Snow!

We've just had this huge snowstorm and the view from our studio window is so beautiful that we had to share it with you! One would think it would be a good day to stay inside and paint, but for some crazy reason, it seems irresistible to get out there and be in the snow.

Illuxcon 2

The second Illuxcon took place last week from Thursday the 12th through Sunday the 15th in Altoona, PA. More than sixty five artists were at hand displaying several hundred incredible pieces of art. Numerous collectors were also in attendance purchasing
original art as well as high quality prints for their collections. David, Tony, and his girlfriend, Nonie and the two of us had a grand time. Julie and I also gave an impromptu demonstration as we were working on two paintings for our 2011 calendar. The above picture of Julie appeared in the first page of the local newspaper. What fun!
--Boris

Illustration Master Class III

To all of you who might be interested in attending this year's Illustration Master Class, we've just gotten word that now is a good time to register! Don't miss this amazing opportunity to study with the two of us as well as Rebecca Guay, James Gurney, Greg Manchess, Donato Giancola, Dan Dos Santos, Scott Fischer, and Irene Gallo. Experiences like this don't grow on trees!

Barn Time

We've just come back from our annual trip to The Barn. Every year about this time, we pack up our paints and easels and head out to the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts to meet up with a group of our fellow artist friends. We spend a week working together, sharing inspiration and silliness, making campfires, eating s'mores. It's great because we can have a refreshing get-away while still getting our work done. The internet service is sketchy and phone service is practically non-existent, so we can really concentrate on good old fashioned painting.

This is an example of the inspiration/silliness part. Photographed by Marc Scheff. Drawn by Tony, Dena, Boris, Julie, and Winona.


Arkady Roytman, Dave Seeley, Justin Gerard, and Boris


Cyril Van Der Haegen, Dena Obeza, Barn, David Palumbo, Arkady Roytman


Winona Nelson, Anthony Palumbo, Lars Grant-West and Dilly, David Palumbo



Justin Gerard, Kerry, Marc Scheff, Jordu Schell, Julie, Dilly, Scott Brundage

Spectrum Show at The Society of Illustrators

This past weekend, we had the thrill of attending both the Spectrum exhibit at the Society of Illustrators in New York City AND going back the next day for Art Out Loud. Painting demonstrations were being given by Donato Giancola, Gregory Manchess, Charles Vess, Sam Weber, and James Gurney, who was painting a portrait from life of the great art historian, Walter Reed. It was such a blast! By the way, in case you didn't know about it, James Gurney not only paints awesome life portraits and is an honest-to-goodness nice person, but he has one of the best blogs about painting we know of.
So now our heads are filled with new art and inspiration as well as all the fun we had getting together with our fellow art-loving friends! If you are anywhere near New York City, you will be doing yourself a great favor by stopping by the SOI to see the show while it's up.

Our 2010 Calendar

It's that time of the year again! Our 2010 Calendar is now available! Get 'em while they're hot--which is always, but you should get 'em now, nevertheless.

And The Winner Is...

Sebastian Rice! Congratulations Sebastian! This was really tough to judge--there were lots of guesses that had some parts
right, but other parts wrong, so we had to balance it all out by taking into account more rights and
less wrongs. Thank you, everybody, for taking part--you really made this fun for us all!

Here's the actual breakdown on who did what:

The original concept was figured out between Julie and the client.
Boris did the original sketch and laid the main elements out on the board.
Julie painted the background and foreground-- all of the sky, foliage, rocks, trees, etc.
Boris started the wolf, Julie made adjustments and final touches to him.
Julie painted the head of the front horse (on the right) and Boris painted the body.
Boris painted the back horse (on the left).
Boris painted the woman’s body, Julie made some final touches to her face.
Julie painted the woman’s halter top, Boris painted her skirt and boots.
Boris painted the sword in the foreground.

There is no particular formula of how we work together because every painting is different. The decision as to “who paints what” is mostly based on convenience. We are usually working on several different projects at any given time and, in the interest of efficiency, we try to both stay pretty busy. Sometimes Boris will do the original layout, sometimes Julie. Sometimes Boris will paint the figure, sometimes Julie. Same with the background, whatever. If there is any particular part of the painting that one of us really wants to do, we will say so and do that--but we do sometimes have to arm wrestle to come to a final decision. Just kidding! :) There are times when one of us starts a face, then has to stop for some reason, and the other one will pick up where it was left off.

It’s a really fun way to work and we don’t run into ego battles about it. We both respect each other’s vision and ability equally. We do recognize that it’s an amazingly unique situation and that we’re luckier than our wildest dreams could have ever come up with!

So, Sebastian, send us an e-mail at bjart1@imaginistix.com!

Contest! Win a Prize!

As you all know by now, Boris and I often work on the same painting (or drawing) together. When you look at our signatures on the paintings and you just see one signature, you will know that the painting you are looking at has been created entirely by the one who signed it. And whenever you see a painting that has been signed by the two of us, you can be sure that it's one we've done together as a team. We feel that it's a pretty seamless transition and most people don't notice that it's been done by two artists. We like to think of it as a "third artist".

This painting, "Temple", was commissioned by someone who wanted us to paint it together. When we do these paintings together, we often get letters from people who want to guess as to who painted what (Harrison and Jen, you know who you are!). So we decided to make a contest for you to guess!

Whoever comes the closest to guessing how we worked on this painting together will win an 18"x24" print of your choice.
A hint to keep in mind: we never follow any set formula to decide who works on what element. For instance, sometimes one of us works more on the figures and, for the next painting, we switch places. Sometimes we even work on the same figure together. So you can't base your guess on any other paintings! Please post your guesses in this blog by August 25.

Julie's Chesley Award

Wow! I just got a call from our son, fellow illustrator David Palumbo, who is attending the 2009 World Con in Montreal, that I won the Chesley Award for Artistic Achievement! I wasn't able to be in Montreal to receive the award in person, but David graciously accepted it for me. What a complete thrill! Thank you so much to everyone who gave me your vote of support. I wish you could know how meaningful this is to me!
--Julie

Updated Home Page

It's that time of the year again and we've updated our website. So if you haven't checked out our new home page, please do so! Coincidentally, this image just so happens to be on the cover of our upcoming 2010 Calendar (which you can pre-order right now from Amazon)We've got 13 all-new exciting images with a new take on text by Anthony Palumbo.
If you're at Comic Con, we're totally jealous, but we hope you have a great time!

Quickie!

Here's a book that we're really excited about! It's called Quickie and it showcases 58 erotic oil paintings by our son, David Palumbo. David has been doing book covers, Magic cards, and other commissions for a while now and he decided that it would be a fun exercise every day to do some small postcard-sized paintings. The daily practice turned into a new passion and a book was born! Don't you just love it when a passion turns into a cool book or something? Click here for more information!

Illustration Master Class

We've just returned from the most magical week! We were two of the faculty members of the 2009 Illustration Master Class, organized by Rebecca Guay, located at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. If you have an interest in developing and enhancing your artistic skills and would like to be surrounded by about 80 of the most dedicated students in this solar system as well as a dozen or so professionals at the top of the field of fantasy/science fiction illustration, cross your fingers and hope with all your might that Rebecca organizes a third Illustration Master Class for next year and join us! It's a gathering like no other. Everyone involved, faculty and students alike, seemed to feel the electrical energy, inspiration, and newly refreshed enthusiasm that was generated there.
We truly hope that the Illustration Master Class will be around for many, many years to come!

Boris The Spider

You know that song by The Who called "Boris The Spider"? And you probably always thought that it was a made-up story about a fictional spider. Well, ha! Now you know the truth! So next time you're cleaning out your closet, be on the lookout for the super-scary Boris Spider!

Savage Sword of Conan

This is an old cover that I did for Marvel Comics in the early 70's, but it has a funny story behind it.  John Buscema had done the basic drawing of the Conan on the cross figure, but then he did not feel comfortable doing it as a painting. The people at Marvel asked me to add elements to the composition and do the finished painting.  This is the cover as it was published.

Boris

Our Latest Book

Here it is!  We've compiled approximately 115 drawings of all our favorite fantasy subjects--a number of them are private commissions and have never been seen by the general public.   Separated into 5 chapters (women, men, beasts, product design, and composition), the text by Anthony Palumbo discusses our thoughts on each category.  Also, captions accompany each drawing with commentaries about the piece.

It's available now at major bookstores everywhere or you can order it from Amazon.com!

Wolf Business Meeting

I still have a few more touches left to do on this painting, but it's close enough to being finished to show it here.  I just love wolves.  Their energy is so wild!  We took the reference photos that I used to paint this at the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ.  I couldn't believe how cool it was when this group of wolves started doing this biting thing with each other.  Apparently, they're reinforcing their hierarchy--making it clear to all involved exactly who's on top and who gets their nose bitten.  I guess anybody in the business world can identify with it!

--Julie

Priestess of the Sun

This is our most recent painting. It was commissioned by a client in the Ukraine. Both Julie and I worked on the painting and it was especially appealing to us because our client wanted to have a scene depicting an ancient Peruvian scene. Lots of fun!

Boris and Julie

Window to the Soul

I just finished this privately commissioned painting. It is a companion piece for Julie's "A Rose For Peter", which appeared in this blog a few months ago. It was so much fun to do our own versions of the same character. We are so lucky to do art as our job!

Boris

Tarot Cards

Our latest installment is in the May 2009 issue of Heavy Metal Magazine!  

New Hard Curves Blog

Julie's health fitness blog, Hard Curves, is now open. Drop by sometime!

Life Drawing

Drawing the human figure from life is probably the Number One most important exercise (besides cardio fitness, of course!) for illustrators.  Even if you're painting regularly, drawing from life challenges your brain to solve problems that will come in handy with finished work later on.  We went to a sketch group earlier this week to practice our skills.  

Big Bird

This was a still life set-up that I painted from life one silly afternoon. I don't usually work on canvas (we normally use illustration board), so the surface was pretty different. It's always good to try new and different things!
--Boris

Julie

These are some pictures of my Julie from her competitive bodybuilding days. Her devotion to exercise is obvious to anybody that is familiar with her. Her knowledge of fitness and nutrition is simply amazing. I probably would not be alive now if she had not designed the diet that literally reconstructed my liver when my doctor was going to put me on a list for a liver transplant several years ago! She is now working on a book that describes her approach to nutrition for bodybuilding, fitness, and simply healthy eating and living. This in addition to the wonderful person and artist that she is. What an incredibly lucky guy I am!!!

Boris

Red Fox Revisited

Now I like it! Pushing through the trees all the way to the sky brought back depth that had been taken away by darkening the forest so much. Also, as was brought up in previous comments, the strong verticle lines of the trees is a great compositional tool to be used with care. I'm happy with the color change from the first version (too much green). It's more lively and unexpected. Anyway, I'm going to try to put this painting away and leave it alone, although I admit I've become a bit addicted to changing it now. It's like eating potato chips (which I never eat) where you just keep seeing one more tempting little bit and, before you know it, you're 50 pounds heavier.
Thanks for all the helpful comments and suggestions!

Julie

Fox--Before and After

Here's a cute little fox who lives in New Jersey at the Lakota Wolf Preserve. Her name is Red (of course!). I started this painting a few years ago and thought it was finished in 2007, but I always felt uneasy with it, so it sat in the studio for all this time against the wall. I'd look at it, turn it upside down, look at it some more...Then, a while back, I just painted out the entire background and let it sit around for a few more months. Finally, I figured out what it needed so that the fox would be better integrated with the background. The orange/red leaves were necessary to balance the colors, but the fox still stood out in a funny way. I saw a dog at the park with shadows on his back and it made me realize that shadows would be just the thing to help.
I still look at the two versions and can't decide which I like better, but that's just the way it goes!
Julie

Close-up

Photography is a passion of mine.  It is very relaxing because I don't have to make a living with 

it and deadlines are not an issue. I don't do it as often as I would like to, mainly for the same reasons.  In real life deadlines have to be met and I have to make a living! Anyway, here are 

three samples of some of my pictures.

Boris

Last Spring

Sigh!  We were just looking through some pictures we took last Spring in Paris and

thinking that it was really fun to be there.  We had been at Elf Fair in Utrecht, Holland,

and we rented a car and drove to Paris.  Yay for road trips!

Except for Julie's quick trip to Texas, we've been pretty much locked in our studio for the past few weeks doing nothing but finishing up our paintings for our 2010 Boris and Julie Fantasy Calendar. So it was great to get out on Friday night to attend the opening at The Artist's House with Anthony Palumbo and David Palumbo headlining the show.
Janette by Anthony Palumbo

Never On Time by David Palumbo

We met up with some friends at the show--the lady in the tan colored hat is Cynthia Manion, our longtime friend and model.  Dr. Don Riggs of Drexel University is in the center photo with Anthony and Cynthia.  David is in the third photo with Dena, Anna, and Peter.

Now it's time to get to work on our Fantasy Calendar for 2011 (for real!).

Julie at 60 degrees Farenheit

Sorry, not trying to brag or anything, but I was just in Texas this past weekend and, at least for part of the time, the weather was great!
Julie

Boris at 6 Degrees Farenheit

Yep, it's really cold out there! We go for a walk just about every morning. Today we each wore 3 pairs of pants, 3 or 4 shirts, a down vest, coats, multiple hats, and insulated mittens. And, yeah, we looked like we each gained about 50 pounds, but so what?
We realize that it gets much, much colder in other parts of the country (as well as the rest of the world) and we have the deepest respect for people who deal with it! There's a great saying, "We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not." Whatever, it's a gorgeous day out there!

World Fantasy Convention drawings

Last year at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY, a bunch of us illustrators were sitting around a big round table just drawing from our imagination for fun and that's exactly what it was, FUN! This kind of free-spirited drawing from imagination is like taking your brain to a day spa. I guess since we all used to draw without purpose or restrictions when we were children, it brings back that feeling of being a kid without the responsibilities we have as adults. Just lots of fun. We highly recommend it!

Julie and Boris