Having watched Star Wars (wikipedia page) for my birthday at the ripe age of 7, it being my first time in a cinema, I will never forget the moment when the Imperial StarDestroyer seemed to swallow the theatre and a wide eyed kid’s life was changed forever, as were so many others.

From that day forth, I was a Star Wars fan, I had dozens of character models, an X-wing fighter, a dissappointing Star Destroyer and numerous other Lucas merchandise pieces. By the time I discovered girls, I had seen Star Wars over 350 times and although other interests took favour, I still nurtured a love for all things Rebel Alliance and a natural lack of trust for Imperial Stormtroopers and the Dark Side.

However it was only recently that I was made aware of Ralph McQuarrie and his influence and style that formed much of the concepts, that so many love today.

Ralph McQuarrie was Born on June 13, 1929 with an artistic streak in the family he studied art and became a technical illustrator at Boeing illustrating designs for air and spacecraft. His animated work was used by NASA and CBS news for the coverage of the Apollo lunar missions.

Between 1965 and 1975 McQuarrie worked as a freelance artist in film and television. He was hired by George Lucas to illustrate the concept of Star Wars to Twentieth-Century Fox. McQuarrie supplied images of R2-D2 and C-3PO , Stormtroopers, the Death Star, Darth Vader and Lightsabers. It worked and McQuarrie worked on with the project both pre and during production. Full Biography here.

The artwork is simply amazing, even if you weren’t a fan of the Film series or even a Sci-Fi buff. Such a seminal pieced of film history and the name of Ralph McQuarrie is heard so little.

A Google image search of ‘Ralph Mcquarrie’ will show many of the great masterpieces but it’s worth trawling some of the fan sites and reading a little on the background and influence McQuarrie had on the films as whole. It also turns up some of the gems of unknowns, like the fact that Luke Skywalker was originally Luke Starkiller and a girl!

Here is a great set shown on Michael Heilemann’s Flikr account. And some early Star Wars figures by Sillof based on some of the pre-final script concepts. Dreams and Vision Press publish a book of Ralph McQuarries work, for the avid fan.

Think like a kid again.

~ by Thinker on 19 - June - 2008.