Ralph McQuarrie’s Universe

After watching Rogue One again recently with my family, I couldn’t help but daydream about all of the incredible work produced by the one man behind all of the immersive designs that defined the original Star Wars universe. Legendary concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie, was the man behind the curtain working behind the scenes to bring key scenes to life.

His brushstrokes dazzled us from the moment we were jettisoned to the galaxy far, far away where a great adventure took place. The folks who crafted Rogue One paid close attention to every detail down to the nuts and bolts that held the X-wings together. Every decal. Every rivet. All images below © Ralph McQuarrie. Used for editorial purposes only.

Ralph McQuarrie also depicted key visuals in other monumental films such as this Bible illustration below of the Ark of the Covenant for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. He was also involved in the mothership design (bottom) for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Ralph McQuarrie’s Bible illustration of the Ark of the Covenant as seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981. Copyright Paramount Pictures.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977, mothership design. Written & Directed by Steven Spielberg. Music by John Williams. Copyright Paramount Pictures.

The Power of Positive Thinking

I recently enjoyed an afternoon of bowling with a dear family friend. I will preface that we both score in the 40s–60s per game on average. We got off to a rough start so I had them take a moment with me to refocus our efforts. I mentioned that we need to take all of our energy; the good, bad, and the ugly, and use it to make things happen for us in a positive way. We both immediately went from just a few pins to spares and strikes. We played for awhile, but suddenly my friend hit a snag. For four frames they were stuck with all threes. We had another pow-wow, and I mentioned that “it's not a sport or a game; it’s just math.” After a few minutes they were ready to try again. Strike! Strike!! Strike!!! They looked in my direction with a huge grin on their face.

With their spirits raised to quite a ruckus I decided to shake things up a bit for the two of us. With the bumpers up I thought why not try this pinball-style bumping the ball back and forth across the lane as it headed to its mark. So I took a few frames to test my theory, and I got a strike and a spare. Things were beginning to take shape.

I also started spinning my body around effortlessly numerous times while I was skipping up the lane before releasing the ball. Once we added spinning our bodies around the energy we generated was palpable. We were bending math to our will. My friend continued having a great game as I experimented with yet another test: closing my eyes while I spun around and headed to the line to release the ball. Essentially I was adhering to Obi Wan Kenobi’s advice to Luke just moments before he blew up the Death Star: “Let go your conscious self and act on instinct.” In doing so we broke free from our minds’ constraints on our performance. By living in and embracing the moment we were able to apply laser focus as we bowled along with the remainder of our games.

After numerous spares and a few strikes we had wrapped up our third game. We tallied our final combined total between three games at 598 points (our usual average was 300 points). Even with the four sets of 3s in a row my buddy beat me two games out of three.

“Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them,” Obi-Wan noted. “Let go your conscious self and act on instinct.”

— Obi-Wan Kenobi portrayed by Alec Guinness, Star Wars, 1977. Twentieth Century Fox.

May The Fourth Be With You!

Look who I met today, R2-D2. Astromech Builder’s Club R2 unit spotted at a recent May The Fourth Be With You event at Turner Broadcasting.

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In 1977 we were invited into Star Wars by R2-D2’s companion, C-3PO, as they headed toward an escape pod exiting the Blockade Runner eventually landing on Tatooine.

“Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor. We’ll be destroyed for sure. This is madness. We’re doomed. There will be no escape for the Princess this time.”