A Bit of Background

The Early Years

Luis Royo was born in Olalla, Teruel in Spain in 1954. From a very young age he showed a lot of skill in painting, but his mom discouraged him from pursuing it as a career, saying "My son, make something useful, painters usually starve to death." Being a dutiful son, he studied technical delineation, painting, decoration and interior design in the Industrial Mastery School and the Applied Arts School in Zaragoza, Spain, but he never lost his love of painting, nor did he stop drawing comics and attending exhibitions in his free time. From 1972-1976 he took part in a series of collective painting exhibitions on a national level and in 1977 he created large-format paintings using mixed techniques, which were exhibited in several cities.

The "Comic" Artist

In 1978, he came across the Totem Magazine and saw the new styles of comics that were coming out and he gave up decoration and interior design to pursue a career in comic design. For more than two years he locked himself in his house and drew comics until he had a substantial portfolio. Several companies in Paris accepted his work, and he began drawing surrealist comic books.

The Illustrator - Present Day

Around 1981 he realized that he hated drawing the same characters over and over again in different panels and so decided to switch careers again and become an illustrator, collaborating on many publications, such as El V�bora and Rambla. To this day, Luis Royo concentrates most of his works on being an illustrator. He has been commissioned to do cover art for publishing companies such as Tor Books, Berkley Books, Avon, Warner Books, and Bantam Books and numerous illustrations for books published all over the world. He has also published numerous books featuring his artwork, such as "Malefic", "Secrets", "III Millenium", and "Prohibited Book".

Comments On His (Risqu�) Artwork

Royo has been criticized in the past for his seeming fascination with the naked female body and has been accused of using unnecessarily lewd images in his artwork. Some of his images have even been banned in certain countries. His reply is that he merely paints what he finds beautiful and insists that it's not perversion.

From the interview that was posted on his website, you can see that Royo is a pretty dark individual. His artwork is produced in a frenzy in which everything else is forgotten, even sleeping and showering. He himself also admits that he is pessimistic, and one can see from his work that his ruminations are dark. He is annoyed with how "pure" our society has become and sometimes uses his artwork to react against it.

Awards

1996 - Silver Award SPECTRUM III: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art

Biographical information taken from Luis Royo's website, official page.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws