Doug Chiang

Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist and designer about achieving his lifelong dream of working on Star Wars

- 

From humble beginnings through to becoming the production designer and senior vice president/ executive design director at Lucasfilm, Doug Chiang's career is a shining example of the power of following your dreams.

We caught up with Doug to learn more about how he constantly improves as an artist, and how he always creates space for spontaneity in his work.

Tell us about your background as an artist. How did you get started and what has your career been like so far?

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.