Chris Hopkins

WWW.CHRISHOPKINSART.COM

After a high profile career designing, drawing and

painting images for movie poster art in Hollywood — Return of the Jedi,

Labyrinth, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — Chris now feels driven to

produce works which celebrate compelling stories of American perseverance — the

Tuskegee Airmen, First Nations peoples of America’s Pacific Northwest, and the

Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during WWII.

It’s been an unusual career path, to say the least. Chris

was a star on the Southern Oregon College wrestling team when he dropped out in

1974 rather than bow to the inevitable pressure to become a high school

wrestling coach. He loaded up his ’68 sky blue Camaro and hit the road, picking

up jobs from southern California to Montana and living out of his car. After he

ran out of gas in Boise, Idaho, he settled there for a year and a half and

worked as a bouncer at the Bronco Hut (the college bar where he met his wife),

a lift operator at a ski resort, and as an utterly unqualified counselor at a

home shelter for troubled boys. All the time he created art — drawing behind

the bar, sculpting unflattering portraits of ski resort personnel, and carving

the bar’s Billy club into a more appealing shape.

Chris’ older brother convinced him he’d soon be too old

for this bohemian, aimless lifestyle and that he might want to apply to the

prestigious Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He put together a

crude portfolio, submitted an application and remembers “it surprised the crap

out of me when I was actually accepted”.

In the middle of the college program, Chris still hadn’t

figured out a painting system that he liked, so one weekend he locked himself

in a room and refused to come out until he’d conquered it. In 1979, he

graduated from Art Center with honors.

A diploma from art school, so what next? Pouring and

finishing concrete for foundations, walkways, driveways and most everything

else that required concrete until he heard that legendary illustrators Charles

White III and David Willardson were starting a studio and looking for young

talent. Chris’ persistence paid off and he was hired. After months of

sketching he was finally assigned to paint the marquee art

for The Mountain Men. Soon afterwards he discovered the airbrush and the whole

process became fun, especially incorporating brushwork with airbrush

techniques. He painted the clouds, skies, and water all from his Pacific

Northwest childhood memories, and was known as The Sky King, a tribute to his

unmatched ability to paint natural backgrounds

After four years, Chris left Willardson and White ready

for his next challenge — painting people. Yes, he learned to do that, too

painting and drawing the comprehensive and finished poster and magazine promotional

art for Return of the Jedi, Peggy Sue Got Married, Labyrinth, The Abyss, and

who could forget the portrait of the studly Harrison Ford on the Indiana Jones

and The Temple of Doom theatrical advance poster art?

In 1988 he picked up his family and relocated to the state

of Washington where he’s once again tackled a new, but classic, technique. Now

he’s brush-painting stories of American perseverance.