Saturday, September 06, 2008

Better Off Drew?

A few news sources are reporting that painter Drew Struzan is retiring, which caught me a bit by surprise. Drew is easily the most prolific movie poster artist of all time and I just expected to always see his art gracing new release posters in theaters. While it's disappointing we may not be treated to anything new from him in the near future, here's to hoping his retirement will be as short-lived as Jay-Z's and Brett Favre's. For any who haven't seen it, a few years ago there was an artbook published of Drew's collected work, OEUVRE, and I high recommend checking it out. And while we all have the iconic images from such huge franchise film posters as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and Harry Potter forever burned into our minds, let's not forget his wonderful work on some less popular films, such as Coming To America, Adventures in Babysitting and this classic gem...

2 comments:

Scott Sackett said...

Drew is a pretty amazing artist. On the upstairs landing we have a full size "Back to the Future' poster and the details you can see at that size is really cool.

He has the ability to make work that is somehow detailed and relistic, yet still looks loose and confident.

I think he illustrated so many movie posters in the '80s that he ended up becaming kind of a cliche.

Which is a shame, because I think he could/should/will occupy the same sort of territory as Norman Rockwell, basically a genre unto himself.

Skottie Young said...

I've heard that while he's retiring from Freelance work, he will be putting his efforts into personal work. I for one can't wait to see what's in this guys head when it comes to have the cuffs off.