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The Star Wars Sketchbook

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Presents sketches for the Star Destroyer, the Life Pod, the Skyhopper, and other Star Wars spacecraft, which served as the basis for models of vehicles used in the film

98 pages, softcover

First published November 1, 1977

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About the author

Joe Johnston

19 books6 followers
Joseph Eggleston Johnston II is an American film director, producer, writer, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing effects-driven films, including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989); The Rocketeer (1991); Jumanji (1995); Jurassic Park III (2001); The Wolfman (2010); and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).

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5 stars
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32 (44%)
3 stars
9 (12%)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Arlomisty.
287 reviews
December 28, 2017
I've had this book since the 70's.... read it many times over the years, but it's been at least ten or fifteen years since I've read it last... mostly drawings and sketches of all the original vehicles in the original Star Wars movie... but still a great, fun read... lots of interesting facts I think have been lost to current Star Wars fans....
Profile Image for Jlawrence.
306 reviews158 followers
December 19, 2016
Oh man, how I pored over this book as a kid. Really cool production sketches of various vehicles and portions of the Death Star - sketches that would be the basis of the final models used in A New Hope (at that time, just called "Star Wars").

When I got this book, we didn't even have a VHS copy of the film I could rewind, pause, etc to inspect all the shiny things of Star Wars, so this was THE source for me to be able to geek out over the details of the Millennium Falcon, X-Wings, Y-Wings, Tie-Fighters, the Death Star trench, etc, and geek out I did.

The detailed sketches are still very cool and evocative to see. Also neat to see the production notes written on the sketches ("need space here for fiber optics" etc). And pretty amazing that Johnston, who would be impressive enough just as the artist who came up with these, went on to also become a film director in his own right ("The Rocketeer", "October Sky" and "Captain America: The First Avenger").
Profile Image for dejah_thoris.
1,355 reviews23 followers
September 21, 2020
Neat sketches and explanations of the many vehicles designed and built for Star Wars. Fun fact: the Imperial Star Destroyer was built using only one sketch and no working drawings.
Profile Image for David Natiuk.
127 reviews3 followers
May 20, 2011
This is a really cool part of Star Wars history, and a nice assortment of original sketches that helped define the visuals. While not all-inclusive, it does have a good variety of sketches and some narration to go with it.

It ranges from sketches of the Death Star, to X-Wings & Y-Wings, and to the advanced Tie Fighters they were planning. There are notes that explain some of the different elements, and also perhaps originally would explain the concept to the director or model maker.

Somethings seem to take more focus than you might think deserved… like a bunch of sketches on the Death Star surface. But we have to remember that only so many sketches were ever needed for artistic design (also, others could’ve already been designed). So this is a nicely put together compilation of the works that were done by Joe Johnston.

I’m always amazed at how closely sketches and artistic renderings are followed for final elements in the actual films. It makes sense to do the work on paper first before spending money with physical implementations… and this gives you a glimpse into that process.
Profile Image for Indah Threez Lestari.
13.5k reviews271 followers
February 1, 2013
102 - 2013

Memuat sketsa desain untuk film Star Wars original (Episode IV), khususnya kendaraan fantastis mulai dari Imperial Star Destroyer, Sandcrawler, skyhopper, X-wing, Millenium Falcon, sampai the greatest one: Death Star.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

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