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Say it ain't so! Drew Struzan retiring?
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some sad, sad news. Recently, Don LaFontaine, the voice of movie marketing, passed away. Now movie marketing is losing its face, thankfully not to death.
According to a story at TheRaider.net, Drew Struzan is retiring from the business in order to spend more time with his family, on his own paintings and just enjoy life. I can't say I blame the guy, but with him retiring, John Alvin passed away... is there anybody left keeping the artform of movie posters alive?
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Struzan at a dinner at Comic-Con '07 and I found him to be a very humble and nice man. I probably embarrassed myself. I collect movie posters and have his art up on my bedroom wall, specifically his John Carpenter's THE THING one-sheet, which is framed at the foot of my bed next to a framed DAWN OF THE DEAD ('78) poster and a framed THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 poster, all three great examples of poster art.
I do view it as an artform, which is why I'm sad to hear this news.
Hopefully he'll still do some commission work for his friends (Spielberg, Darabont, Lucas, del Toro) and we can still get some of his beautiful work in theater lobbies in the future. Or at least at Comic-Cons. heh I'd still kill for nice print of the Dark Tower poster he did for the opening of THE MIST... This one:
If you want to browse Drew Struzan's work, from BLADE RUNNER, BACK TO THE FUTURE, THE GOONIES, HARRY POTTER, HELLBOY, THE MUPPET MOVIES, INDIANA JONES and STAR WARS and beyond, be sure to click over to his website here! I'll include some of my personal favorites below.
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FIRST!
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and ....who the fuck is drew struzan ?
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glad to see he isn't a workaholic and can enjoy his golden years. But talk about an incredible body of work.
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The one sheet for The Thing is killer...
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...crap for the DVD covers of the Star Wars trilogy. Struzan is like Ben Burtt; he doesn't have the prestige of Lucas or even John Williams, but he's an integral part of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the movie artform itself in his own, incredible way.
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So - it's all Photoshop from here on in?I don't begrudge the guy his retirement at all - if only there were some people out there that could carry the baton.Struzman has graced an incredible amount of movies - some not very good movies with magnificent posters.Is there anyone else doing that at all these days?
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I didn't realize he did so many high profile pieces.
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Everyone in his artwork had very shiny orange noses!Great artist though .His Bladerunner poster was a beaut.I bet he comes out of retirement for the next indy movie
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Totally different styles, but each brought more to the poster than just an image advertising the film. If you're reading this Drew, enjoy your retirement and leave it there. A decision made should stay made.
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Good luck and have fun with family, you will be missed.
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I shot like 5,000 loads when I saw that in The Mist, and I just shot 5,000 more, my balls are empty but I still feel whole
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I hate, hate, hate this age of unimaginative, generic Photoshopped posters. They don't tease. They don't inspire. God, I'll miss his work.
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Could be worse.
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...and thought:" Damn, I wonder who made these great paintings!"
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Sep 04, 2008 4:03:39 PM CDT
This VID sums up the current state of MODERN movie posters...
by rex manning
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/47d8df4123 -
Hope its not forever.
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Happy retirement.
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"Had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Struzan - I found him to be a very humble"
Maybe you met John Alvin (a wonderful guy). Drew has an ego the size of a planet - the guy thinks he's Jesus. SERIOUSLY.
He could paint great posters, but he could sure use a lesson in humility. He thinks he's giving the world a precious gift with his every brush stroke. -
That might be true, I don't know... but I can't speak to anybody else's experience, just my own. That's how I found him when we met.
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He knows when he might be quoted.
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"Big Trouble In Little China" is one of the all time greats.
It's a shame that art is slowly disappearing from movie posters..... -
About...???
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Don't recognize it.
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better off dead
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i have that temple of doom poster framed in my living room. drew would be in my top 10 fav. artists ever. I wish him nothing but the best.
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Hire someone to do your work justice online!
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Sep 04, 2008 4:47:50 PM CDT
No worries, the guys who can paste floating heads...
by stalin vs predator
...on generic backgrounds are not, repeat, NOT retiring. The industry is safe and in good hands.
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...But how do you retire from painting? I mean, hes professionally retired as is.
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hope they still use that poster if/when the do a Dark Tower movie, I have the BladeRunner one on my wall.
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I was enjoying the portfolio pics.
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"My Best Friend's Girl"?
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maybe that's what the studios wanted him to do?
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A freaking shame that nobody really used him anymore in the last 20 or so years. I have no idea why people seem to find movie posters that are photoshoped together photos more appealing than Drew Struzens gorgeous paintings. Movie studios are willing to spend millions upon millions to market a movie, but for some reason they arent willing to pay Drew his fee to paint a masterpiece which would be the difintive marketing image of their movie. Shame on whoever snubs him.
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Some of the work that I love of his is 'Back to the Future', 'The Thing', 'Star Wars' rerelease...okay I love everything he's done, from posters, to plates, to book covers. Drew you will be missed...enjoy yourself.
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Looking in the portfolio, there are price tags on most of the original artwork. $350,000 for the three original Back to the Future Posters.
I'll have to check the change in the couch... -
Don LaFontaine, Jerry Reed, Bill Melendez and now this, you might seriously consider changing this site's name to Aint-It-Depressing-As-All-Fuck-News.com
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mongoloidish, eh?
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The likeness is pretty spot on. That's how Stallone looked. I always liked that poster. Really hits home his isolation and desperation.
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Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way...turn.
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Loved Richard Amsel even more though...
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He will be missed
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Are there any artists waiting in the wings to carry on for Struzan?
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here's why http://tinyurl.com/5h5zop
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That painted movie posters will stay alive for a long time to come... if not forever. There are tons of talented artists out there who I'd love to see try their hand at movie posters. Let's not forget there have been many, many pre-drew painted posters too and most of the guys who did those never got their due slaving away in some graphics department somewhere many of the original paintings destroyed once they had served their purpose. So yeah, I'd love to see some new energy brought in and hopefully revitalize it.
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I remember staring at this guy's posters for the longest periods of time when I was a kid. I'll always think of him as part of my movie experience growing up.
Anyone here has seen those amazing batshit crazy Polish posters? I have a couple books of horror posters and seen some crazy shit... Weird alternate versions of the official posters, sometimes even more interesting and compelling than the original ones. Any expert on Polish posters here? -
Thomas Jane draw all of those?
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"mongoloidish, eh?" - In other words dead-on.
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Struzan's last official poster be? The Mist? That would be strangely poetic.
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I love his poster he did for Transformers, it has to be one of the most bad ass pieces of art I have ever seen. I was unable to find a formal double sided poster, but did score a sweet 10 foot vinyl banner version that now hangs in my office.
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If he wasn't so busy in the comic book industry. I'm actually surprised a director or studio hasn't already asked him to do a movie poster before.
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I hear ya, same here I can't speak to anybody else's experience, just my own.
I'll miss his work. -
Damn it NOOOOOOO. Yes, I respect his decision to retire, I mean, he's certainly deserved it and he deserves to spend time with his family....BUT...DAMNT IT. Now we're stuck with shitty photoshopped posters of huge ass heads belonging to actors and other random shit. Struzan, IMO, perfected the art of film posters, and he's full of immense talent. It's fucking damn shame that film studios have moved away from actual art and instead to photoshop. Ah well. Thanks for all the cool posters Mr. Struzan...and hopefuly you'll return to make a cool film poster every once in awhile!
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But I second Alex Ross.
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the first movie's poster was simply that female face sorta covering her mouth in fear, part two had the same concept but with courtney cox and neve campbell's faces on either side. though when they hit dvd they both had versions doing the "face in a row" thing. and then when part 3 came out, the theatrical poster used it too. it doesnt change the fact that franchise started the trend but i'm just saying its the dvd covers that did it.
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photoshophilles are everywhere and are getting stronger
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for me were his Indiana Jones and Bladerunner posters. We'll miss ya, Drew.
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That blue Bladerunner poster is pretty amazing. I sometimes would get frustrated with his (admittedly magnificent) recent work because they sometimes seemed to lack some fire. (Esp on the bazillion books he'd make covers for) But that Bladerunner piece is great. Nice way to end a career of great work. But where's the love for the other movie poster artists? What about Richard Amsel or Bob Peak or all those Japanese artists who did those sweet Star Wars posters in the 80s. (Before Struzan did his own for the re-releases.)
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I love Amsel. I have his work framed in my house, too. The Re-Release Raiders of the Lost Ark poster is, along with Struzan's final Temple of Doom poster, my favorite of the Indy films. Is he still around?
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That's actually cool to hear. I wonder why he'd want to go uncredited though. I know that he's done conceptual art on a lot of movies. I'd love to know which movie posters he's actually done.
About 5-6 years ago, at the Ad agency that I was working, we were working on a project and trying to find someone to paint our concept. I jokingly said "I'd love it if we could get Alex Ross to do it", just assuming that he was way too much $$$. Anyway, our CD said, "lets give it a shot and call him". I couldn't believe it and was all excited about the possibility to work with him on the smallest scale. So, we call... we ask... he say's "sure for $20,000". We say "how about $5,000?" He says "Uh, no". Ouch. And in one brief sentence my geek moment was crushed. Still love the guys work though. -
But, since Hollywood is cranking out so much great orignal work now for movies we don't have to worry. Right? Right? Hello, anybody?
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Sorry to say, Quint, but they're both have long since passed away. I think Drew is the last one left from that era.
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I feel should be add to the list of great movie poster artists. King Kong 1977, The Towering Inferno, Orca, Star Wars (turned out to be a book cover), All the Star Trek TMP's (but, Paramount had Bob Peak re -do them exactly in the fashionabls airbrush style of the time) etc! Sadly, Mr. Berkey passed away this last spring. It's sad that movie studio's do not do more to hire illustrator's to do the poster art to keep this art form alive.
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I should have added that Struzan is awesome!
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happy retirement. (I'm done now...)
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... you had Drew Struzan and Bob Peak, and that's all you needed.
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I bought a really nice coffee table book from an art supply store a year ago that has most if not all of Drew Struzan's work. It's on Amazon here: http://tinyurl.com/5mg2f2
Sad to hear he's retiring. Hopefully all the Photoshoppers out there in the movie industry won't totally ruin the art of movie posters. -
...classic. One of my all time favorites. Nuff said.
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I love 'em too. So daggy in such a very Polish way. Although the polish poster for Kurosawa's "Red Beard" is just awesome without qualification.
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A long time ago, I had the opportunity to spend the day at Drew's studio. He has always been one of my most favorite artists, and he couldn't have been nicer to me. He took a whole day out of his schedule to patiently talk about his art and technique -- and even fixed me a sandwich at lunch. I'm sure after I left, he must have had a good laugh about the hyper art student that came to visit. He had the original Temple of Doom poster art hanging up, and to see it in person was a religious experience for me. He also was just finishing that awesome 10th anniversary Star Wars print (told you this was a long time ago), and if you look closely at the poster, you might see the fingerprint I left on it. Drew might veer into self-importance sometimes, but he was kind and generous when I met him.
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This was every bit as good as the 'official' Indy 4 posters -
http://tinyurl.com/6bw427
Hugh also did the fantastic "Star Wars Rocks" -
http://tinyurl.com/6ezcft
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was for the Dark Horse comic adaptation...
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it's over. The Photoshop era is complete. End of an era. I really liked Drew's work.
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He came in to one of my classes at Art Center. He 's a GREAT guy. He explained his whole process to us. Fascinating to listen to.
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His posters had me lost for hours. I had a huge 10ft high Last Crusade poster that my eyes always wandered to.
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I still think it's arguably his strongest piece
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Good on him. I guess he has made enough money to live comfortably and has decided to call it a day. I will miss his work and am sorry to see him go. There is way to much of that photoshopped fluff around. Struzan understands the power illustration and the finer points of composition.
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I want that Big Trouble In Little China poster
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Works of art. Just wow.
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Todays posters all have the same amateurish look.Fuck that.
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The Goonies is my fave Drew poster!
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It's sad to admit, but he hasn't done a striking or original poster in over a decade. All his recent posters have followed the same formula: black background, panel in the middle, characters arched around the top. The Star Wars Prequels, Harry Potter, Hellboy, Indy IV ... they all looked the same and none were particularly interesting. Maybe he made the right decision.
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From what I've heard, the realistic portrayals of characters were achieved not by eyeballing them artistically, but by projecting images from the films onto the canvas so he could trace them. Perhaps other artists cheated in this way, but the result is a near photographic representation of actors' faces on the posters that probably led to less interest in artistic paintings and more interest in accurately portraying Likenesses of Ego Inflated Actors. And what's the next logical step? Why, using actual photographs instead. I love the poster for Raiders as much as anyone, but this guy was ushering in the Photoshop era. He's just been supplanted by better Photoshoppers with updated technology.
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Sep 05, 2008 5:44:16 AM CDT
Nothing beats the vintage posters, but don't diss photoshop
by evil hobbit
Posters like the one from the Dark Knight prove that even Photoshop posters can be magnificent.
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The best there ever was and will be
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The evil hobbit's got a point.
Drew's work is really great, as are a lot of the old painted posters, but there are also a lot of great photoshop artworks. Harry potter, Hellboy.
There's also a lot of really poor work out there. But don't blame photoshop. The blame lies in the people art directing this stuff. Seriously, there are a lot of so called art directors who are devoid of any sense of style & completely ruin the image of a movie.
Prior to release, often the promo art is the first thing that the public will see of a movie. If it's poorly done it can have a real effect on the future box office takings if it generates bad comments which in the internet age circulate rapidly.
Movie studios take note. -
I forgot to add. Why is it that when a film is released on DVD, the art director in charge of marketing see fit to re work the film's movie art?
99% of the time it's achingly badly done.
Why take a good image & muck it up in order to present to the world a cheap looking, ameteurish DVD cover? I understand that it needs re formatting to a smaller image size & dimensions, but in doing so it surely must be possible to avoid it looking like a one eyed schoolboy did the artworking.
The DVD is what people keep forever in their home, I for one would like a decent looking box on my shelf. -
I always loved this guy's work. He was one of the reasons I became an illustrator.
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I didn't know Berkey had passed away! {though I knew he was ill}His Kong poster is a classic , though I always think of him more for his very loose {almost impressionistic} style on sci fi art.Big white ocean liner looking spacecraft.His style is interesting to contrast against Struzans really tight controlled airbrush and colour pencil stuff.Does anyone know how Frank Frazetta is doing these days.I know he's suffered several strokes and am expecting to hear the worste any day.
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but frankly, apart from Crystal Skull, I can't remember the last thing he did since Crusade. What'd he do 1989-2000s?
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the First Blood art is incredibubble. You're entitled to your opinion on this matter, but frankly it's the wrong opinion :)
I love you, Sly! And Drew. -
Never seen it.
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I have one that I got when the indie-vid store I moonlighted at (for $$ under the table, no less) went out of business. Matter of fact, I just got it signed to me by James Hong (David Lo-Pan to you heathens) with the following: You are not put on this earth to GET IT Ms. (insert my last name here)! I also have a Temple of Doom poster in my hallway, next to the 50th anniversary of Godzilla and my Pulp Fiction posters. I wish Struzan well, and that he won't really 'retire' all the way. I would love to see some cool Sin City 2 posters from him, ya know?
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Actually looks half-human thanks to this artist.
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like the Dark Knight stuff, but Drew was a guy who took characters from movies and artistically incorporated them into posters that, standing alone, are artwork unto themselves in a way that photos and photoshopped images could never be. I remember as a kid looking at these Struzan movie posters (for Indy Jones, Star Wars, etc) and marveling at them the same way I used to marvel at Norman Rockwell's work. I would look at those movie posters before seeing the film and my mind would race, wondering about the upcoming film and what I'd see, based on Struzan's visual clues. The composite characters, the colors, all the elements helped create "moods" for each work. Like how all the Indy Jones posters are washed out in gold / orange-yellow tints. The color of treasure, the color of fire, the color of the sweltering sun at high noon in the peruvian jungle or Cairo or wherever our hero happened to be. Just magnificent stuff. Or there's other work, like the Thing poster shown above. That's just phenomenal. It captures the eerieness, the mystery, the otherworldliness (and arctic coldness) all right there, in the slashes of powder blues and whites, and you don't even see a dude's face. No photoshop can ever do that, EVER. I love that frickin' guy and his work.
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who painted the poster for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"? It wasn't of the type Struzan or Amsel normally produced, but I remember being impressed by the use of the streaming bar of color from top to bottom.
http://tinyurl.com/646w2c
I had to take time away from work to look, didn't I? It was Bob Peak, who also did the somewhat similar "Superman: The Movie" poster and "Rollerball"! Fuck, yeah, "ROLLERBALL"! Bob's site: http://tinyurl.com/64q3vo -
and saw "Pennies From Heaven." Jeebus, what a talent.
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It's just a matter of how skilled the artist is so quit kicking the program in the balls. I too heard that Drew traced the actors to get the likenesses perfect but whatever gets the job done. Frazetta traced too so there ya go.
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In the end, Photoshop is soulless. Yes, I know it's an old complaint, but unless PS users are literally painting over the entire photograph, it's nothing like classic poster painting.
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and Drew are my favorite poster artists of the '70s and '80s..Peak's Apocalypse Now is classic. Wasn't there a low budget sci-fi poster AICN featured about a year ago?
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fucking posts for a long time. Do you always wade into the TB that will show your arrogance/uninformed viewpoint the most? Way to miss the fucking point and show your ignorance of artists' working methods! If you're no expert fine, just don't go making a pissy post about it that throws a spotlight on your own stupidity...
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by David Hockney. Then you can come back here bellyaching about how the old masters were all a buncha frauds. Ya big tool.
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tracing an image to achieve accurate realism isn't cheating, because painting images for a client isn't a competition with rules, it's a business. Whether it's a 17th century painter or a 21st century poster artist, both are commercial artists, working for a client, to a brief, doing the work to earn a living. Any technique that improves quality & shortens the time it takes to deliver is essential. There's no such thing as cheating. If the old masters used projected images, that's no supprise at all, that's ingenious thinking. They hid the evidence because they didn't want to expose their tecniques, this would help to give them the upper hand.
It's no surprise that realistic painting came to a peak in the late 19th century, those artists used photography as reference so they had advantages over earlier painters.
David Hockney was very astute to propose his theory. The art establishment reacted predictably by opposing his theories. Long held beliefs are hard to overturn in the minds of stubborn people.
Photoshop is continuing in the traditions of commercial artists, it's a time saving tool, & it gives the clients what they want. It's a fashion thing. It is possible to create, in Photoshop, images that have similar qualities as a Drew Struzan painting, but that's not what the studios want at the moment. -
it really brings back to my childhood going to the video store with my granparents seeing all these iconic images
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I was being sarcastic in my post to Nodiggity. After an artist achieves a certain level of proficiency (and let's face it, anyone can copy something from a photo or from life, given enough time), the whole "tracing"/projection/using lenses/whatever versus doing it "by eye" becomes redundant. They don't "cheat" because they're incapable, they use techniques that will let them get down to the nitty-gritty, the important stuff. Obviously Drew can draw like nobody's business - the proof is there in his life drawing stuff. When it comes to a commission/movie poster, why stuff around needlessly on a likeness when the main point of his stuff is the balanced, solid compositions and colours - which can change radically from the original photos and also incorporate consistent lighting touches to bind the disparate characters together.
As for being photo-based, if the photos were so important to the success, why does Drew's stuff look so much better than most all the other artists who do Star Wars and Indy stuff (talking professionals here, not fan art)? We've all seen those photos a million times, especially in the case of SW. Composition and colour sense, focal point, negative space, etc.
And yes, in terms of the old masters, why on earth would you waste your genius spending too much time with some fidgety Medici brat taking umpteen sittings when you could avail yourself of a simple bit of expedition? Speaking of expedition and likewise secrets, we all know they had ateliers, studios full of assistants to get the boring stuff up to scratch and up to speed, prepare stuff and so on, which makes the 'establishment's" kneejerk reaction to Hockney's book/views even more deserving of ridicule.
It's only cheating if you never reached that level in the first place.
As for decent photoshop stuff, I thought the first Narnia poster had a good 'painterly' quality without being flatly rainbow-hued, and it was very nicely balanced. Good ones are hard to find, but that's true of absolutely ANYTHING. How many awful oldschool-painted posters were there in Drew's heyday? Plenty. -
of increased tampering on the two properties he's known best for. That'd take the wind from your sails. I reckon he's earned the right not to be second & third-guessed on that stuff by now. Could just be me thinking sometimes a silence speaks louder than words but...
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In response to the person who called it cheating to use a projector, how dare you !
Obviously, you`ve never seen one nor understand how one works. All it is is a timesaver and projects a rough graphite pencil "skeleton" onto the board or canvas. The artist then modifies and tightens this rough sketch and the real work begins.
Time constraints often make it impossible to sit and stare at a photograph of the subject and reproduce it the exact same way you would with a projector except it cuts out hours of wasted time. It`s simply a tool !
IT`S NOT CHEATING !
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