The Movies > Promotional Materials: Drew Struzan

DREW STRUZAN:
ARTIST FOR FINAL STONE RELEASE POSTER

Return of the Jedi (1983) Back to the Future (1985) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Star Wars -- Episode 4: A New Hope (1997 rerelease) Star Wars -- Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999) Love Endures (1999): Memorial to Columbine High School victims

Drew Struzan has become famous for his traditional approach to illustrating "one sheet" movie posters and his depiction of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones universes. While the majority of movie poster artwork is done with computers, Struzan is a traditionalist who still hand draws and colors his work.

Now his distinctive style may well become associated with Harry Potter's realm. Warner Bros. commissioned him to produce the final release poster for The Sorcerer's Stone, which also appears on the soundtrack CD cover and more than likely will be used on the video and DVD releases.

Struzan was born into a humble home in 1946, and in his own words "came out of poverty" to attend college and launch a very successful career. To date he has created more than 150 film posters.

"From the time I was a child I drew and painted and copied the great masters, which is the classical way of doing it," he told Echo Station, a Star Wars Web site. "I spent a lot of time looking at books and going to museums and painting and drawing all my life. From each person you learn something, and all the artists that have come before have changed minds and opened doors to possibilities of communicating and finding new ways of doing art.

Though he had dyslexia, a learning disability, Struzan became the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He had remarkable artistic talent that appeared almost as early as he spoke. His parents actually took his pictures to professors at Stanford University, seeking explanations for his great skill.

In 1965, at age 19, he enrolled at the Art Center of Design in West Los Angeles, California. He graduated five years later with honors and a bachelor of fine arts degree.

Struzan's earliest projects were cover illustrations for long-playing record (LP) albums while working for Pacific Eye and Ear in L.A. His clients ranged from the hard rock of Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath, to the light pop of Tony Orlando and Dawn, to the big band sound of Glen Miller. His art for Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare was voted to Rolling Stone magazine's top 100 album covers.

Struzan moved on to the Pencil Pushers firm, where he honed his one-sheet style. His first movie works appeared in 1975; he became sought-after when movie studios began desiring portrait-style art on their posters. His long association with the works of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg -- either for movies they directed themselves or produced -- began with the fourth poster for Star Wars: Episode 4 -- A New Hope (1977).

Charles White III, an artist who frequently used an airbrush in his work, had been hired by Lucas to create a design for A New Hope's 1978 rerelease. White requested Struzan's assistance for character portraits on the poster, known today as the "circus" version. This began the Star Wars/Struzan legacy.

Other '70s and '80s posters ranged from decent fare like The Seven Percent Solution and Blade Runner, to the silly stuff, such as the Police Academy movies, Cannonball Run and Rambo: First Blood, Part II. By the 1980s, Struzan was doing about 10 poster designs a year. He did all the Muppet posters, from The Muppet Movie to Muppet Treasure Island in the 1990s.

Struzan did all the memorable Indiana Jones posters, and all the Star Wars movies up through The Phantom Menace. This includes new artwork for rereleases and reissues on video and DVD, and book covers for Star Wars and "Indy" novels. He did the posters for the Spielberg-produced Back to the Future trilogy and An American Tail, and the director's own Hook.

With the 1990s, more artists turned to the computer and photographs to create poster imagery. Struzan found his cinematic output declining, but still doing some work, particularly for the Spielberg and Lucas camps. He has found limited edition and non-cinema works to be profitable.

Being a staunch traditionalist of hand art, he wrote to an E-mailer: "I love the texture of paint made of colored earth, of oil from the trees and of canvas and paper. I love the expression of paint from a brush or a hand smearing charcoal, the dripping of paint and moisture of water, the smell of the materials. I delight in the changeable nature of a painting with new morning light or in the afternoon when the sun turns a painting orange or by firelight at night. I love to see it, hold it, touch it, smell it, and create it. My gift is to share my life by allowing others to see into my heart and spirit through such tangible, comprehensible and familiar means. The paint is part of the expression."

Noting that he's a commercial artist, Struzan also produces non-movie art, such as a series of 12 plates commemorating the life of Princess Diana, and the 1996 cover for Milton Bradley's Clue game. Nearly 30 years after his record album career, he returned to music with "Love Endures," a cover for a benefit CD in memory of the students and teacher murdered at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999.

Struzan was featured in a series of one-man shows in Japan from 1995-97. The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, also staged a solo show "Drew -- Art of the Cinema," in 1999.

Struzan and his wife, Dylan, still live in Los Angeles. His son, Christian, is also an artist and additonally works as an air director.