To celebrate next week’s release of Doug Chiang: The Cinematic Legacy/The Star Wars Legacy by Alexandre Poncet and Gilles Penso, Chiang, Lucasfilm’s Executive Design Director, spoke to CreativeBloq.com about what it takes to make it as a Star Wars artist.
CB: Tell us about your background as an artist. How did you get started and what has your career been like so far?
Doug Chiang (DC): I was born in Taiwan and remember doing my first drawings in the dirt with a stick. We weren’t particularly wealthy, and paper was scarce. My only opportunity to draw on paper was in letters that my mom would write to my dad, who was studying engineering in the US. We immigrated to the US and lived in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, when I was about five years old.
Being quiet and shy with few friends, I turned inward to my imagination and drew all the time. I would draw in my textbooks and fill my school notebooks with sketches instead of notes. Drawing became my sanctuary where my imagination could flourish. I loved nature and drew many wildlife drawings. But I was also drawn to the stranger aspects of nature, particularly dinosaurs and monsters.
I grew up watching Godzilla films and became enamoured with mythic monsters. But my passion for drawing truly ignited when I saw Star Wars in 1977. Like many artists of my generation, Star Wars had an overwhelming effect on me. The visuals and storytelling absolutely captivated me – I had never seen or experienced anything like it before.
From that moment on, I wanted to learn more about film design and visual effects. I bought art books and magazines like Starlog, Cinefantastique and Famous Monsters of Filmland, and began to learn about the artists who were creating these fantastic images. Reading about those artists introduced me to a whole industry that I didn’t know existed before.
In this acrylic painting, Doug aimed to capture the excitement of the queen’s daring escape in The Phantom Menace. Painting a chrome ship against the backdrop of space proved especially challenging. (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)
CB: Talk us through the impact that the original Star Wars film and the accompanying art design book had on your work
DC: Star Wars was transformative for me. I was at the right age. Before seeing it, I enjoyed drawing but didn’t know it could be a career, that a whole industry of film designers existed. Drawing was just a hobby, and I didn’t see a future in being an artist. In fact, I wanted to be a zoologist because I loved animals. In my family, art was discouraged and not taken seriously.
Then, a year after Star Wars debuted, the TV documentary about the ‘making of’ aired, and I saw the people behind the scenes crafting models and creating the magic of visual effects. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do: become a visual effects artist. But there was no clear path.
I went to the library and checked out books on filmmaking, drawing, model making and animation. I began making my own short stop-motion films in the basement of our house. The “art of” books further opened my eyes to visual effects and filmmaking. Joe Johnston’s Star Wars sketchbooks, for example, blew my mind. I meticulously copied his drawings to understand his techniques.
Though my path into this career wasn’t the most direct, it worked for me. Today, the art community is vast, and I’m astonished by how new generations of artists have raised the artistic bar even higher. The level of talent today is truly humbling.
This digital painting represents one of Doug’s first production artworks for The Mandalorian season one. It captures the dramatic moment when a ravinak attacks the Razor Crest. (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)
CB: Today you’re the executive design director at Lucasfilm. What does that role entail?
DC: My current position at Lucasfilm encompasses two roles. On the company side, I oversee Star Wars design for our films, games, new media and theme parks. Having worked closely with George Lucas for seven years at Skywalker Ranch, I try to pass on the lessons that I learned from him.
Star Wars design is more sophisticated than it first appears. On the surface, the designs may seem simple and obvious, and that’s intentional. But underneath lie layers of foundational guidelines that shape this cohesive universe. In reality, only George truly knows what Star Wars design is. I do my best, but I don’t always get it 100 per cent right.
The second part of my role is working as a production designer on our films. This alone is a full-time job, making it challenging to juggle both responsibilities, especially when I’m involved with multiple films simultaneously. Each film typically takes two-and-a-half years to produce, and I’m usually working on two or three concurrently. I might be in early development on one, full production and filming on another, and postproduction on a third.
Most of my day is consumed with art direction and supervision. This can be frustrating because it leaves little time for creating art, which is why my personal sketchbook and drawings are so important to me.
CB: What advice would you give to other artists thinking of becoming art directors and illustrators?
DC: Remember that art isn’t a competition. There will always be someone more skilled or proficient than you. Focus on being better than who you were yesterday by improving your skills and finding your unique style – your voice that will differentiate you from others.
Standing out among talented artists can be challenging. Art itself is difficult, but finding good ideas is even harder. I hire artists the way casting directors select actors for roles. You don’t need to be the best; you just need to be the right fit for the role. This comes down to continuous learning. Love what you do and draw every day. That’s what made the biggest difference for me. Keep a sketchbook and draw and keep drawing. Never become complacent.
Read more here and preorder the regular edition of Doug Chiang: The Cinematic Legacy/The Star Wars Legacy from Amazon.com and Amazon UK, or the web exclusive Limited Edition of Doug Chiang: The Cinematic Legacy/The Star Wars Legacy with five signed and numbered archival prints directly from Abrams — happy hunting!
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