Achilles’ Choice Paperback Cover 1991

Boris Vallejo made this paperback cover for Achilles’ Choice with paint – probably oils given the smoothness of the surface. Vallejo’s color palette is heavy on tans, blues, and blacks – an odd mix of comic book and classical painting. You can almost smell the mineral spirits that were used to thin down the paint and blend those skin tones so smoothly. Look at the highlights on the women’s abs: Vallejo understood how to build form through a gradual application of layers. Check out the detail of the laces on the women’s boots, it reminds me that a painting is often only as good as its smallest details. Vallejo’s paintings have a surreal quality that recalls the work of 19th-century Symbolists like Gustave Moreau. Like Symbolism, his work embraced the fantastical and the irrational as a means of exploring the deeper truths of human experience. Ultimately, the beauty of art lies in its ability to open up new possibilities for feeling and thinking.