The Art of John Alvin

The media could not be loaded.  When it comes to movie poster illustrations, John Alvin and Drew Struzan are among the best.The Art of John Alvin is a wonderful retrospective and tribute to the late artist who passed away in 2008.This 160-page hardcover collects the movie posters he has created from 1974 to 1999 plus a special commissioned piece completed in 2007. The artworks includes the finished posters, preliminary sketches, colour drafts and many unused never seen before art.The reproduction of the artworks is very well done. Many are printed huge and given the full page treatment they deserve. The completed movie poster illustrations are beautiful, and even the sketches are quite a joy to look at as some of them are really detailed.John Alvin's foray into illustrating movie posters started in 1974 with Blazing Saddles. Soon after that, he got called up to create many more, such as for Blade Runner, Return of the Jedi. E.T., Willow, Batman, Batman Returns, Jurassic Park, several Disney classics such as Pinocchio, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and many more other movies.Each movie he worked on comes with several sketches, finished coloured illustrations and the final actual poster. For Jurassic Park there were more than a dozen rough drawings and colour layouts.The artworks are all accompanied commentary that includes the story behind the posters, on how he got the job, conceptualising and even the techniques he used to create the illustrations. The behind the scenes stories are all provided by his wife Andrea Alvin who works alongside him in his studio. No wonder the writeup is so informative and detailed.It's nice to read about the technical stuff, to find out how he worked, for example, to create the glow behind the words for E.T., he cut out a cardboard for the words and sprayed around them. There are bits of technical talk here and there for the posters.Overall, this is a well produced, insightful and inspiring artbook.Highly recommended.(See more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

A must have for John Alvin fans, poster fans, movie fans or just art fans in general. Wonderful stories, visuals and a look at the design process.

I love this book and you will too. It is a treasure. John Alvin was one of the most talented illustrators of all time. If you love the magic of the movies you will really enjoy this beautiful book and his wife Andrea gives you all the inside scoop of each poster. The book is filled with sketches to finished artwork in chronological order. A universal gift for any movie lover, art student or human being. This book pays homage to the man who put the magic in entertainment advertising.

What is amazing to me, as a fan of movie poster art, and at one time a professional illustrator who illustrated some, and even moved to the west coast to pursue that dream for a while… and as a fan of the great John Alvin, what was astonishing to me was how many posters the man illustrated that I had no clue he worked on, or that half of them weren't actually photos but instead his work with a paint brush…any fan of his, or the art form, be it student, professional or attempting the craft, will value it, treasure it, be inspired by it, and best of all learn a few new tricks.

Beautiful images of posters from yesteryear. Got this as a gift for a friend. He loves it, and it's great for conversations or even reminiscing. Wonderful artist, and a great book to showcase some of his classic artwork.

An absolutely gorgeous book for hisyorically gorgeous work. Such intricately detailed personal stories really put you in the room where the magic happened!

This was a gift for an animator. He loves it!

What a beautiful book. The photos are perfect and the history of Johns work is incredible. Very inspiring...

Ho acquistato questo libro perchè volevo appronfondire e comprendere meglio le sue opere, in particolare quelle create per Guerre Stellari.Veramente un bellissimo volume colmo di disegni, concept, tutto ben spiegato.

Superbe artbook qui nous montre tout le talent de John alvin.Quand les affiches de cinéma pouvaient être encore de l'art et non un simple collage Photoshop.

as a movie collector fan and a movie poster collector myself this book gave great insight to what I love, this book is for movie fans and the price is pretty good. Again if you are a movie fan they go through the process of how they made the movie poster and the other versions they had in mind, this is a book of 3 if I'm correct. but this one had some f my favourites

Gran calidad

This book is a short collection of John Alvin's final and under process works. All movie posters have been arranged chronologically based on their year of release. The book was nicely packed in shrink wrap and delivered safely.Not all artworks of John Alvin are present. Not all movies for which he has worked can be found. Some posters are really hi resolution whereas some are of poor print quality.Overall a good book. I recommend this to be in the library of every Alvin lover.