Star Wars, Cantina Fan Club Poster Prelim Art (1978)-Bill Selby

This beauty is a preliminary color comp in mixed media for the iconic Cantina poster produced by Factors Etc. Inc. back in 1978. The Cantina poster was the very first Star Wars Fan Club poster. These posters have become rare and now are sought out by collectors. Take a look at the finished painting and read the fascinating story behind the Cantina poster HERE in my gallery.

Artist Bill Selby used 35mm color slides that Black Falcon Ltd (Lucas’ company before it became Lucasfilm) provided for reference. Star Wars had been showing in the theaters for eight months when Selby began working on the Cantina piece. Lucas’ instruction was to add all of the aliens in the cantina sequence into a grand scene. In the preliminary drawing, Selby had more alien creatures, but subsequently removed some of them because Lucas, limited by time and budget was unhappy with the way several aliens looked in the film's cantina scene. You can compare this prelim to the produced poster in the above photo.

If you take a look at the work-in-progress shots, you can see this prelim right under Selby's easel in the top left image. The prelim was rendered using acrylic, pencil and color pencils on paper. The image area measure approximately 12" X 16".