Star Wars: The Art of Ralph McQuarrie

Welcome to the first installment of Amazing Cosmic Powers' Star Wars Weekends. When it comes to artists that influenced the look of the Star Wars galaxy, no one influenced it more than Ralph McQuarrie (June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012). In fact, it would be a very very different place. Ralph designed the looks of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO and created the looks for many of the film's sets. It was his idea that Vader wear a breathing apparatus.  Many of his vivid and imaginative paintings helped convince 20th Century Fox to fund Star Wars. He would then move on to design the look for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Artist Spotlight: Chris Sanders

Today our spotlight focuses on the artwork of Chris Sanders. Chris Sanders is perhaps best known for creating Lilo and Stitch, but also worked on films such as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan before leaving Disney after conflict with John Lasseter over American Dog, which would later become Bolt. After leaving the mouse house, Chris jumped to Dreamworks where he directed the phenominal How to Train Your Dragon. He also works on his independant web-comic Kiskaloo. Be sure to check out http://www.chrissandersart.com/ for more awesomeness.

the Art of Zelda

Video game art is always inspired. The designs and concept work that go into the creation of a game are often times more indepth and of greater volume than an animated film. I love fantasy art and video games...and nothing has combined those genres together like Nintendo's Legend of Zelda franchise. So today I thought I'd bring you a small sampeling of art from the gazillions of Zelda games over the last 3 decades. Enjoy!

A Little Tangled

I thought I would spend today showcasing just a bit of the amazing character design that went into Disney's Tangled. Even though this film was CG (computer generated) the majority of pre-production work was handled as if it were animated traditionally. The legendary Glen Keane lent his talents to the design of Rapunzel while Jin Kim worked on Pascal. Enjoy!

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon is easily Dreamworks most underrated and easily the best of their animated features to date. It also sports some incredibly beautiful concept art.