The Art of Star Wars

The Art of Star Wars is a series of books by various editors featuring concept art from the Star Wars motion picture saga. The books mainly feature artwork accompanied by a short explanation of the scene and the artist's ideas, but also script notes, posters and other information. All were published by LucasBooks and DelRey a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House. The Art of Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith featured a foreword by director George Lucas.

The artwork includes drawings; digitally mastered pictures; paintings; sketches; mock-ups; and photos of models of scenes, buildings, costumes, characters, spacecraft, and creatures.[1] The Art of Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope which was first published in 1979 as The Art of Star Wars has been called the definitive work on the development of the inspiring cinematographic art of Star Wars, that so influenced later films.[2] Among many others, the books showcase the works of Ralph McQuarrie, who, although his paintings do not hang in prestigious art galleries, was the artistic guru behind the first three Star Wars movies,[3] and Doug Chiang, who designed Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The books chart their artistic efforts from original gouache drawings to the extraordinary three-dimensional models of spaceships. Jonathan Jones said Looking at his [McQuarrie's] paintings, you can recognise that the appeal of this art is similar to that of 19th century Orientalist paintings of harems and sandy vistas.[4]

The first three books were re-released in 1997, with changes and new material added to reflect the Special Edition theatrical releases. The original 1979 The Art of Star Wars was also retitled to reflect the new opening crawl (which would finally be shown in theaters in the 1981 re-release).

The books

References

  1. 1 2 Johnson, Pam (2002). "Young adult reviews: Vaz, Mark Cotta. The Art of Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones". School Library Journal 48 (9): 258.
  2. ↑ Hart, John Patrick (2008). "The Storyboard Artist and the Storyboard". The Art of the Storyboard: A Filmmaker's Introduction (second ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Focal Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-240-80960-1.
  3. ↑ Christopher, James (12 April 2000). "Greetings, Earthlings; Arts". The Times. p. 16.
  4. ↑ Jones, Jonathan (29 April 2000). "Jonathan Jones on the art of Star Wars". The Guardian. p. 5.
  5. ↑ "In the news; Books behind the headlines: Star Wars". The Sunday Times. 5 May 2002. p. 40.
  6. ↑
    1. 23 "Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction". The New York Times. 9 June 2002.
  7. ↑ "Prepare for a galaxy of 'Star Wars' offerings". USA Today. 1 April 2005. p. 3E.


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