Matte Paintings From The Star Wars Universe

Have you watched all the extras on your Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set yet? No? OK, well, spoiler alert and everything, but some of those scenes in the original trilogy were simply… paintings.

Yes, matte paintings have been a mainstay of movie magic pretty much since the dawn of modern cinema, and these newly unearthed photos of artists working on the background settings The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are a joy to behold. It’s crazy to think talented guys like Ralph Mcquarrie, Chris Evans and Michale Pangrazio helped flesh out George Lucas’ universe with a paintbursh and not a super computer, but yep, that’s what happened. Pangrazio, by the way, also painted – on glass – the famous government warehouse setting at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.