Drew Struzan, NES artist... sort of ;)
Bronty's continuing spotlight on NES artists turns to... Drew Struzan
For those unfamiliar Drew was pretty much the man for 1980s movie poster illustration. He worked a ridiculous number of huge projects like Star Wars, Back to the Future 1/2/3, Big Trouble in Little China, the Police Academy movies, Coming to America, Muppets, DUck Tales, Harry Potter, E.T., Rambo (first blood), Indy Jones, its a huge list.
A few nintendo games used his movie poster art as the box art, including
Back to the Future (NES)
Back to the Future 2/3 (NES)
Indy Jones Temple of Doom (NES)
Cutthroat Island (GB)
Indy Jones Infernal Machine (n64)
Additionally he did Crimson Skies (xbox)
His art has sold to some of the movie directors in the past, so the asking prices have been huge. His website doesn't appear to have asking prices up anymore, perhaps there are no pieces available any longer, but at one time there were prices listed for some of the ones he still had, including Cutthroat Island at $125,000. I don't imagine he's selling at those kind of prices everyday, but some have sold, and for big bucks. Fantastic art so one can sort of understand why. I'm sure the art to the Star Wars poster would go for stupidly stupid money. 500k?
Here are his nintendo pieces, along with some of the other famous ones
Back to the Future (close up)
BttF 1/2/3
Indy Jones Temple of Doom NES
Cutthroat Island - GB
Movies
Big Trouble in Little China
First Blood
The Goonies
Duck Tales
Police Academy
Police Academy IV - Citizens on Patrol
Star Wars
For those unfamiliar Drew was pretty much the man for 1980s movie poster illustration. He worked a ridiculous number of huge projects like Star Wars, Back to the Future 1/2/3, Big Trouble in Little China, the Police Academy movies, Coming to America, Muppets, DUck Tales, Harry Potter, E.T., Rambo (first blood), Indy Jones, its a huge list.
A few nintendo games used his movie poster art as the box art, including
Back to the Future (NES)
Back to the Future 2/3 (NES)
Indy Jones Temple of Doom (NES)
Cutthroat Island (GB)
Indy Jones Infernal Machine (n64)
Additionally he did Crimson Skies (xbox)
His art has sold to some of the movie directors in the past, so the asking prices have been huge. His website doesn't appear to have asking prices up anymore, perhaps there are no pieces available any longer, but at one time there were prices listed for some of the ones he still had, including Cutthroat Island at $125,000. I don't imagine he's selling at those kind of prices everyday, but some have sold, and for big bucks. Fantastic art so one can sort of understand why. I'm sure the art to the Star Wars poster would go for stupidly stupid money. 500k?
Here are his nintendo pieces, along with some of the other famous ones
Back to the Future (close up)
BttF 1/2/3
Indy Jones Temple of Doom NES
Cutthroat Island - GB
Movies
Big Trouble in Little China
First Blood
The Goonies
Duck Tales
Police Academy
Police Academy IV - Citizens on Patrol
Star Wars
Comments
Thanks Dan. They look great.
Originally posted by: gunpei
Painting with this level of detail and realism might impress me more than any other solo art form. Gorgeous. Such high level craft.
I've seen one of his originals (don't own it or anything), and you know, its funny. They almost look less detailed close up. I think that it would be impossible to paint as realistically as they appear. So its done in a way that tricks your eye.
The first part is they are done at huge scale, usually 30 by 40 inches (size of small desk..) but sometimes like that police academy 40 x 60 (that's like 3/4 the size of a freaking door, or the size of a large desk).
They are super detailed, don't get me wrong, but they are also done with a knowledge that they will be shrunk down for publication, and doing them at that large large size and then shrinking them down makes the details seem impossibly smooth.
The lens flares (the little reflections of light) somehow seem to do that as well. I can't describe it too well other than to say that right up to your face they look less detailed. From 10 feet away, they somehow manage to look more detailed than from close up. Same if shrunken down. Its almost like... looking at the painting right in front of you is like looking at individual pixels, and looking from 10 feet away its looks like a photo. I'm exaggerating the effect of it, but there's some element of this going on.
I'd guess that your eyes have too much to look at from distance, and are having to basically compress the image into something that looks photorealistic. Up close, your eyes don't need to... compress... or whatever teh right word is, all this visual data, and they actually look less realistic close up as a result. If you had it in front of you, you'd want to view it at 10 feet not at 10 inches.
They are super impressive, but since you mentioned the realism, I think his skill in making things look hyper realistic is partly enormous amounts of pure talent but partly also in totally understanding how things will look at distance or shrunken down and actively manipulating our eye. He's almost painting... not the image itself but an image designed for us to perceive as a sharper image.
The Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album cover was one of my all time favorite album covers
Originally posted by: gunpei
Makes sense. Comics (books and strips) are also drawn oversized. Albums, too...I think most flat things that will be mass produced. Old paperback books come to mind as well. Regardless it is part of the skill.
Almost everything is done oversized, yes, but I've seen a lot of art between comics and paintings and that. Yes its done oversized, and sure the artists know it will look better shrunken down, but I haven't quite seen anybody manipulate my eye in the way I'm talking about. Its difficult to describe.
I'm not sure if I like it better or worse when it comes to the originals, but its unique for sure.
I thought I got what you're saying about Struzan specifically. But on further reflection, I don't. I do know what you mean, but am struggling to understand what's unique about it. (Don't worry about it if you can't articulate it further. In that aspect I am quite familiar with what you're saying!)
Can you see his brush strokes in an original? How about the canvas texture? Might that have something to do with it?
So it's an applied fine mist of paint that's given hard edges either by painting accents, typically outlines, and by a complicated set of masks to give a hard edge just like you'd create if you were painting your house with a sprayer and needed a hard edge - you'd use painters tape to mask.
So anything from this era done for packaging and posters and stuff you see much fewer brush strokes than normal. It's a more complicated process but by getting rid of the visible brush strokes you can achieve extra realism.
Airbrush is a funny thing. In a typical hacks hands you get painted vans and other atrocities but with someone skilled like Drew you get something just incredible looking
Shrinking it in that way is totally a trick.
I thought I got what you're saying about Struzan specifically. But on further reflection, I don't.
I guess what I mean is that the painting almost looks slightly out of focus when you are up super close to it. Then at distance it's in perfect focus. Again I'm exaggerating a bit
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486843/
Was on netflix recently, not sure if they still have it available there though.
This documentary is a must watch for anyone who likes Drew's art:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt14868...
Was on netflix recently, not sure if they still have it available there though.
Agreed. Saw it on netflix last year. Amazing.
Originally posted by: K.Thrower
This documentary is a must watch for anyone who likes Drew's art:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt14868...
Was on netflix recently, not sure if they still have it available there though.
It is. Watched it last night after reading this. The influence Struzan had on 80's and 90's pop culture is astounding. His story was incredible too. This is one of my favorite movie posters:
The fact he painted it blind without anything other than "remember that movie from the 50's" is mind blowing.
Also, my user name is taken from a movie he did the poster for:
I'm guessing he did this alternate overseas version too? I like this one better, they should have used it here:
Thanks for bringing this topic up. This man shaped the 80's and 90's movie experience and deserves recognition.
Originally posted by: Bronty
I would guess that the foreign one was by someone else... just judging by the large hand which doesn't look too well rendered. The foreign market stuff was usually by separate artists anyways.
Your probably right. The level of detail isn't the same. That first Star Wars poster? The work was originally given to another artist (Charles White III) who was an experienced air brusher, but didn't do faces. He called Struzan up to see if he wanted to do a joint work about a movie "involving robots and space" (paraphrasing). The portraits are Struzan, the rest is air brushing and dyes from the collaborating artist. They took turns. Struzan learned his air brush technique from him.
Originally posted by: Bronty
I still haven't watched the documentary. Will have to check it out
Unacceptable!
I would guess that the foreign one was by someone else... just judging by the large hand which doesn't look too well rendered. The foreign market stuff was usually by separate artists anyways.
Your probably right. The level of detail isn't the same.
That first Star Wars poster? The work was originally given to another artist (Charles White III) who was an experienced air brusher, but didn't do faces. He called Stuzan up to see if he wanted to do a joint work about a movie "involving robots and space" (paraphrasing). The portraits are Stuzan, the rest is air brushing and dyes from the collaborating artist. They took turns. Stuzan learned his air brush technique from him.
Oh interesting I didn't know that about the Star Wars poster. That helps explain the different look of it. I figured it had a different feel due to being earlier in his career but this makes more sense.
Again I haven't seen the documentary but I don't think Drew learned from him per se except that White and Dave Willardson had a commercial art studio in the 70s in acalifornia and a fair number of people got their start there. So I would imagine it was just the normal kind of mentoring your get from your boss.
As great as Drew's art is, there's a lot of talented guys who did commercial art. They might just be half a notch down and without all the famous friends. The real magic of a documentary like that, from what I can see in the trailer, is getting all these famous and rich people to glow about your work. Connections. There are guys almost as good but without the same ability to promote themselves.
I don't mean that as a criticism of Drew even though it probably sounds that way. I just mean that the art is gorgeous but once you get past that there's more to it imo
Originally posted by: Bronty
Originally posted by: batteriesnotincluded
Originally posted by: Bronty
I would guess that the foreign one was by someone else... just judging by the large hand which doesn't look too well rendered. The foreign market stuff was usually by separate artists anyways.
Your probably right. The level of detail isn't the same. That first Star Wars poster? The work was originally given to another artist (Charles White III) who was an experienced air brusher, but didn't do faces. He called Stuzan up to see if he wanted to do a joint work about a movie "involving robots and space" (paraphrasing). The portraits are Stuzan, the rest is air brushing and dyes from the collaborating artist. They took turns. Stuzan learned his air brush technique from him.
Oh interesting I didn't know that about the Star Wars poster. That helps explain the different look of it. I figured it had a different feel due to being earlier in his career but this makes more sense. Again I haven't seen the documentary but I don't think Drew learned from him per se except that White and Dave Willardson had a commercial art studio in the 70s in acalifornia and a fair number of people got their start there. So I would imagine it was just the normal kind of mentoring your get from your boss. As great as Drew's art is, there's a lot of talented guys who did commercial art. They might just be half a notch down and without all the famous friends. The real magic of a documentary like that, from what I can see in the trailer, is getting all these famous and rich people to glow about your work. Connections. There are guys almost as good but without the same ability to promote themselves.
I'll try not to say anything else about the documentary. Don't want to spoil it. Interviewing Struzan, he stated he had never seen an air brush prior to meeting White and was intrigued by it. He watched White work on the poster and picked it up. They nailed the poster first try, however they didn't leave room for the credits at the bottom so they had to start all over! They added the border with Obi-Wan and changed the size and placement of the layout. Genius work. Every poster he did was pretty much one and done. His talent for painting is amazing, but his ability to capture a film in a single image makes him one of kind.
What they originally came up with looked similiar to this:
I agree with you. Many never got the chance and didn't have the connections. Especially with him dominating all of the major films. In the documentary, there is a part where Struzan meets Ford for the first time! During the filming! They shake hands and Ford thanks him for making him look so good. I couldn't believe they had never met. Struzan did the posters for at least 9 movies that Ford was in.
Honestly, growing up I never realized theses were paintings.
Anyways his NES and movie art really is pretty damn awesome so it's cool there's a documentary out there.
Re not realizing they were paintings, yeah, as a kid, who did? You'd just look at a movie poster or NES box and think 'that looks cool' without thinking about what the image would be in real life.
Originally posted by: batteriesnotincluded
Originally posted by: K.Thrower
This documentary is a must watch for anyone who likes Drew's art:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486843/
Was on netflix recently, not sure if they still have it available there though.
It is. Watched it last night after reading this. The influence Stuzan had on 80's and 90's pop culture is astounding. His story was incredible too. This is one of my favorite movie posters:
The fact he painted it blind without anything other than "remember that movie from the 50's" is mind blowing.
Also, my user name is taken from a movie he did the poster for:
I'm guessing he did this alternate overseas version too? I like this one better, they should have used it here:
Thanks for bringing this topic up. This man shaped the 80's and 90's movie experience and deserves recognition.
ha! that's pretty awesome that he illustrated your username, so to speak.
Music too. Welcome to the Nightmare: Alice Cooper. The Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath cover? Stuzan painted himself into it. He's the sinner on the front and the saint on the back. Great stuff.
For relevance: Nintendo!
Originally posted by: batteriesnotincluded
For relevance: Nintendo!
Ehh, its plenty relevant. The guy did the temple of doom and back to the future NES box art paintings, what more is needed?
Originally posted by: batteriesnotincluded
The Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath cover? Stuzan painted himself into it. He's the sinner on the front and the saint on the back.
that's cool, I love hearing those little stories.
Originally posted by: Bronty
Originally posted by: batteriesnotincluded
For relevance: Nintendo!
Ehh, its plenty relevant. The guy did the temple of doom and back to the future NES box art paintings, what more is needed?
Here's a little more relevance, I forgot about N64 infernal machine.
Originally posted by: batteriesnotincluded
For relevance: Nintendo!
Ehh, its plenty relevant. The guy did the temple of doom and back to the future NES box art paintings, what more is needed?
I meant me. I keep referring to his movie work and not the art that was used for box covers. He is certainly relevant.