Boris Vallejo

Boris Vallejo (born January 8 1941 in Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian painter. He emigrated to the United States in 1964, and he currently resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He frequently works with Julie Bell, his wife, painter and model.

Vallejo works almost exclusively in the fantasy and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have graced the covers of dozens of science fiction paperbacks and are featured in a series of best-selling glossy calendars. Subjects of his paintings are typically gods, monsters, and well-muscled male and female barbarians engaged in battle. Some of his male figures were modeled by Vallejo himself, and many of his later female characters were modeled by his wife. His latest works still retain heavy fantasy elements, but lean more towards the erotic rather than pure fantasy themes.

Artwork

Vallejo commenced painting at the age of thirteen and had his first illustration job at the age of sixteen. After emigrating to the United States in 1964, he quickly garnered a fan following from his illustrations of Tarzan, Conan The Barbarian, Doc Savage and various other fantasy characters. This led to commissions for movie poster illustration, advertisement illustration, and artwork for various collectibles - including Franklin Mint paraphernalia, trading cards and sculpture. Along with Bell, Vallejo presents his artwork in an annual calendar and various books.

Vallejo's preferred artistic medium is oil paint on board, and has previously used digital media to combine discrete images to form composite images. Preparatory works are pencil or ink sketches, which has been displayed in the book "Sketchbook". He and Julie Bell have worked on collaborative artworks together, in which they sign the artwork "Boris and Julie" or "Julie and Boris".

Vallejo has created film posters for numerous fantasy and action productions, including "Barbarella" (1968), "Knightriders" (1981), "Q" (1982), and "Barbarian Queen" (1985). He has also illustrated posters for comedies, notably "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983), "European Vacation" (1985), and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters" (2007), co-created with Bell. [cite web| title = Posterwire.com: King of the Mountain | url=http://www.posterwire.com/archives/2007/03/05/king-of-the-mountain/]

Alleged plagiarism of Vallejo's work

In 2003, a Flash animation slideshow titled [http://www.geocities.com/familyartcorner/ Family Art Corner] was released anonymously, alleging that a woman named Jan McRae had plagiarized the work of many artists, including Vallejo, for reproduction in proselytization tracts printed by the Children of God cult. [ [http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Plagiarized_art Plagiarized art] at xFamily.org] Twenty of Vallejo's works are compared in the slideshow, as are several works by Vallejo's wife, Julie Bell. After the slideshow was released, Karen Zerby, leader of the Children of God acknowledged that McRae had copied the work of others, as did McRae herself, and McRae admitted wrongdoing. [ [http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Which_Comes_First:_The_Revelation_or_the_Artwork%3F Which Comes First: The Revelation or the Artwork?] , xFamily.org]

Personal life

Vallejo is married to fellow artist Julie Bell, whose artistic style is very similar to Vallejo's. He has two children from a previous marriage to artist and writer Doris Vallejo. His son, Dorian Vallejo, also has produced work in the fantasy genre but now works primarily as a portrait painter. His daughter, Maya Vallejo, is a professional photographer.

Popular culture

According to their performance on January 21, 1995 at the " [http://www.waterstreetmusic.com/aboutme.htm Horizontal Boogie Bar] " (now known as the "Water Street Music Hall" [http://www.waterstreetmusic.com/aboutme.htm Water Street Music Hall] ] ) in Rochester, New York, the Ween song "Vallejo" [http://www.chocodog.com/chocodog/erat/audio/right.html Dan Erat's Ween Audio Center] , "Vallejo" listed under Misc. EP Stuff] is a tribute to the artist. Gene Ween is heard to comment prior to playing the song during the concert: "We very rarely get inspired by artists, but, uh... this is about Boris Vallejo."

Gallery

Books

Several books of collections of his works are available, such as:
*"" (1999)
*"Mirage" (1997)
*"Fantasy Art Techniques" (1985)
*"The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo" (1980)

References

External links

* [http://www.imaginistix.com/ Boris Vallejo Official Web Site] .
*isfdb name|id=Boris_Vallejo|name=Boris Vallejo.
* [http://www.ironicsans.com/2006/04/boris_vallejos_palette.html Boris Vallejo's palette] , IronicSans.com.
* [http://www.doriansportraits.com/index.html Dorian Vallejo's website]