Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie

Product Information

As curated by George Lucas, the artwork that helped bring the Star Wars Saga to life is revealed in all its glory Star Wars Art: Concept continues the Star Wars series of large oversized hardcover artbooks from publisher Harry N. Abrams. The books before are Star Wars Art: Illustration , Star Wars Art: Comics and Star Wars Art: Visions .

Ralph McQuarrie is the most iconic artist in the history of Star Wars . He worked hand in hand with George Lucas to help establish the saga’s visual aesthetic, its inimitable look and feel. Beyond designing Darth Vader, C-3PO, and R2-D2, McQuarrie produced hundreds of pieces of Star Wars artwork, including conceptual paintings, costume designs, storyboards, and matte paintings, as well as posters, book covers, and album covers—even Lucasfilm’s annual holiday cards—all rescanned and rephotographed for this book. Features pre-production drawings and paintings from the Original Trilogy, the Prequel Trilogy, the TV shows, and the video games A real big head-scratcher is the inclusion of Betty-droid centerfold pics. How is it concept art Star Wars? And how do erotic female robots fit in with the book. A waste of space there. It is going to take a long time to get through the wealth of visual (and written) detail in this book. Very cool to learn that McQuarrie was at Art Center with Syd Mead, and that he found Mead's work intimidating!In terms of write-up, there's foreword by Joe Johnston, preface by Ryan Church, introduction by Dough Chiang and an interview with Erik Tiemens. The artworks are captioned with name, source and media. There's no explanation of the concept behind the art though. Compiled by Brandon Alinger, Wade Lageose, and Emmy Award–winning writer David Mandel, Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie shares the most definitive collection of the artist’s Star Wars work ever assembled, including hundreds of never-before-seen illustrations. Rare unpublished interviews, as well as recollections from McQuarrie’s colleagues and friends, complement and contextualize the art. Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie is a comprehensive tribute to cinema’s most beloved and influential concept artist—presented in this two-hardcover-volume, slipcased gift set.

Well, this book features a mixture of concept art in the style of fully painted pieces, such as those from Ralph McQuarrie, some comic style art with outlines and markers, the very textural grayscale scenes you see from Doug Chiang and digital paintings. You can really see the transition from using traditional to digital media for creating art somewhere in the middle of the book. I definitely prefer the traditional media art, even though the digital paintings are also good. I just hope that Joe Johnston's equally-inspiring Star Wars design work receives a similar treatment one day!!!As the reader immerses him or herself into this collection, they will find themselves taken to the very beginning of the "Star Wars" Saga as George Lucas and Mr. McQuarrie collaborate in bringing to life "a galaxy far, far away." From Mr. Lucas' sparse pencil sketches of his initial toughts on the designs of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter craft, Mr. McQuarrie's fully painted production illustrations of the distinctive space ships soaring into battle to the evolving realizations of the vast and various characters and worlds in the "Star Wars" universe, this multi-volume set can be considered the ultimate book of Genesis in understanding the birth and ever growing saga that is "Star Wars." A highlight of this tome are the expanded reproductions of many of Mr. McQuarrie's famous conceptual paintings. These "detail" images give the reader the opportunity to more closely examine the technique of the artist. As someone who has been fortunate enough to have actually seen some of Mr. McQuarrie's original production paintings at a "Star Wars Celebration" convention, this reviewer was very grateful to have the chance to more fully gaze at these remarkable renderings. The original works of concept art are surprisingly modest in their true dimensions but the power and sense of scope they invoke have always been awe-inspiring. Paging through these volumes, the reader will discover that sense of grandeur again and again. From Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston to Doug Chiang, Ryan Church, Iain McCaig, Erik Tiemens, and the next generation of animation and video-game artists, Star Wars Art: Concept collects, for the first time ever, the very best Star Wars conceptual artwork. As curated by George Lucas, the artwork that helped bring the Star Wars Saga to life is revealed in all its glory, featuring pre-production drawings and paintings from the Original Trilogy, the Prequel Trilogy, the TV shows, and the video games, including an exclusive preview of artwork from the highly anticipated 1313. Spanning the years from 1975 to the present, Star Wars Art: Concept is a fascinating look at the process of conceptual design. From pen and paint and paper to the digital realm, the result is the creation of breathtaking iconic worlds, vehicles, and characters that successive generations have embraced and made their own. Spanning the years from 1975 to the present, Star Wars Art: Concept is a fascinating look at the process of conceptual design. From pen and paint and paper to the digital realm, the result is the creation of breathtaking iconic worlds, vehicles, and characters that successive generations have embraced and made their own. Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of text. There are a couple of introductions at the beginning of the book, plus some artist profiles and one interview at the end. I am very pleased with what is included here, but I would have liked some more details about the stuff that isn't exactly self-explanatory, like the canceled games. The paintings are beautiful, standard and varies, but mostly look great. The rougher ones are the digital concept art paintings.

Artworks are selected from the six films, animated TV series, video games (published and unpublished). Since there are so many Star Wars properties out there, only some can come from each. It's a mixed bag in the sense that you might actually want to see more of the art from the movies instead. While the art is good, the material selection or organisation feels haphazard. Magnificent in its size, weight and collected contents, "Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie" is quite simply one of the greatest books ever published on the "Star Wars" Saga. It is a volume I happily give my very highest recommendation. From pen and paint and paper to the digital realm, the result is the creation of breathtaking iconic worlds, vehicles, and characters that successive generations have embraced and made their own The highlight of this book is its large format. The paintings at huge sizes have more impact and it's wonderful looking at them. When looking at the large paintings, I feel that traditional media is better at handling the fade from detail to non-detailed areas. This is probably which I prefer the traditional media.Spanning the years from 1975 to the present, Star Wars Art: Concept is a fascinating look at the process of conceptual design This is the fourth in the series of 'Star Wars Art' books ('Visions', 'Comics' and 'Illustration' being the others) and as with the others, this tome is also worth getting. Star Wars is an entire world created by George's imagination, realized by Ralph's illustrations. It's a timeless universe with its distinct technology and history. It exists whenever you're watching it. It has magic to it."