Check Out This Original 'Star Wars' Concept Art by Ralph McQuarrie

Pictured are a slew of original images from American conceptual designer and illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, who designed the concepts for the original Star Wars Trilogy. In 1975, film director George Lucas commissioned McQuarrie to illustrate scenes and film sets for Star Wars. This led to the design of iconic film characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO. McQuarrie later said that he didn’t think the film would be made from his illustrations. “I thought there wouldn’t be enough of an audience. It’s too complicated.” On the contrary, Lucas looked to the dynamic drawings as inspiration when he found it hard to covey ideas during the film. “I could always point to one of Ralph’s illustrations and say ‘Do it like this’.” Check out the images of McQuarrie’s early renderings alongside scenes that didn’t make the final cut of the films, and head here to see pick up a copy of his book.