Gateway paperback cover 1977

Boris Vallejo, born in 1941, made this paperback cover for Gateway, and you can just imagine him letting loose with his airbrush. I can almost hear it hissing! I can see Vallejo building up layers of colour – a deep inky black for the void, then luminous blues and reds swirling around the moons. There is a sense of drama as the spaceships hurtle through space, firing lasers with hot bursts of orange. I wonder if he started with a sketch or dove straight in, letting the image emerge from the paint. Vallejo’s work reminds me of Frank Frazetta. They both embrace the fantastic, creating these larger-than-life visions. It is all about the sensation, an invitation to dream, and get swept away. That kind of pure feeling is what brings artists, and all of us, together.