Boris Valeggio. Fantasy paintings and character prototypes

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Boris Valeggio, or as he is also called Vallejo, is an artist of our time, whose creative path followed a winding path that eventually led him to worldwide recognition.

Creativity

Valeggio was born in Peru, but he actively showed his artistic talents in the United States, due to which many sources call him a Peruvian-American representative of art.

It would be superfluous to talk about how the future representative of the "fantasy" style loved to draw since childhood, as this is indicated by his preferences in choosing an educational institution. Boris successfully completed his studies at the National School of Arts in his homeland - in Lima. His success was so remarkable that he received a grant to study painting in Florence. The rebellious spirit, which over time the author will “pour out” into his fantasy paintings, Boris Valeggio thoroughly showed when he refused the benefits provided to him, and with a few tens of dollars went to the USA to follow the American dream.

The young man had a hard time at first. He was forced to wander around the cities in search of better conditions.for existence. Valeggio spent the first two years of his stay in the country of enormous opportunities as an employee, and then he was able to afford to become a freelance artist. I must say that this status was more of a fiction, since for the next eight years he tried in every possible way to realize his potential, creating illustrations in the fantasy style for major publishing houses in the country.

Own style

Meticulously working on the implementation of fantastic characters, Vallejo formed his own style of writing. His main activity was creating illustrations for films, album covers. Over time, the artist managed to embody his ideas in the form of creating graphic advertising. Pictures in the style of Valeggio are certainly sketches with the participation of fantastic characters, which are distinguished by the realism of the image.

In his artistic style, Boris is classified as a fantasy writer. Looking at his work, you involuntarily plunge into the world of good dreams or rampant nightmares depicted by him.

Main characters

Valeggio's paintings depict mainly heroic images of people with superhuman abilities. Among the frequently encountered images of the artist, one can notice the images of mythical gods, Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, and mystical creatures. The bodies of the heroes are depicted grotesquely, as if they all spend the day and night in gyms and drink steroids. However, this only applies to male characters. Women, on the contrary, have voluminous forms and look veryerotic. However, this is one of the hallmarks of the fantasy style.

Drawings from life are never the basis for the images of heroes. This is the fundamental rule of drawing a picture of Valeggio. Photos of sitters - this is the starting point for starting work on the canvas. It's not at all that Boris lacks experience or patience. He drew a lot from life before he came to the optimal formula for his work. Valeggio takes the photo and proceeds to paint it on canvas. As each stroke appears, the master has images that allow him to transform a real hero into one who can take on the task of saving the world or a beautiful woman.

Animals in the artist's works

Creates Valeggio paintings with amazing realism. Its secret lies in the long journey of studying human and animal anatomy.

When closely studying his work, one cannot fail to notice that the central characters are most often mythical creatures that look like hybrids of the animal and plant worlds. Human features are certainly visible in them, however, in general, the creatures look like an entity unknown to the world.

The whole essence of Valeggio's creative path is to transfer a fictional world with non-existent heroes to the canvas and give them life, giving them biomechanics and mysticism. In many of his works, one can trace the artist's unique ability to combine individual physiological aspects of different animals so that, ultimately,new species.

Boris Valeggio. Paintings about the eternal struggle between good and evil

The artist's work met a lot of reviews along the way, among which were admiration and outright criticism. The fact is that many canvases are permeated with frank eroticism, which is intertwined with symbolic battles of good and evil. In his paintings, one can see how the most evil and powerful evil spirits were able to cope with their inner evil thanks to the embrace of charming beauties, captivating them with the perfection of forms. Ladies play a special role in the artist's work, provoking men to perform feats.

At the same time, they often act as diplomats who, with their beauty, were able to stop evil monsters. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this allegory is seen in the works of Valeggio. The paintings were largely created with the physical and moral support of the painter's wife, Julia Bell, who repeatedly posed for individual scenes. Their family tandem is tightly bound by artistic ties. Julia is also an artist, painting in a similar style to her husband.