Ralph McQuarrie, conceptual artist for many films, died the other day. Every article and blog post out there cites his art that heavily influenced the eventual look of, among other films, Star Wars, and the frank truth is that without McQuarrie’s concept paintings, Lucas might well have never convinced any studio to bankroll the film in the first place.
Here’s a sampling of his work, via AICN:
Enjoy the stars, Mr. McQuarrie!
I would go so far as to say (in fact I did in my own blog post) that Ralph Mcquarrie is as much responsible for Star Wars as George Lucas was.