The StarWars portfolio by Ralph McQuarrie

McQuarrie envisioned the Cantina as a primitve place framed by irregular archways and decorated with torn banners. It had a central gallery and a skylight over the bar. There wasn't much in it that would indicate that this was part of a society that had a lot of technical expertise. Lucas liked the feeling of it, but McQuarrie added these effects to the painting.

The small balls which appear to be floating in the painting are called seekers. The seeker eventually became the device for training Luke to use the lightsaber. But in this painting, it was a kind of automatic police force programmed to dispense, in its cold fashion, the death sentence. It would float around until it found a person condemned by the Empire to die, then execute him.

Luke, in a bit of trouble with an unhappy alien, wears a costume much like the one Han Solo wears in the film.

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(Last updated at: 980414)