Review by Scott Chitwood

Star Wars: The Art of Dave Dorman
by Dave Dorman, edited by Stephen D. Smith and Lurene Haines
published by FPG

The first time I met Dave Dorman was at the 1997 Aggiecon at Texas A&M..Of course, I had a copy of The Art of Dave Dorman in hand. I introduced myself and told him I was a big fan. Since the convention was pretty small, I had him all to myself to chat with If you have not met Dave, he’s one of the coolest, most friendly people in the Star Wars field. We started talking about some of the work featured in his book.

DARK HORSE DAYS
One of the first Star Wars paintings he ever created was the cover for Dark Empire #1. In the book, you can see the art in all its glory without the titles or UPC symbol.

     I asked Dave about the cover to Dark Empire #1, noting that Princess Leia was really ugly. Sorry, but it's true. He agreed, and said that at the time he painted it, he did not have a reference photo for Leia’s face. He had to paint it from memory. In later versions of the painting, seen in later prints of the comic, he got a chance to change her face.

     Also shown in the book is the cover to Tales of the Jedi #3. The painting features Nomi Sunrider holding her daughter Vima and kneeling next to the fallen body of her Jedi husband Andur. I mentioned to him that it was one of my favorite of his covers. He said that almost everyone he has talked to loved that painting, but that he had to fight to have it published. It turns out that Dark Horse did not think the comic would sell if the cover didn't portray traditional Star Wars-style action.

It was not flashy enough. But Dorman was stubborn, and they gave in. It has since turned out to be one of his most popular pieces. However, being a wise guy, I noted that if Andur is a dead Jedi, why didn’t his body disappear? We thought about it and said, "Maybe he’s not dead yet!" ‘Tis but a flesh wound!

DORMAN TAKES ON THE YOUNG JEDI KNIGHTS
We then began to talk about his paintings for the Young Jedi Knights books. If you have not seen the covers, they take Dave’s beautiful paintings and stamp them into foil covers.

     While eye catching to kids, it totally ruins the artwork. What’s great about The Art of Dave Dorman, though, is that it reprints the paintings without the foil and without the titles. You then get so see the detail and colors Dave put into them. I asked him how he felt about the foil covers. He got this look on his face, as if he wanted to say what he really thought about them, but instead he pointed out that the second printings of the novels were done without the foil covers and that his advice to people was to buy the second printings, not the firsts.

     Also shown in the book are his paintings from the Star Wars Galaxy cards from Topps. One of them is the Droids Only painting that can be seen on the Micro Machines Droids collections box. I asked Dave if Lucasfilm takes all of his paintings. He said no, but that they buy the originals of the ones they like. He also said that they really only buy paintings that George Lucas specifically asks for. Well, they asked to buy the Droids Only painting from him, meaning ‘you-know-who’ liked it. But Dave decided to keep that painting, and Lucasfilm still asks him if he wants to sell it. Bummer for George, eh?

LUCASFILM RULES
One of the nice features about the book is that it shows the progression of the painting from models posing for photos, to sketches, to rough paintings, to the finished product. If you read the book, you’ll see that Dorman makes a whole lot of changes to his paintings once he finishes them. It turns out that the editors, or Lucasfilm, don’t like some sort of detail in the painting, and they ask him to change it (seeing as how he does a bazillion sketches that have to be approved well before he even paints, it seems stupid that they ask him to go back and redo them). But Dave gives his fans a real treat and shows every original version or alternate version of his paintings. You’d also be surprised at some of the other places Dave has done Star Wars art that you may not have seen: CD covers, covers to Hero magazine and the Star Wars Insider, and more. All of them are in this book.

     Knowing that Lucasfilm has final say over what he paints, I asked Dave if they ever rejected any of his ideas. He said that he always wanted to do a painting of Yoda with a lightsaber surrounded by attacking goons. He wanted to portray Yoda as about to kick butt. Well, Lucasfilm said, "Sorry. Can’t do it." But Dave is still hopeful.

CHOCK FULL O' GOODIES
The book also includes some of his very first Star Wars related paintings, never before published. Some of his prints are also shown. Individually, the prints run around $40 each, so getting them all in one book at $25 seems like a good deal!

     Dave wraps up the book by showing how he created the cover to the books. It’s pretty cool to see how he paints using photos from trading cards, how he sketches the figures, and what he actually uses to paint the picture.

     While at the convention, I also met Dave’s wife, Lurene Haines. Hmmm. Now why did that name ring a bell? Why, she’s one of the editors of the book! So I got both Dave and Lurene’s autographs in the book. Lucky day! You may also know Lurene’s Star Wars Galaxy painting for Topps. It’s the one with the female Rebel riding the Taun-Taun on Hoth. It’s a beautiful piece of work, too. Lurene also runs Dave Dorman’s personal web page, Dorman Art, which sells his artwork. The page was her surprise birthday present to Dave. From there, you can write Dave and Lurene, buy some of his prints, just look around, or buy yourself a copy of The Art of Dave Dorman. If you enjoy Star Wars art, I highly recommend it.

ECHO STATION Grade:  A+

(Scott Chitwood is one of the founding members of the infamous website TheForce.net, formerly the Texas A&M Star Wars site.)