Peruvian painter Boris Vallejo works almost exclusively in the fantasy genres.
His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction and fantasy paperbacks and are featured in a series of best-selling glossy calendars.
Subjects of his paintings are typically sword and sorcery gods, monsters, and well-muscled male and female barbarians engaged in battle.
Vallejo began painting at the age of 13, in 1954, and had his first illustration job three years later, in 1957, at the age of 16.