A couple years back, I was given the opportunity to illustrate a poster for a low-budget indie flick written by a friend of mine. Whenever I get new and exciting jobs, I like to look for inspiration, and there are few movie poster artists more inspirational than Drew Struzan.
(and let’s be honest here, any excuse to get a new art book)
I’d previously purchased the skimpier of his art books, but that was really just a sampler of his work. I wanted the heftier tome. So I got it…
Drew Struzan: Oeuvre Hardcover – Oct 4 2011
http://www.amazon.ca/Drew-Struzan-Oeuvre-Dylan/dp/0857685570/
Having purchased The Art Of Drew Struzan last summer, and being a little disappointed that much of it was filled up with sketches and alternate takes, I’d actually been looking forward to seeing his full range for a while. When I got an assignment to paint a movie poster of my own, I knew the time had come to find real inspiration in his whole oeuvre… or at least, that was justification enough for me to plunk down some dough and buy this second book.
Absolutely gorgeous. There were a lot of his paintings in there that I didn’t know were his, and the print quality is amazing. The only potential drawback, as another reviewer has noted, is that the binding isn’t perfect. My first copy broke apart after a few hours, but Amazon shipped me a second one the next day. I guess it was a bad batch of glue or something… hopefully second time’s a charm.
But, yeah. Book. Exceedingly inspirational, and so many visual lessons to learn in here. A movie poster isn’t a literal translation of the film. It’s not a still with a logo slapped on it. It’s not just floating heads. It’s something else… an encapsulation of the movie itself through a select choice of images and a style that complements it. I can’t wait to use the book as inspiration for my next wave of artworks.
July 6 2015: Closing note: Star Wars Episode VII is looming. Struzan retired a few years back, but there were rumblings online that he might be coming out of retirement to do the new batch of posters. There’s no official announcement so far, one way or the other, that I know of, but these posters bear a striking resemblance to his style. Either he’s been coaxed out of retirement to pitch in on The Force Awakens, or someone’s going to great pains to, uh, imitate? homage? his style. Either way, I’ll take it:
