Drew Struzan

Lavishly illustrated with final poster art, some unused poster art, and plenty of "comps" (preparatory drawings to gauge the preferences of whoever commissioned the work), for a range of movies from the instantly-familiar to the relatively obscure.
Anyone who grew up a fan of film in the eighties will feel a wave of nostalgia when leafing through this book.
The accompanying text talks relatively little about the processes of actually painting the pictures, but describes at more length the different relationships and interactions with directors, producers, occasionally actors, and latterly faceless studio suits, from Struzan's golden heyday through to his retirement. There's a strong streak of bitterness in the latter half of text: how the rise of the Photoshop era saw the possibility, and then the increasing tendency, to leave trained, professional artists out of the loop (or tinker clumsily with their work after they've handed it in) for the sake of saving a few bucks. But don't let that put you off – the pictures are lovely!… (more)