New STAR WARS Poster Art Series From ACME Archive Pays Tribute to the Original Trilogy

ACME Archive has revealed a series of Star Wars poster art created by artist Devin Schoeffler, and they pay tribute to George Lucas’ original trilogy. Those films include Star Wars: A New HopeStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and they are available for purchase individually or as a set in a timed release.

The artist of the posters said in a statement: “My dad introduced me to Star Wars when I was a kid. I remember watching them on VHS on our small color TV. At the time I think the themes and plot were maybe a bit over my head, but I was definitely drawn to the overall aesthetic of the films. They just looked so cool.”

That early exposure and appreciation of the films’ art design reflect brilliantly in his new Star Wars poster series. Schoeffler has created three beautiful paintings for ACME Archives, all celebrating the films of the original trilogy — “The Fourth” (Star Wars: A New Hope), “The Fifth” (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), and “The Sixth” (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) – that look something like long-lost cover art for the coolest VHS box set that never was. Each focuses around the iconic design of one classic character — C-3PO, a stormtrooper, and Darth Vader, respectively — with heroes and villains peppering the right side of the image. Together, they tell the story of the movies. “The films definitely made an impression on me,” Schoeffler says, “and helped form my love for everything sci-fi and pop culture.”

Schoeffler’s posters ($45 each, $125 for the set), printed on pearlescent paper, are available from now until Monday, July 6, at 9 a.m. PT. on DarkInkArt.com. I’ve included comments on each of the posters from the artist.

“The Fourth”

“Once I decided on a direction, I started with a couple of quick sketches to figure out the types of compositions I thought would work. For A New Hope, I chose to feature C-3PO prominently because the highly reflective nature of the mask looked really interesting and detailed. Each of the masks were actually rendered in 3D then toned and re-drawn to give it a more graphical look.”

“The Fifth”

“On Empire Strikes Back, I initially thought about featuring a snow trooper, but I kept coming back to that classic trooper design. I do like how the bottom of the trooper’s mask helps form the snow banks for the AT-ATs. In each of the pieces, I had more going on in the negative space but ultimately decided to drop a lot of it to keep the compositions cleaner. Empire has so many more featured characters than A New Hope — it was tricky to fit them all in without it feeling too cluttered.”

“The Sixth”

“The most challenging part on the Return of the Jedi piece was figuring out a good highlight color. I started with green since that was the color of Luke’s new saber, but it just didn’t fit quite right. After some discussion with the folks over at Acme Archives Ltd., they suggested I try purple and I think it really fits well with the other two pieces.”

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