Happy 30th Anniversary, Star Wars!
It feels like forever since the last time I did an art related Friday Favorites. To make up for that, and to close out this week of Star Wars 30th Anniversary celebration, I want to talk about some of the art of Star Wars. This is by no means a comprehensive look, just a quick overview of some of the things I like.
(D. Struzan)
One of the premiere Star Wars artists is Drew Struzan. His work is so prolific that you have seen it in more places than you realize. Take a moment to check out this montage of Struzan movie posters and you’ll see just how much of an influence he has been in the movie marketing business over the last three decades. Seriously, take a look, you’ll be amazed.
(D. Struzan)
I have long been a fan of poster and book cover art featuring painted illustrations of featured characters. This came from Star Wars. The character mélanges on Star Wars, and Star Trek, novels, movie posters, etc. carry an enormous nostalgia factor for me.
(D. Struzan, cover illustration for SW roleplaying game. Click image for larger version.)
The casting of the original trilogy was masterful. A handful of little known actors/actresses were paired with a few that were well-known for their craft and together they created some of the most memorable movie characters ever. Their images, realized through amazing artists, like Drew Struzan, continue to wow me after all these years. The ability to capture the essence of a film with an image is an amazing gift and many of these artists have done just that.
(D. Struzan)
Struzan was commissioned to do all the posters for the prequel trilogy as well and I really like the work he did on the Revenge of the Sith poster.
(Tom Jung)
Getting back to the first Star Wars film for a moment, the above image is by far my favorite poster for this movie. Though highly stylized, in an updated Frank Frazetta-ish way, it is a wonderful poster. Even though it is not an accurate portrayal of the way Luke and Leia really looked, it is still great fun.
(Ralph McQuarrie concept art)
I certainly cannot go any further without showing some of the wonderful conceptual art from the man who created the look of Star Wars, Ralph McQuarrie.
(Ralph McQuarrie, early C-3PO and R2-D2 concept art)
McQuarrie’s concept work has such a 1950’s sensibility about it that it must have felt nostalgic at the time of its creation. The work is very unique and very well done.
(Ralph McQuarrie)
McQuarrie showcased more of his polished painting talents on the cover to Splinter of the Minds Eye, a very fun early SW novel.
(Ralph McQuarrie)
Simply put, Ralph McQuarrie is Star Wars.
(Roger Kastel)
The above artwork, the rare ‘style A’ poster for The Empire Strikes Back, is by artist Roger Kastel and is my favorite of all Star Wars artistic images. Allegedly Billy Dee Williams complained after seeing t his that he was not featured so later versions of this poster show him and a few other characters added to the scene. This poster has been dubbed the Gone With the Wind poster as Kastel painted Han and Leia in a way that mimics Tom Jung’s poster with Rhett and Scarlett posed in the same manner.
(James Cukr, picture of the poster that graces my home office wall)
I am so enthralled with that Empire image that when I saw how airbrush artist James Cukr incorporated similar elements into his Empire Strikes Back collage that I knew I had to own it. I met him at a Star Trek convention years ago, and fell for the image right away. It was immediately framed and has been hanging on my wall ever since. I really love it and can’t bear the thought of taking it down to hang up any of the many art prints I have procured since then.
(artist unknown, to me. Any ideas?)
I read Return of the Jedi several times before and after seeing the film. I stared at that image so many times, daydreaming of lightsaber battles. It is such a simple but immensely powerful image, considering the importance of Jedi in this film.
(artist unknown, to me. Any ideas?)
And although I love that powerful image, the above poster is my favorite representation of Return of the Jedi. Harrison Ford seems, to me, to be the more difficult one to capture well on these likeness posters and the above artists all did a very good job of it.
(Dave Dorman, Dark Empire 4)
In addition to the conceptual, poster and movie tie-in artwork, there have been a number of talented artists over the years producing artwork that graces comic books, expanded universe novels, etc. One such artist is Dave Dorman. Although I never read the comic series, I liked the above image, with Han in the classic pose and the Falcon in the background, that I bought this issue of this series just to have the cover artwork.
(Tim and Greg Hildebrandt)
The Brothers Hildebrandt are also very well-known Star Wars artists. And you know I love me some Millenium Falcon art!
(Jon Foster, Star Wars #30)
This is a work you may recognize from my Friday Favorites post about artist Jon Foster.
(Jon Foster, Star Wars #28)
Foster is an incredible painter who has done many of the covers for Star Wars comics and for various expanded universe novels, my favorite image being on the novel Remnant.
(Ashley Wood)
Perhaps you remember this image by former Friday Favorite artist Ashley Wood? It is a very stylized piece, but I like it. It is uniquely Ashley Wood. You can look at more of his work in this Friday Favorite post.
(John Harris)
And yet another artist featured as a Friday Favorite, John Harris, has done some great cover illustration for Star Wars related novels, including the above cover for Dark Tides: Onslaught. This is such a fantastic image and I’m only sorry I cannot find a clearer, and larger, version online to show you.
(Eric Poulton)
New artists continue to do interesting things with the inspiration of George Lucas’ characters. Artist Eric Poulton has seen his reimaginations of the Star Wars universe as steampunk travel around the internet on various blog sites.
(Eric Poulton)
Though something of a departure from the Star Wars we all know and love, I think he has done a great job visualizing these characters through the steampunk lens. I like steampunk, and these are fun (prints can be had cheaply here).
(Eric Poulton)
And to show that art can come in many formats:
Courtesy of SF Signal, check out these ads for Disney-MGM Star Wars Weekends.
Aren’t they fun? These and many more can be seen here (scroll down).
(this is my favorite of all of them!)
I hope you have enjoyed this artistic trip through the Star Wars universe. There are no doubt many artists whose work I did not get a chance to touch on.
Your contest discussion question of today is: What Star Wars artistic images are memorable to you, and why? Which do you like, which don’t do anything for you?
They can be some of the ones featured today or completely different ones.
Remember, you have until 11:59 p.m. CST on Sunday to participate in all four Star Wars posts to have your name entered into the drawing for the Star Wars Swag. Here are links to the other three posts for easy access if you have yet to comment in them:
I’ll announce the winner in a closing Star Wars post early Monday morning. For those of you who have a long holiday weekend, Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
And don’t forget, Star Wars stamps come out today! Yippee!!! I can’t wait to get to the post office and snag some (for me and for the prize pack).
I agree with you about the ESB poster, that was such an amazing poster for an amazing movie.
And I love the Tartakovsky-ized art for the Clone Wars series, I really like stylized cartoonish images, and add that to Star Wars and you have perfection.
I like the one for Empire Strikes Back by Roger Kastel best of all. It has everything that I like about The Empire Strikes back – Han Solo and Princess Leia in a romantic pose and Luke looking stylish on the tauntaun. I can’t think of any images that I don’t like.
i’m totally with you with regards to the original movie poster art! its very iconic! i love it – its definitely my favourite artwork relating to star wars.
i also like jon foster’s star wars stuff. i love all of jon foster’s work!
this ralph mcquarrie looks interesting, though… i think i’ll be checking him out.
personally there is no artwork related to star wars that i dislike. star wars has become part of our modern mythology and as is open to everyone’s interpretation now. i think star wars is so lodged in our collective conscience now that it belongs to everyone and i think thats very cool.
I love the Eric Poulton b&w pieces you’ve featured here, Carl. Thanks for sharing those. 🙂
I love that poster you have framed on your wall. That’s great.
I love that Empire Strikes Back poster art.
Another image I like is the poster from Episode I (I don’t like the prequels too much, but as you said in a previous comment, the visuals are undeniably gorgeous).
Darth Maul is a character who, visually, I find very striking and appealing.
I tend to, funnily enough, have a fondness for images incorporating Darth Vader.
Well first off… anything by Drew Struzan I love love love, and own a number of his posters!
Secondly, I am really happy you put The poster by Roger Kastel among your choices! I’m not “good friends” with them but I know and see Roger and his wife about once or twice a year.. really nice people, and more then worth the mention! (Roger did the cover and poster for “Jaws”.. that’s the one that more or less brought him into the eye of many.)
When you see him again, Deslily, let him know that his Empire poster has excited many of us since the first day we laid eyes on it. In fact, it is part of what I called the ‘holy trinity’ back when I did the post with pics from my home office space:
Quix, either Darth or Yoda won the stamp voting contest, but they haven’t changed the website to show who won.
Jon Foster is amazing, Jean-Pierre. Did you get his art book when it came out earlier this year? It is wonderful.
Homie Bear, I like the Clone Wars art as well, very cool.
There aren’t really any images I don’t like either, aichaku, but I figured I might as well give people permission to say that they don’t like them…and I’ll try not to be as argumentative as I was in my comment to Neth in yesterday’s post! 😉
CdnReader, I’m glad you like Eric’s stuff. I think its pretty ingenious myself.
I hadn’t seen a lot of the images you have here…the one of Darth holding his boots is snark-out-loud funny to me (I needed a good laugh today).
I actually had the original movie poster from outside the theater where I saw the film. I lost it somewhere along the way. I guess that would have been considered a collector’s item, huh?
Most likely, yes, Suzanne! I think a bunch of us have memorabilia, toys, etc. that time that would be collector’s items now if we had kept them nice. But I had too much fun with my SW toys, so I don’t care.
The movie posters of the original are my favorite.. love the prints on your wall!
They pretty much incorporate everything I love about the films in one picture.
The ones I don’t care for are artists renditions of the ships. They pretty much all look the same to me!
I suppose I have never really had a favourite Star Wars artwork. That is not to say I don’t look at them, but I have never really kept a list in my head of which I really like and which is just okay. That’s just the way I am, I guess.
i’ve got “progressions” but haven’t got around to getting his new one yet!
Progressions in one I’d like to get a copy of as well. The new one is really nicely done, JP. Arnie and Cathy Fenner edit it and they, in my opinion, are the absolute best in editing art books.
You don’t have to have a favorite, Kailana, its okay! 🙂
And, geek that I am, I hit the post office dead on at 9:00 a.m. and picked up some of the sheets of Star Wars stamps. They look great!
I also like all the Star Wars art above plus I also really dig the new animated SW Clone Wars art style. The orginal poster for me though is a favorite because it is such a frazetta like image although I don’t think Frank would tell us he likes being swiped. 🙂 I also really enjoy the ESB poster, Jon Foster’s, and John Harris’s SW work a lot but heck I really can’t choose who I like the best of all of the above. Great post Carl! The friday art favorites are the best. The SW graphic novel Dark Empire has some great art work in it plus I remember really enjoying the story too.
I think I have all the Dark Empire issues that Scott sent me long ago, I’ve just never read them.
I really enjoyed all the Rogue Squadron comics that I read way back when.
Can’t believe I forgot to add this info this morning:
Happy Birthday, Jeff!!! Hope you are enjoying your birthday day off!!!
Well, I think my favourites out of the above images are the Steampunk Darth (because I do love a bit of steampunk, and he reminds me of the clockwork robots from Doctor Who). And the airport photo showing Darth Vader with his boots off.
It’s the humour I like, especially that his black socks are evidently in the wash. (And by the time I’ve got through airport security, I’m generally about ready to go over to the Dark Side, so I suppose I have some fellow feeling…)
As a pure image, I think the lifted lightsabre is highly effective.
Awesome post. What fun those steampunk and travel ads are!
I think, if you had asked me a few days ago, I would have said the posters by Drew Struzan are most memorable and my favourites. He’s amazingly talented, they all look quite lifelike, and you can see how his style has influenced most movie posters. After reading this post, though, I think the one that most sticks out to me, and the one that I may in fact like best now, is that Return of the Jedi poster with Luke’s hands holding the Light Saber, with a space scene in the background… From a Graphic Design perspective, it’s the most daring of all the posters because there is so little there, and yet it still (or because of that)manages to be eye catching… the visual hierarchy, the contrast, the white (black?) space all work together to create a really stunning poster… hmm.
I was alwys partial to the take on Gone With the Wind. It gives a romantic touch. My favorite however is the light saber by the unknown artist. It is so simply done, yet so powerful. I would love to have that one for my wall.
It is 1:00 a.m. and we just finished watching Star Wars. Odd to think that a little over 30 years ago (obviously our drive-in wasn’t one of the 32 theatres it opened in that first weekend) we were probably heading home about this time after the double feature. I appreciate the symmetry. It is so odd to think that 30 years have passed since the day that Star Wars invaded our hearts. The memories I have that connect me to those times in my life, particularly the way these films and my reading at that time tied together, are so vivid and emotionally strong that I sometimes feel a very melancholic longing to return to those times, if just for a moment. Despite continuing to see the wonder in things as an adult, I sometimes miss that innocent sense of awe that attended upon my childhood. That time when I firmly believed we would be in space in my lifetime. The fact that we really aren’t, not to any great extent, is very bittersweet.
Anyway, not to get on a downer, it was really great to watch this again, it has been a few years. I forgot how much the Jawa catchphrase of ‘Utinni!’ cracks me up!!! I just love Harrison Ford’s timing with his lines and how much he really brought Han to life.
Thanks again, George Lucas, and Happy Anniversary Star Wars!!!
I was just cleaning away and I realized I forgot to tell Jeff Happy Birthday. If you catch this, Jeff, may you receive many books for your birthday. I enjoyed your comments, Carl. It felt so nostolgic. I’m sorry I wasn’t home in time to watch the Star Wars Trilogy Bonus Materials, which I shamelessly still have. It would have been great to watch that on the anniversary.
Don’t worry about it Pat. I think you will really enjoy that when you get around to watching it!
We had to celebrate by watching all SIX this weekend, my husband, my son and I. Except, my son at sixteen is the same age I was when the first one was released. I feel like Yoda. 🙂
We had to celebrate by watching all SIX this weekend, my husband, my son and I. Except, my son at sixteen is the same age I was when the first one was released. I feel like Yoda. 🙂
Holy smokes, carl, I seem unable to leave comments just once. I’m not sure what my problem is, but I’ll try to be less redundant!
Sometimes a comment just bears repeating!!! 🙂
I watched Ep I and II during the week last week. Didn’t get to III before Friday rolled around on which I had to watch the original. We just got done watching Empire Strikes Back tonight and will probably squeeze in Return of the Jedi tomorrow before the Star Wars special on the History Channel at 8 p.m. central time.
The hands and lightsabre poster was painted by Tim Reamer.
The other Jedi poster was painted by Japanese artist Kazuhika (kazo) Sano. Later versions have Lando repainted to make him the same size as the other characters. The new Lando was added by Vincent Malizia. Find out all the Star Wars posters here…
http://www.theforce.net/collecting/posters/
Jim
Thanks Jim, I appreciate both the info and the link.