Earlier quoted context omitted.
All art is cheesy. If you briefly find any of it profound it's only because in some aspect you are briefly a 13 year old boy full of awe and excitement. That's what "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is diplomatically trying to say.
Art can evoke a wide range of reactions, and that's often what makes it so powerful and meaningful
Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
91–100 of 123 posts
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brothers Hildebrandt, Jean Giraud, Richard Corben....
But not Darrel K. Sweet[0] (one of the more published artists). His people looked like bobbleheads. He wasn't really so good at getting the human form right. But he was painfully detailed, and probably pretty reliable, so he got a lot of work. My fave for the human form, was Frank Frazetta[1]. He actually had a fairly classical bent to his work, and was probably an inspiration for Vallejo. Vallejo's people are perfec…
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#93Influence 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…
For a modern (born late 70s) counterpart with deeply classical influences, consider adding Roberto Ferri to your study sources:
https://www.robertoferri.net/gallery/
Studies: https://www.robertoferri.net/gallery-studi/
Drawings: https://www.robertoferri.net/gallery-disegni/
Paintings: https://www.robertoferri.net/gallery-solodipinti/
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#94"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…
If you want a glitch to ground out a sync pulse that travels between chips in a Speak N Spell, but do so _without_ overstressing the chips and eventually destroying them, there are absolutely ways to do that. Buffers and diodes are not rocket science, and once the signals have been found, manipulating them can be made repeatable, safe, and durable.
If you want a glitch to happen somewhere between the 4th and 40th scanline of a video frame and always during the horizontal blanking interval, it's absolutely possible to construct a trigger circuit that will do precisely that, every time, perhaps still with a configurable degree of randomness but never in a way that will smoke the chips.
Which is to say, suffer for your art only if the suffering is the point. Which I suspect may actually be the case.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#95I used to be a teenage demoscene graphics artist back in the waning days of the Amiga and earliest days of Windows-based demos. Vallejo was definitely a popular source and influence. But demoscene graphics were really more of a technical competition than expressive art. The participants were teenagers — it was pretty obvious that most 16-year-old boys don't paint like Frazetta while also having mastered the skills fo…
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#96I've the joy of being married to a fantasy illustrator, and through her I've been able to attend a number of fantasy art conventions and shows. As I've seen a number of comments as well as the article asking about such, I can say Boris is doing quite well! He's a regular fixture at Illuxcon (https://imaginativerealism.com/), a fantasy/sci-fi art show in Reading, PA. (Along with Julie Bell)
He's a genuinely likable and modest guy. I remember a panel he was on some years ago where the discussion was how to break into the illustration market as a new artist. And more than anyone else on the panel, Boris just seemed to get it. He'll tell you about how he had to get himself established coming from Peru with nothing, and it's kept him humble all these years.
Cool guy.
Edit: Fixed country of origin, Thanks!
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#97How did his art become the face of 80s fantasy? of GoldenAxe? of D&D? Anyone recommend other articles about him?
The 80s had a different approach to nudity and body shapes. It fit in with the zeitgeist.
As to why? I think you'll find Sir Mix-a-lot has some answers for you.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#98> "featuring idealistically rendered warriors and princesses, muscular and scantily clad (but not indecent)" Picture a couple of lines later shows two completely naked women. Might be considered "indecent"
This comment exemplifies the puritanical view that nakedness is somehow bad or impure. Notice that the men in the paintings of Vallejo are also almost completely naked, hacking away at monsters with large weapons. Yet you did not point to them and say they were indecent. I really hope that the rest of the world doesn’t take over the sex/violence sensitivities as are prevalent in the US.
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is true that modesty is not an exclusively US puritan ideal, but the US has a disproportionately strong cultural influence on other societies. In my neck of the woods we are much more relaxed about nakedness, and find the scandals in the US around this topic amusing. But for instance the lengths at which for instance facebook goes to to avoid nipples and penises feels more like an overstep in cultural freedom.
Facepook is just another textbook example of bureaucracy breaking loose. Companies that give them money (for ads) declare that “content” (i. e. everything that exists in this world) can be “SFW” and “NSFW”, and they only want the former. Ergo, women don't have breasts. End of story. All the excuses and exceptions corporate human robots invent afterwards are just irrelevant icing on the cake. It would be fine to just…
Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene
#100I was delighted to see this name pop up in my HN feed of all places. I've the joy of being married to a fantasy illustrator, and through her I've been able to attend a number of fantasy art conventions and shows. As I've seen a number of comments as well as the article asking about such, I can say Boris is doing quite well! He's a regular fixture at Illuxcon ( https://imaginativerealism.com/ ), a fantasy/sci-fi art s…