Influence of Vallejo and Julie Bell cannot be underestimated on fantasy illustration. Personally, when I studied anatomy for animation work I did back when I was still doing he was a big part of it, even though his work did incline more towards bodybuilding kind of types. Stylistically though, big influence on fantasy. Sorayama was mentioned as well. Again, personally it was: Burne Hogarth, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Luis Royo, Sorayama. Even they're not of same period, I group them together as major influence and study sources.
Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
31–40 of 123 posts
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#32How did his art become the face of 80s fantasy? of GoldenAxe? of D&D? Anyone recommend other articles about him?
I never thought I'd ever have the occasion to mention this, but Golden Axe's artwork is due to Dermot Power: https://www.mobygames.com/game/199/golden-axe/promo/group-28... I wonder if he was influenced by Vallejo. https://dermotpower.com/
Well, the Golden Axe II cover was actually by Vallejo. The article links to his known game covers: https://vgdensetsu.net/2_BorisVallejo.html
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#33It sincerely pleases me to see the Amiga so rightfully discussed in this article. In the 1980s, Amiga was a magical computer years ahead of so many of its peers (including the PC by miles). Sadly, the video capabilities that made it so special eventually became its Achilles heel.
>Sadly, the video capabilities that made it so special eventually became its Achilles heel.
How weird: I was browsing YouTube last night (with the SmartTube app) and somehow stumbled on a video that discussed this exact thing, basically making the case that Wolfenstein 3D killed the Amiga and discussing how the unique video capabilities it had which were great for 2D side-scrollers made it so difficult to make a FPS shooter work well on it, because apparently the Amiga didn't have direct framebuffer access the way PCs did with VGA mode 0x13.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#34For a more modern approach, try using "I Can't Believe It's Not Photography"
with a prompt including "in the style of Boris Vallejo".
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#35Influence of Vallejo and Julie Bell cannot be underestimated on fantasy illustration. Personally, when I studied anatomy for animation work I did back when I was still doing he was a big part of it, even though his work did incline more towards bodybuilding kind of types. Stylistically though, big influence on fantasy. Sorayama was mentioned as well. Again, personally it was: Burne Hogarth, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vall…
Brothers Hildebrandt, Jean Giraud, Richard Corben....
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#36"I had learned to appreciate the color limitations during the old-school graphics competition at Evoke, where we could only use a predefined color palette. The first time I submitted an entry in 2022, I hated it. The second time, in 2023, I came to accept the limited color palette as a problem to solve. And by 2024, I actually started to enjoy the challenge." I've found that limitation in artistic mediums can serve a…
> I've found that limitation in artistic mediums can serve as motivation and even inspiration in art. There's a great 1969 interview with Charles Eames in which he discusses design, and constraints as being a necessary component of design. Some Excerpts: Interviewer: Does the creation of Design admit constraint? Eames: Design depends largely on constraints. Interviewer: What constraints? Eames: The sum of all constra…
For more (great stuff) in this vein, check out Lars von Trier's The Five Obstructions.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#37For a more modern approach, try using "I Can't Believe It's Not Photography" with a prompt including "in the style of Boris Vallejo".
Based Mr. Nagle dialing in the bants.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#38There's something touchingly innocent about Boris Vallejo's work. It is as if he is channeling the fantasies of a 13-year-old boy without shame, guilt or even self-consciousness. It is that rare artwork that is only about itself. It is like a picture that is run through iterative image generation using only the words "hotter" and "heroic" and "mysterious" over and over until an asymptote is reached. It seems pure and…
Yes, it's fantasy. Well spotted.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#39I met him, back in the 1980s, when I was still doing paintings, myself[0]. I was surprised at how short he was. BTW: He was a bodybuilder, and was the model for many of his paintings. His wife also featured in many. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40917886
Really great!
While being obviously simpler than old school sci-fi/fantasy paperback covers, the scene arrangement and energy is spot on.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#40I don't think Vallejo's art was necessarily limited to the demoscene; in the late 70s/80s that style was very common on video game cover art. Related amusing article: https://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/09/14/reimagining-programmi...
I think Računari magazine had a couple of non-photo covers in that style, but maybe being a Galaksija spin-off gave them the connection to a F/SF artist?