Here's a fascinatingly specific look at pixel art based on fantasy paintings, mostly Boris Vallejo's, as found in late '80s demoscene productions.
I hadn't thought of Peruvian artist Boris Vallejo in ages. I remembered his slick fantasy artwork, featuring idealistically rendered warriors and princesses, muscular and scantily clad (but not indecent). If they weren't battling monsters, the figures wouldn't look out of place in a romance novel. Vallejo's paintings were always beautifully done, but they're a bit out of fashion these days. Pixel artists copied his work in the late 1980s and 1990s. Vallejo's visual aesthetic was one that many demoscene groups sought to replicate or pay homage to on the new 16-bit platforms like the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST, and the PC with its wonderful VGA graphics.
In all seriousness my introduction to Vallejo, beyond casual sight of covers in bookstores, was certainly in pixel art form with chunky chrome-shaded text whirling around it. I am of course a huge fan of the genre.
