I usually leave Star Wars stuff alone on this page lately, having overdosed on it during the prequel era, but I can’t help but note the sad passing of Ralph McQuarrie. While notable as an accomplished artist in his own right, he will always be remembered as the conceptual artist on Star Wars who more than anyone other than George Lucas helped crystallise the Star Wars “look.” He was crucial to shaping the quasi-mythical, lived-in, timeless aesthetic of the series; there’s also little doubt that his early paintings were pivotal in helping Lucas to sell the scope of the Star Wars vision and hence getting the movie made.
While a lot of artists also made substantial contributions to the series, the Star Wars universe always feels at its grandest, most epic, and most textured in McQuarrie’s work, such as the moody painting below.
The official Star Wars page has a brief but effective tribute here, and there’s a beautiful gallery of his Star Wars work here, although the latter rather spoils the effect by misspelling his name and referring to the paintings as storyboards, which they’re obviously not. A fuller sense of his wider work can be found at his official site.
