Cover Artist Highlight: Boris Vallejo [NSFW]

The tremendously sexualized covers of the majority of my copies of books from the Atlan Series are identified with only the signature “Boris.” While the books themselves give no explicit credit to the cover artist—a thing that normally annoys me—in this instance it was easy enough to figure out who the artist was. Boris Vallejo is an institution in the fantasy cover art world, especially where depictions of muscle-bound and sexualized bodies were needed.

Boris Vallejo is from Lima, Peru, and was born in 1941. He attended the National School of Fine Arts in Peru before emigrating to the US in 1964. He’s, as I’ve already said, an institution, having worked for pretty much every publishing house in addition to album covers and the like. In 1994 he married Julie Bell, a fellow artist who is quite successful in both the traditionally corporate and the nerdy—painting for the likes of Ford and Marvel.

The two of them currently reside somewhere in my home state of Pennsylvania.

While Boris may be best known for oiled-up muscley bodies, I was happily pleased to see him an amazing artist outside of that one box.

I mean, check this depiction of Buffy and Angel out.

For the most part, though, his work is barely, or not at all, safe for work.

And lest you think that he can only depict the sensuous form of women:

Boris Vallejo collaborates with his wife, Julie Bell, regularly, so any or all of these images may in fact be collaborative.

If you feel like diving deeper into his work, check out he and his wife’s website.

Artnet.com is a great place to swoon over works of his that have been auctioned in the past.

They have a facebook page that they haven’t updated recently, but contains pictures and information you won’t find elsewhere, including photos of Boris snuggling with kitties.

And, perhaps my favorite, here’s a video where Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell and Andrew W.K. talk about the making of Andrew W.K.’s album cover.