Scans from a recently acquired hardcover ( for studying Tarnsman of Gor, and other classic paintings by the legendary Boris Vallejo*:

*Peruvian painter bodybuilder, who married his beautiful wife, body builder, Julie Bell, who also became a phenomenal painter.

The high-res scan of Tarnsman of Gor cover*

* (when there use to be a Waldenbooks there- where I also first discovered Todd Macfarlane’s work on Amazing Spider-man; and began drawing comics after school, pencilling and inking in a super detailed style.).

*that I had been waiting for, before starting a reproduction, and reimagining sequence; which I also have assembled references, to create a sequence that seems as cohesive as I can; with help from his book on photography: Bodies,**.

** ( that I also perused in a book store decades ago, and always wanted to thoroughly study sometime.)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Really no point to crush my book, or cut out the pages to make perfectly flat scans – there are scans of the paintings already on the internet – and the figures I study are usually in the center. The reason I do scan them at all, is that I find internet images are inferior resolution, and the 6 – 48 hours or 3 months I spend studying an image, is worth it to me, to obtain the largest resolution I can find.

1.I think this was the model for Tarnsman of Gor. Would love to see the photoset, that it came from. ( The advantage of hiring models in the future is, I can pose out a series of images, to complete a scene). For decades, I wondered, what the woman looked like from the front – I can’t be the only one. 2. This one would make a great part in the series – I can photo graph the area that wasn’t scanned flat when I am ready to study it. 3. This was a pose that I always wanted to study.

How the Artist Inspired

I had long admired Boris Vallejo’s paintings. As a kid, in the mall* looking at the remarkably crisp, realistic paintings, that defined the expectations for fantasy painting in that generation

My first and Foremost professional art hero, that I discovered first at age 13, in elementary school ( 4th grade) – whose painting Tarnsman of Gor, featured in an anthology, art book, called Space Wars ( that I have since been unable to locate), I giant 300 or so page book, full of prints, of colorful sci fi art. Boris’s painting was featured as a cutting edge example of modern Frank Frazetta style work, with a caption that didn’t reflect John Norman’s Gor book- was it invented by the author, to spice up his book, I don’t know. The caption, read something like ( I paraphrase: haven’t seen it in 30 years):

Trivia:

When I posted my version on Hentai Foundry last year, 2 users immediately declared it was a copy. This, is actually flattering – to the scrutinizing eye, it is clearly not identical – oils and watercolor, and my palette versus Boris’s simply are not the same. My painting is slightly smaller than his original; and mine was based on a very small ( like 1/1/2 inch swatch on the rear cover of the book Tarnsman of Gor. Which I got from a used book store, in the 1999.

I haven’t abandoned Hentai Foundry for good – they reject submissions, for technical reasons ( like file size, or panels being straight, or dust , grains, – but always leave a generic automated response: ‘Your submission has failed to meet our quality standards’. It’s annoying – even though I know, when I finally figure out what technical reason it is, they usually accept all the old Apocrypha I have submitted. But it can take weeks to get a submission seen. )

They seem to me like someone playing too hard to get. I’m not that interested in posting my art for free on a gallery, where my first impression was 2 viewers, spontaneously, accusing me of plagiarism, rather than appreciating my reproduction piece.

It seems more efficient to use the time, developing the new work, and then starting to post with work that is at current technical standards (hopefully). Thankfully, I have subscribers whose appreciate my drawings in progress, and pieces that are raw, not necessarily ‘abiding’ by technical standards.