barlow's star wars visionaries

J. W. Rinzler writes in the introduction to this collection about the weekly Friday meetings with George Lucas and the concept artists of the movie The Revenge of the Sith. In those preproduction meetings, Lucas would toss around ideas and the artists would come up with visual representations. Although Lucas liked many of the ideas, he did not believe that all of them fit into his movie, so ten of the movie’s artists use these pages to show off their own artistic styles and imaginative Star Wars scenarios, providing readers with “intimate views by some of the key creators of a galaxy far, far away.” The artists were given free reign to explore all aspects of the Star Wars universe; each tale in the collection offers a glimpse or a new twist into that galaxy. The emphasis is on art and character origins, not on stories leading into The Revenge of the Sith. The artwork ranges from dark and gothic looking watercolors to bright and dazzling paintings. The collection is in full color, but there is a tendency toward dark, muddy colors and bright red highlights. Not just for fans of the movies, this compilation is an excellent resource for readers interested in how ideas, artwork, and printed material come together to create a movie through shared narrative connections.

(This book is currently nominated as a "Best of 2005")