Raiders of the Lost Ark celebrates it's 30th Anniversary this weekend, thats right, 30 years...! The film was released on June 12th 1981... and to coincide with this momentous occasion I am fortunate to have been working on a couple of Indiana Jones pieces in the last few weeks. One is an illustration of Indy for the IndyCast website which is due to launch very soon, and the other is a film poster for the short film directed by fellow IndyFan, Fran Casanova.
I regard working on the Indiana Jones property as a true privilege and even though both of these jobs were not officially sanctioned LucasFilm assignments, I approached them both with the same amount of enthusiasm and quality of draftsmanship associated with the Indiana Jones franchise so the art looks as official as it can possibly be.
Indiana Jones swings into action.
You may have already seen this finished artwork on the blog already, but I have put together a short video clip of the art taking shape from drawing, to painting, to finishing. Showing you the process of two days of work in under 30 seconds.
The IndyCast
Ed Dolista approached me about contributing to the new look stand alone site hosted by the ForceCast. I was very excited to be working working with them on this. It brought back fond memories of working with Gilles Verschuere on the Raider.Net web page illustrations many moons ago.
Here is a sneak preview of how the site will look with the illustration.
Keep your eyes peeled for the new look IndyCast site coming soon www.theindycast.com
Indiana Jones and the Search for the Lost Idol
Fran Casanova has been making a name as a film director and huge Indy Fan by creating this short film about an artefact that we might remember from 30 years ago...remember the gold fertility idol from Raiders?...Indy did all the hard work obtaining it, dodging poison darts, swinging across a bottomless pit and being chased by a giant boulder, only to be pipped at the post by his arch rival René Belloq. Well, you will be pleased to know that Indy is on the search for it again in this short film...
The film poster I created for the advertising of the film is hopefully accepted by the audience as a piece reminiscent of the previous film posters, so it looks in-keeping with what we are familiar with, this was something of importance to Fran as he wanted the poster to say Indiana Jones as much as possible, especially as the Actor playing Indy isn't Harrison Ford this time round!
You can find out more about this film project and other projects Fran is working on over at www.francasanova.com
As always you can check out my other illustrations, including more Indiana Jones and Star Wars related work on my site over at www.paulshipper.com
Enjoy celebrating the 30th anniversary of one of our favourite and beloved characters in motion picture history this weekend, I know I will. PS
Here's a painting I did for the 20th anniversary. Unfortunately this 30th anniversary hasn't afforded me time to create a specific 30th anniversary painting, but the year isn't over yet ;)