of dark silhouetted masses of hood, cloak, high-collared tunic and a belt with a plain silver disc, with two small red points on the chest as the only interruption.

Behind her the ground has been given over to a lava field, and it does all the colouring for the whole picture: orange and vermilion running through black rock, molten falls pouring down the cliffs on both sides, a hot haze standing over the horizon. She is a dark shape on a burning field, which is the reverse of how this character is usually lit.

The face is small and it is where the artist has concentrated. The striped montrals frame it, the markings are drawn as hard white shapes, and the eyes have been left as blank pale slots with no pupil, lit from within rather than looking at anything. The mouth is set flat.

Weapons lowered, feet planted, no motion anywhere: the picture refuses to tell you whether the fight is coming or already finished. From our Star Wars collection, alongside the sabers in dramatic shadow and the portrait with the dark side in her eyes.