Michael Butkus illustrated The Essential Guide to Characters, The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, and The Wrath of Darth Maul.
Butkus had been working as a professional artist since the 1980s, fluent in various artistic media from charcoal to oil painting. He studied anatomy and physical motion, allowing him to draw without needing models or references. In the past he considered studying genetic engineering.
His work includes movie posters and production design; he also developed licensed merchantising concepts. By the '90s he had worked for Disney and DreamWorks.
Troy Alders, the art director of Lucasfilm, hired him to draw characters for The Essential Guide to Characters, concept art for the Shadows of the Empire project, and a style guide. For the first phase of the Shadows project, Butkus was give a couple of conceptual descriptions for the main characters and, from January to April 1995, he came up with the first pencil and ink images, producing dozens of preliminary sketches. While working for Shadows Butkus camped in a lonely California beach with his boxer dog, and drew characters listening to music from his car's CD player, producing around twenty sketches a day; he drew Prince Xizor while listening the Batman soundtrack; he listened 1960s rock 'n roll while drawing Dash Rendar.
- The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
- Star Wars: The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt