Pre-fur Chewie

I'm posting another vintage Tavoularis because I can't get over the Chewie toys Aaron showed of the early, pre-fur Chewies which were turned into toys.

More Alex Tavoularis concept sketches

Early C-3PO, Alex Tavoularis 1975

Early Chewie, Alex Tavoularis 1975

Alex Tavoularis 1975 storyboard

This is another one of Alex Tavoularis's 1975 Storyboards. Quite some time ago, I shot them with my little instamatic and uploaded them. Friends who have been on my page probably recognize the images. I'm reuploading them for two reasons -- one, the instamatic captures weren't the greatest quality. Two, repetition never hurts. Or, at least not too badly :) not with Star Wars.

I rescanned them in an attempt to replicate their originals, which are pencils on tracing paper. The jpg below gets closer to capturing the original board, though the digitizing process strengthens the lines, making the pencil strokes appear more like markers.

Alex Tavoularis concept sketches

Early Alex Tavoularis concept sketch of Luke Skywalker, done in 1975, when Luke was female.

Early Alex Tavoularis concept sketch of Darth Vader, based on RMQ's sketches, done in 1975

Alex Tavoularis storyboards

I've shared these before. I'm looking through my hard drive and re-sharing a few things. These are Alex Tavoularis' boards which fans keep asking me to sell. I get messages on my private email from folks lusting after these. And no, they will not be part of the Brownie point loot, so don't start salivating. I'm sharing these for everyone can enjoy. Suppose i should really rescan these so they aren't skewed. Well, one day....

A very early concept drawing, when we dabbled around with the idea of Luke being a she.

An early Chewie when the wookie was clean shaven :)

Alex Tavoularis artwork

I've been debating about what to do with the scan. By this, should I put a huge watermark across it for the blog, or just let it go, as is? If I put a huge watermark across it, number one, I personally don't like looking at things with huge watermarks across it. It's ugly. Two, what's the point? Anyone who is halfway decent at photoshop can remove the watermark. Think there's even special software which allows you to remove watermarks. So what would be the point of watermarking? A dedicated pirate undoubtedly has more skills than me and can undo the watermark which took me a couple of seconds to put on in about the same time.

People put watermarks because they don't want to see their work published all over the internet. That's true of the ALIEN contact sheets. I don't want to see the individual frames of the contact sheet blown up and all over the net. Why? Because they haven't been published. If 20th Century Fox had published them, it would be a different story. You are looking at something which has already been published, so the quality of my upload is irrelevant. The material is out there. But... what I've finally realized... the best way to stop folks form publishing it is to upload it in low resolution.

I don't know if there is a point in uploading the Tavoularis in lo res. Rinzler published the boards in his book. They weren't the greatest quality because the work Rinzler had was originally skewed photographs. I know, because that's the only time I copied them...

Alex Tavoularis original Wookie concept, 1975, pencil on vellum

Alex Tavoularis original boards, 1975, pencil on vellum

Alex Tavoularis original board, 1975, pencil on vellum -- read what it says under Luke

Alex Tavoularis original board, 1975, pencil on vellum. These last four make up a scene.