The StarWars portfolio by Ralph McQuarrie

The main purpose of this painting was to capture the atmosphere of the battle over this monstrous space station.

The open core apparent in the Death Star structure represented McQuarrie's concept of a laser cannon: a large power source, accelerators and condensers would all collect around the core, focus their terrific energy, and fire out through the bottom. At other times, spacecraft could come and go through the top. In the film however, the planet-destroying laser beam was focused through a dish-shaped structure on the Death Star surface.


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(Last updated at: 980414)