Illustrator · Designer · Hollywood
Steven Chorney
The hand behind the poster.
Five decades of motion-picture illustration — from Lassiter and Designing Women to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Licence to Kill and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
380 works · Five decades · One hand
Scroll01Selected works
The campaigns that
defined a career.
Thirteen images from a working life spent painting other people's worlds — the one-sheets, the rejected concepts, the campaigns that won the awards.
02The archive
Every world
he painted.
Studio posters, preliminary sketches, publishing, advertising and fine art. Browse the contact sheet, or step onto the wall.
380 works · All Work
No works in this category.
Every image is from Steven Chorney's personal archive. Select a work to view it full screen.
Inquire about a work or commission
03The artist
A career
drawn by hand.
Steven Chorney was born in Washington, D.C. in 1951 and raised in Buffalo, New York. He had no formal art education. In 1971 he moved to Southern California to become a visual artist, and by the mid-1970s he was animating and designing television commercials on the Sunset Strip.
His first film poster, for the 1984 Tom Selleck picture Lassiter, broke with the standard photographic montage. Studio work followed: more than 120 motion-picture campaigns, over 50 TV Guide illustrations for CBS and NBC, and preliminary design on films including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Licence to Kill and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
In 1987 his campaign for Designing Women won First Place in The Hollywood Reporter's Key Art Awards. In 2014 his illustrations for Inherent Vice, made with BLT Communications, won three Clio Entertainment Awards. In 2019 he designed the poster for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and, with Renato Casaro, several of the film's mock posters.
Still working from Hollywood, he paints for Universal and Disney parks, publishers, galleries and private collectors.
“I like to think it was something I did… but more truthfully, I was in the right place at the right time.”
Steven Chorney
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1951
Washington, D.C.
Born; raised in Buffalo, New York. His father, a commercial artist trained in Toronto, is the first and lasting influence.
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1971
West
Moves to Southern California to pursue a life as a visual artist — without formal art training.
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1976
First place
Takes First Place for Animated Television Commercials at the Chicago International Film Festival.
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1983—86
The small screen
Creates more than 50 dramatic TV Guide advertisements for CBS and NBC — Airwolf, Dynasty, Miami Vice, T.J. Hooker, Cagney & Lacey.
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1984
Lassiter
The one-sheet that departs from the montage and opens the studio doors. The campaigns begin to arrive.
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1987
Key Art Award
First Place, Television, in The Hollywood Reporter's Key Art Awards for Designing Women.
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2014
Inherent Vice
Illustrated campaign with BLT Communications wins three Clio Entertainment Awards — one Grand, two Gold.
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2019
Hollywood, again
Designs the poster for Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and several of its mock posters.
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Today
Still painting
Hollywood, California. Parks, publishing, galleries, private commissions — and the next poster.
04Contact
For commissions,
licensing & prints.
Studio work, private commissions, publishing and print inquiries are welcome. Write directly to Steven.