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Star Wars Art #4
Star Wars Art: Concept
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 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 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. Praise for Star Wars “Legendary production artwork gets the showcase it deserves.” —Star Wars Insider magazine “Star Wars Concept is a glorious coffee-table book that’s chock full of great artwork by many of the masters who’ve worked on the film, from Ralph McQuarrie on down.” —io9.com
Hardcover
First published October 1, 2013
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240 people want to read
About the author
Joe Johnston
19 books6 followersJoseph Eggleston Johnston II is an American film director, producer, writer, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing effects-driven films, including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989); The Rocketeer (1991); Jumanji (1995); Jurassic Park III (2001); The Wolfman (2010); and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 24, 2020
This book seems pretty pricey for what you get, but if you go into it knowing that, it is very high quality and I enjoyed it. This book is just a series of concept pieces of artwork for a wide variety of Star Wars sources. I was surprised that probably 60% weren't related to the movies. Quite a few were related to video games that I've never even heard of (maybe they got cancelled) and I've played pretty much all of them.
Like all of these types of books I've read, the artwork is incredible. I would recommend reading the making of books for each of the three original trilogy movies. Those are very dense, but incredibly informative and fascinating. This book give virtually no explanations and a good deal of the imagery is referencing things that were ultimately cut from movies. You would have no idea what you were looking at if you hadn't read those other books first. I guess you could google them as well. I realized not far into the book that, if I hadn't recently read those previous "the making of..." books, I would have no idea what the concept was supposed to be or what it would turn into or if it would eventually be cut. It would just be a pretty picture.
Anyway, this is a book to admire the art and not learn anything about the decision making process or even what they were deciding.
I laughed at the Dooku picture of him being a blue alien. It was hilarious because it was so unexpected. There are also some random sexy type robots (called Betty I think) that I have no idea why they were included. They were obviously done by a professional, but they didn't fit the book.
My main complaint is that very little of this book focuses on the concepts that people would expect, mainly the first 6 movies. Pair that with the complete lack of explanations or information and I can see why some people would be disappointed. I would say get this from the library.
Like all of these types of books I've read, the artwork is incredible. I would recommend reading the making of books for each of the three original trilogy movies. Those are very dense, but incredibly informative and fascinating. This book give virtually no explanations and a good deal of the imagery is referencing things that were ultimately cut from movies. You would have no idea what you were looking at if you hadn't read those other books first. I guess you could google them as well. I realized not far into the book that, if I hadn't recently read those previous "the making of..." books, I would have no idea what the concept was supposed to be or what it would turn into or if it would eventually be cut. It would just be a pretty picture.
Anyway, this is a book to admire the art and not learn anything about the decision making process or even what they were deciding.
I laughed at the Dooku picture of him being a blue alien. It was hilarious because it was so unexpected. There are also some random sexy type robots (called Betty I think) that I have no idea why they were included. They were obviously done by a professional, but they didn't fit the book.
My main complaint is that very little of this book focuses on the concepts that people would expect, mainly the first 6 movies. Pair that with the complete lack of explanations or information and I can see why some people would be disappointed. I would say get this from the library.
December 27, 2019
The third unlooked-for, Star Wars-related artbook from my sister's family (see my review of Star Wars Storyboards: The Original Trilogy).
This volume is a bit more interesting than the storyboard books since it covers artists' concepts from outside the trilogies (the first two), including Clone Wars and the novels.
Stray observations: There's an image of Count Dooku (p. 61 in this edition) that shows him as a four-armed alien, which suggests to me that his and General Grievous' character were originally conceived as a single villain. IMO, they probably should have stuck with that. It wouldn't have made the prequels only about 1% less bad, though.
What's that they say about history repeating itself? First as tragedy, then as farce? That's my feelings about the whole, recently concluded "Skywalker Saga": Three fine (though of decreasing quality) space operas, one trilogy where they gave Lucas way too much control over product, and another where there was no one in control at all and we ended up with an inferior rehash of the first trilogy.
This volume is a bit more interesting than the storyboard books since it covers artists' concepts from outside the trilogies (the first two), including Clone Wars and the novels.
Stray observations: There's an image of Count Dooku (p. 61 in this edition) that shows him as a four-armed alien, which suggests to me that his and General Grievous' character were originally conceived as a single villain. IMO, they probably should have stuck with that. It wouldn't have made the prequels only about 1% less bad, though.
What's that they say about history repeating itself? First as tragedy, then as farce? That's my feelings about the whole, recently concluded "Skywalker Saga": Three fine (though of decreasing quality) space operas, one trilogy where they gave Lucas way too much control over product, and another where there was no one in control at all and we ended up with an inferior rehash of the first trilogy.
December 20, 2020
There's a lot of very high-quality concept artwork here; surprisingly, it's not dominated by original trilogy art. I would estimate that Revenge of the Sith has the most pages in here, but there are also A LOT of pages dedicated to Star Wars 1313. This is very, very interesting. I'm pretty sure that project had already been canceled when this book came out, so I am very grateful that this was included. There was another canceled game called First Assault that also had some really cool concept art. I had used one of them as my computer wallpaper for a while without knowing exactly where it came from, and I was happy to see it included here.
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.
If you care about the quality of the dust jacket, I would not order something like this online. This is a large, heavy book, and the dimensions of it are a little unusual. It's almost guaranteed to get damaged in the mail unless the person shipping it is careful. Try to get it in person when bookstores or conventions are open again.
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.
If you care about the quality of the dust jacket, I would not order something like this online. This is a large, heavy book, and the dimensions of it are a little unusual. It's almost guaranteed to get damaged in the mail unless the person shipping it is careful. Try to get it in person when bookstores or conventions are open again.
December 25, 2021
Mostly canceled video games, Clone Wars, and prequels — if you’re hoping for original trilogy artwork, look elsewhere. It’s a bit of an odd duck; it doesn’t include anything from more recent Star Wars TV shows, such as Rebels or Mandalorian, and nothing from the sequel trilogy. The only video game included that actually came to fruition (so far as I know) is Force Unleashed — don’t expect to see any of your other favorites here. And there’s nothing from Rogue One or Solo, if you’re hoping for that, nor is there any concept art for comic books, action figures, book covers, posters, trading cards, etc. I don’t really mind any of that, it’s just kind of weird to see what was included and what wasn’t; it’s nowhere close to being a “complete” concept art collection, but it also leaves the OT behind very quickly and moves on to more recent projects, all of which seem chosen at random.
November 24, 2022
Star Wars has been one of my favorite series for a long time now, and I’ve always found it interesting to learn more about the development and creative process that goes behind each product launched for the series.
This book is just an art book, with pretty amazing paintings mind you, that shows a little bit into the minds of amazing creators that contributed to either the movies, TV series or games, both published and shelved.
This being said. I would have much preferred a bit of written input into what was going on in the mind of the artists that did these amazing pieces instead of the half-assed comments and interviews that we get at the begging and end of the book. This makes it just a big gallery in an uncomfortable size format.
This book is just an art book, with pretty amazing paintings mind you, that shows a little bit into the minds of amazing creators that contributed to either the movies, TV series or games, both published and shelved.
This being said. I would have much preferred a bit of written input into what was going on in the mind of the artists that did these amazing pieces instead of the half-assed comments and interviews that we get at the begging and end of the book. This makes it just a big gallery in an uncomfortable size format.
August 6, 2018
Skip this and go straight to Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie, unless you really want to see half a book of digital artwork for Clone Wars and the prequels.
October 23, 2024
I'm sure all the art can be found online these days, but there's something nice about sitting down and flipping through big glossy pages. Some great historical bits from Joe Johnston and Doug Chiang as well.
February 14, 2014
I was at first excited about this new hardcover book about concept art of Star Wars. I knew it had some concept art for some games, which I don't get into, but it seemed that the game concept art took most of the book's pages, which I could have cared less about. It seemed that they could have put the games' art into a separate book (and didn't need to be hardcover, either). I thought this would be more about the movies and the art would be spreads as they did with several of the images. Unfortunately, the classic trilogy movies get very few pages. I realize that there have been "The Art of" books for those three movies, but the concept art for those three movies would have been amazing at this size of book.
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.
Overall, I was disappointed in the end result and would have liked to have seen more of the concept art for the movies (might as well wait 10 years or so and do once of these with all the newer movies) and not for games and droid-erotic. I should have borrowed this from a library before buying it.
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.
Overall, I was disappointed in the end result and would have liked to have seen more of the concept art for the movies (might as well wait 10 years or so and do once of these with all the newer movies) and not for games and droid-erotic. I should have borrowed this from a library before buying it.
September 23, 2013
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.
With 175 glossy pages packed with beautiful concept art from the likes of Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, Doug Chiang, Ryan Church, Iain McCaig and more, this covers everything from original movies, the prequels, television and video games, including the now cancelled TV show 'Detours' and video game 'Star Wars 1313'.
Starting with introductions from Joe Johnston, Ryan Church and Doug Chiang, what you get is page after page of full colour plates of paintings, plus sketches, and digital art, showcasing the creature designs, to the vehicles and beautiful vistas from the iconic saga. To be honest, it's probably nothing you haven't seen before, but it's good to see it all collected into one nice hardback volume.
If you enjoy flicking through the pages of movie art books and love the Star Wars saga, then I would recommend this book.
With 175 glossy pages packed with beautiful concept art from the likes of Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, Doug Chiang, Ryan Church, Iain McCaig and more, this covers everything from original movies, the prequels, television and video games, including the now cancelled TV show 'Detours' and video game 'Star Wars 1313'.
Starting with introductions from Joe Johnston, Ryan Church and Doug Chiang, what you get is page after page of full colour plates of paintings, plus sketches, and digital art, showcasing the creature designs, to the vehicles and beautiful vistas from the iconic saga. To be honest, it's probably nothing you haven't seen before, but it's good to see it all collected into one nice hardback volume.
If you enjoy flicking through the pages of movie art books and love the Star Wars saga, then I would recommend this book.
October 15, 2013
Such a fantastic volume of gorgeous art.
It does focus a bit more heavily on more recent concept art, but I think that is more due to previous books being devoted to McQuarrie's and Johnston's art.
Some of the most surprising bits are pieces of concept art for projects that never came to fruition.
Makes you wish some of these (particularly 1313) could see the light of day.
The headscratcher for me is why no concept art for the live action tv series was included as quite a bit was done for it before it was scrapped.... (And *one* piece of episode seven concept art would have been a nice bone to fans.)
It does focus a bit more heavily on more recent concept art, but I think that is more due to previous books being devoted to McQuarrie's and Johnston's art.
Some of the most surprising bits are pieces of concept art for projects that never came to fruition.
Makes you wish some of these (particularly 1313) could see the light of day.
The headscratcher for me is why no concept art for the live action tv series was included as quite a bit was done for it before it was scrapped.... (And *one* piece of episode seven concept art would have been a nice bone to fans.)
October 12, 2013
Very pretty, but a little frustrating in its focus on prequel era films and video games, with the puzzling inclusion of Soriyama's generic robot girl a weird non-Star Wars diversion. Also a little frustrating to see such gorgeous, intriguing art for the now-cancelled 1313 game. But solid enough for someone with Star Wars in his blood from a young age and a love for the property that even 10+ years of lackluster prequels and prequel-based stories hasn't been able to entirely kill. I imagine a more diehard modern Star Wars fan would find this a real treasure trove.
October 22, 2013
This is the fourth book in the Star Wars Art series and it's the same high quality as the others. This book features concept art from all 6 films, the Clone Wars TV show, and some assorted Star Wars videogames, among other things.
Many of the pieces I have seen before in other books, but that doesn't diminish the joy of looking at them again. The highlights for me are the original trilogy pieces by Ralph McQuarrie.
Many of the pieces I have seen before in other books, but that doesn't diminish the joy of looking at them again. The highlights for me are the original trilogy pieces by Ralph McQuarrie.
October 23, 2013
Features art never before made available from all six live action Star Wars films, The Clone Wars, Droids, Ewoks, The Force Unleashed, Detours, The Old Republic, 1313, and more. Some of these paintings are from projects cancelled or delayed indefinitely since Disney bought Lucasfilm and LucasArts. Not a replacement for any other Star Wars art book, but a worthy addition for a collector.
March 22, 2014
Beautifully produced - but a missed opportunity nonetheless.
December 29, 2013
i love the artwork in this book. absolutly amazing.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews