From Star Wars Celebration Europe II, a presentation panel about the next CG series Star Wars Rebels reveals some concept art heavily influenced by the late Ralph McQuarrie. 

Since the series is plotted to take place between Episodes III and IV, I’m happy the production saw fit to use McQuarrie’s concept artwork as a springboard for the visual style. It seems a natural fit because McQuarrie’s finished art, as detailed and textured as it is, typically focuses on large general shapes composed sparsely in the frame, which tends to draw the viewer’s eyes toward them. This should translate well into the CG designs and animation.

So far, the preliminary designs seem very authentic: the stormtrooper helmets and TIE fighters look familiar, but their proportions are skewed slightly in the manner which McQuarrie drew them. And protocol droids look more like the robot Maria of Metropolis from which McQuarrie himself drew inspiration for C-3PO.

I never got into The Clone Wars much. The show was definitely done well, with great writing and exciting design work; too bad it was cancelled after the Episode VII announcement. But I’m just not a big follower of the Prequels segment of the franchise, which I think was overburdened with the task of filling in the blanks introduced in A New Hope. But now with a storyline that segues into the original Trilogy that I grew up with, I definitely will hop aboard and save my pennies for the tie-in toys to follow.