Han Solo Firing His Blaster Pistol — Print & Oil Painting

Caught at the frame where the bolt leaves the barrel. A red streak runs from the muzzle off the right edge of the canvas with a white core down its length, and a small hard flare sits at the vents where the gas escapes.

The arm is straight and locked, the pistol level with the eye, the head dropped in behind it with the chin low and the eyes narrowed. He is shooting properly, sighted along the barrel, rather than firing from the hip the way this character is usually drawn. It makes him look less like a rogue and more like a professional.

The costume is worked in three notes: a cream shirt open at the throat, a dark red waistcoat, a black jacket sleeve running down the extended arm. In the lower right corner a second weapon catches a highlight along its grip, holstered and still.

Everything behind him is rock, bruised red-brown, thrown so far out of focus that it works as a wash rather than a place. With the ground both warm and dark, the only bright cool shape on the canvas is that shirt, and it sits directly beneath the face. The eye has nowhere else to go.

The entire reputation of the man rests on being fast with that pistol in a room where everyone else is still talking. From our Star Wars collection, beside the same weapon raised in warm amber light and the aim taken in front of his own ship.