Ralph McQuarrie (1929-2012)

From mysanantonio, Ralph McQuarrie, the illustrator perhaps best known for his concept art of Darth Vader and other denizens of the original Star Wars trilogy, died Saturday. He was 82.
George Lucas offered this statement at StarWars.com, which includes a slideshow of McQuarrie’s Star Wars work:

I am deeply saddened by the passing of such a visionary artist and such a humble man. Ralph McQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision Star Wars. His genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘Do it like this.’

Beyond the movies, his artwork has inspired at least two generations of younger artists—all of whom learned through Ralph that movies are designed. Like me, they were thrilled by his keen eye and creative imagination, which always brought concepts to their most ideal plateau. In many ways, he was a generous father to a conceptual art revolution that was born of his artwork, and which seized the imaginations of thousands and propelled them into the film industry. In that way, we will all be benefiting from his oeuvre for generations to come. Beyond that, I will always remember him as a kind and patient, and wonderfully talented, friend and collaborator.

McQuarrie also crafted art for other science-fiction properties like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the original Battlestar Galactica and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the latter of which starred San Antonio’s own Henry Thomas.

I still remember when I was a kid begging my parents to buy me special Puffs tissue boxes featuring McQuarrie’s Star Wars art — a 1980 promotion that likely gave mainstream audiences their first look at the illustrator’s fine work. Like so many McQuarrie fans, I fell in love with his Star Wars visions more for their look at what might have been than for the final designs they inspired. From his Metropolis-like spin on C-3PO to his black space samurai design for Vader, McQuarrie’s Star Wars concepts made that still new galaxy far, far away seem even newer yet still strangely familiar, like some dream we had of Rebels and Imperials filtered through our own imaginations and interpretations.

McQuarrie’s art was that special to each of his fans, and no doubt that personal. R.I.P.