The painting techniques of Boris Vallejo

Painting Technique

Boris began drawing from an early age, in fact he claims he cannot remember a time when he was not drawing. He attended art school and is grateful for the formal training he received there. It offers several benefits, a good teacher can share his experiences and keep you on a straight path, you can see the work of fellow students and benefit from their feedback, strive to attain the level of those above and recognize your current standing along the artistic path.

Preparing the Boards

The first step with any painting is having a good surface on which to work.

Boris and Julie rarely use canvas for their illustrations, they find the texture of illustration-board provides the fine detail they require.

By choice, Boris and Julie use Strathmore cold press, double weight illustration board. This is made of 100% cotton, is acid free and permanent.

Coating with Gesso

Illustration board is naturally too absorbent, sucking the paint in and causing it to dry too quickly. The boards are primed with three coats of Gesso, brushed at right angles to each other to prevent texture, then left to dry before re-coating.

Preventing Bowing

Boris and Julie prepare several boards at a time as the boards take several hours drying time. To resist bowing, a 3/4 inch Styrofoam backing board is used. The Styrofoam and Gesso boards are taped together at the edges with artists tape.

Creating a frame

Two inch tape is laid over the sandwiched boards to create a frame around the area to be painted.
Julie: A lot of people think the last two steps are not important, but they give the work a professional finish.

Preventing Paint Seepage

A burnishing tool is used to press down the masking tape to prevent paint seeping under it. The tape is removed to give a nice clean edge when a painting is complete. Leaving the tape binding the boards together to prevent curling as the paint dries.

Preparing Brushes

Boris and Julie use Windsor & Newton series 7 sable brushes, two each of small, medium and large. One for laying down colour, one for blending with a clean, dry brush smoothly graduating colour. Areas are blended and made rough, to get contrasts.

Boris's Palette

Cadmiums: Green, Pale-Green, Yellow, Lemon, Orange, Scarlet, Red, Deep-Red
Windsor: Green, Blue-(Green Shade)
Also: Titanium White, Naples Yellow, French-Ultramarine, Cobalt-Blue, Manganese-Blue, Permanent-Rose, Alizarin-Crimson

Julie's Palette

Cadmiums: Deep-Red, Red, Scarlet, Orange, Yellow, Lemon, Green, Pale-Green.
Windsor: Green, Blue
Also: Titanium White, Naples Yellow, Brown-Madder-Alizarin, Raw Sienna, Gold Ochre,Manganese-Blue, French-Ultramarine, Alizarin-Crimson, Permanent-Rose

Reference Materials

The starting point for Boris and Julies pictures is usually a rough, or even quite detailed sketch.

The realism of their paintings comes from the skilled use of reference material.

Boris and Julie have accumulated a vast library of art and nature books, magazines - anything really that shows textures and details they may want to paint.

Much of this they have photographed themselves.

An Array of Props

Photographing models with props adds realism and saves time searching for references materials later on. Boris and Julies's battle props consist of genuine antique weapons, authentic replicas, fantasy swords, and Boris and Julie designs for Franklin Mint.

The Studio

Studio equipment can be built up over time. Modern digital cameras produce good-quality pictures. A hanging paper-roll forms a neutral background. Two stroboscopic light banks, lighting the subject front and back produce shadows adding a three-dimensional quality to a scene.

Photography

The majority of illustrators work from photographs. A painting may take up to a week to complete. It would be expensive and tedious to have a model hold a pose for that length of time. I'm quite sure the Old Masters would have preferred working from photographs.

Rough Sketch

Boris: I think in terms of solids, beginning with masses or lumps and a tentacle. I do tracing upon tracing. First the mass, then elements, then defining. The cleaner and more defined, the less it has. The rough, quick, loose, undefined basic shape relates more to the mental idea than the final sketch.

Transfer to Board

Sized sepia toned photos are printed out. A tracing is made from this. The line drawing is laid face down on a light box, a reverse image is made onto a second piece of tracing paper. This is taped face down onto the Gessoed board and rubbed with an 8H pencil, transferring the image the right way up.

Under-Painting

A diluted acrylic wash is applied. After 3 hours drying time it is followed with a transparent oil glaze which allows the sketch beneath to show through. Using burned sienna acrylic paint the sketch is fleshed out with shadows, this effectively seals the pencil to the board.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are rendered first, working elements from furthest to closest. The colours are placeed using a half-inch natural bristle brush a smaller brush is handy for details. A dry brush with soft long bristles is used for blending. Edges and shadows are defined with a small brush.

Staying on Track

Experience is a great help for judging if a painting is going in the right direction.

To see whats going wrong is probably the most important thing for an artist...

To see what's wrong with a painting, turn it upside-down or view it in a mirror, another trick is to close one eye.

Adding Detail

Begin with face and eyes of the main figure because they are the main focus of a painting. Next is the hair, just enough to get the values right to contrast with the skin, starting with the darkest colour being careful to keep the shadows on the face warm.

Completed Painting

Don't get bogged down in an area, move on to somewhere else, and come back to it later. After a painting is 'finished' it may be necessary to make minor changes, requested by an art director, or simply because the painting doesn't feel quite right.