I simply can't fully express how much Star Wars concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie, has influenced me as an artist and as a sci-fi/fantasy fan. When I was a kid, I came across a magazine that had reprinted some of McQuarrie's concept pieces for the original Star Wars movies and I remember being blown away by the stark yet powerful other-worldliness packed into every inch of his pieces. I have fond memories of copying his concepts for Darth Vader's helmet and my mind being blasted wide open to the concept of variation, of what could have been in this alien world that I had come to love so much.
He has left a stunning legacy and will be greatly missed.
