I was plodding around a few of my favorite sites last evening and I saw these amazing concept posters by artists Mike Butkus for Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece, Django Unchained. This was my first foray into Mike’s work so I immediately went to his page to get more info on the man.

Here is a lil info from his site.  Michael Butkus was trained at Otis Parsons in Los Angeles and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He has taught illustration and rendering techniques, along with character design and visual development, to art industry professionals and commercial art students. Mike has worked on more than 2,500 films in the areas of advertising, movie poster art, set design, and character design.

Mike also invented and illustrated hundreds of characters for Lucasfilms’ Shadow of the Empire. Clients include Paramount, Warner Brothers, Universal, Disney, DreamWorks, and LucasArts, as well as a number of toy companies that employ his imaginative creations and conceptual renderings for product design. Mike lives in Los Angeles, CA.

All I can say is “WoW!”  If talent was held in a cup his would “runneth over.”  How long before we see his work on some of the new Star Wars projects that are being loaded into the pipeline?  Only time will tell but I will keep my fingers crossed that he gets the call.  I would LOVE to see what he comes up with.

Head over to Mike’s site HERE and check out the seemingly endless portfolio he has amassed.

Sources – XombieDIRGE and Paul Shipper Studio : Two amazing sites that continually deliver the goods.