Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Luke and Lea concept before the original Star Wars posters, Drew Struzan




About his career, Struzan has said: "I was poor and hungry, and illustration was the shortest path to a slice of bread, as compared to a gallery showing. I had nothing as a child. I drew on toilet paper with pencils – that was the only paper around. Probably why I love drawing so much today is because it was just all I had at the time. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Struzan

5 comments:

  1. This is not 'concept art' - this poster was commissioned in '78 after the first film was already shot and released.

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  2. In 1977 fellow artist Charles White III, well-known for his own airbrush prowess, had been hired by Lucas to create a poster design for the 1978 re-release of Star Wars. White, uncomfortable with portraiture, asked Struzan for his help on the project. As such, Struzan painted the human characters in oil paints and White focused on the ships, Darth Vader, C-3PO, and all the mechanical details of the poster art.[6]

    The unique poster design, popularly called the "Circus" poster, depicts what appears to be a torn posted bill on a plywood construction site wall. "It was necessity that invented that," Struzan explains. "They found out there wasn't enough room for the typography and the billing block they had left in the design. What can we do to make more space on a poster that's already been printed? Let's pretend it's posted, then they can put the type below the actual poster. We painted Obi Wan down the side and stuff across the bottom to make it wider and deeper."

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Natalie Portman ( from Thor 2 ) pencil on paper drawing by Darko Mitrevski, MFA

My latest pencil drawing...