When tasked with creating an alternative poster for Poster Spy prior to Episode VII I took a stab at predicting and representing one of the big story arcs. Obviously, with Han (Harrison Ford), I got lucky. There was so much Rey/Kylo/Finn imagery in the build up to the film I felt that that the scruffy nerfherder was under-represented.
Doing my utmost to avoid the 'floating heads' that so many posters had done so well - and once Struzan had done one-what's the point? -I decided to depict General Solo looking wise and authoritative in front of the fastest 'hunk 'o junk in the galaxy', the Millennium Falcon. I was inspired by the old portraits in the National Portrait Gallery in London and wanted a pose that evoked this classic feel.
The initial sketch of this concept was on a post-it note which I scanned into Photoshop and I drew Han and the Falcon digitally (using a combination of Kyle T Webster & Frenden pencil brushes) and then painted the rest.