Our good friends over at the always-awesome Boba Fett Fan Club bring a fascinating interview with Sandy Dhuyvetter, the artist who painted the Fett costume for Empire and the helmet for Jedi.
How did you initially get involved with Star Wars?
I have a degree in art specializing in illustration. I then received a teaching degree and taught art for 4 years in Pico Rivera, California at Rivera Junior High. I was motivated to become a working artist and knew to do that I had to leave teaching. In 1977 I moved to San Francisco and opened Daydream Productions where I started producing art for concerts products and companies who wanted original illustrations, logos and designs.
I had a friend who knew of an editor at Lucasfilm and I was able to take some of my portfolio to the Ranch where I was asked to create illustrations and the like for More American Graffiti. I worked on logos for the race cars for the racing scenes and I produced other posters and duplicates of art that was popular in the 70s. The ‘Rat Fink’ and ‘Keep on Truckin’ were some of the work I produced along with the famous Pot Leaf I recreated for the movie.
I was then asked to create a logo for t-shirts that artists (who worked at the ranch and played volleyball during lunch) could wear. I produced the t-shirts with the art on the front saying, “Sprockets, May the Force be with You.” This was 1977 and 1978. At that point I was asked to complete 3 Boba Fett costumes, head to almost toe. (I did not produce the shoes.)
