RIP Greg Hilderbrandt

[montysaurus]

The last of the Brothetrs Hilderbrant died on halloween. I loved their fantasy art. They did the first Star Wars poster.

 

[Apollo]

Greg and Tim were the rembrandts of Tolkein and fantasy art

 

[joberg]

Great artists...love the way they draw/painted their Art

 

[dbuck]

The last of the Brothetrs Hilderbrant died on halloween. I loved their fantasy art. They did the first Star Wars poster.

Even better. They painted the second one. Wait, what? 20th had a hard time deciding on the poster artwork. Eventually they brought in Tom Jung who thought he’d design it but not paint it, he thought Frazetta or somebody would. However, he ended up painting it, 20th liked it……but……it seemed a bit ‘dark’ for the A poster. With nine days before artwork was to be in the newspapers ads, meaning they had two days to create the art, they contacted the Hildebrandt brothers. Essentially only told to make it more comic bookish, they took turns sleeping and painting and in about thirty six hours finished the painting. When showing it to 20th they hand painted the droids on the spot. (Jung’s painting didn’t have them either, they were added later)
Despite liking the painting, they liked the likeness of Luke and Leia on the Jung painting better so they went with the Jung artwork for the A poster, and used the Hildebrandt art for merchandising and such.
There’s far more detail to this, but this is the short version.

 

[George]

May he rest in Peace

 

[agliarept]

He was a core memory of my youth when i obsessed over their work on the marvel masterpiece series trading cards. Nothing will ever beat that for me growing up. Met him a few times and he was always incredibly nice!