Chris Achilléos | |
---|---|
Born | Christos Achilléos 26 August 1947 |
Died | 6 December 2021[1]
[2] | (aged 74)
Nationality | Cypriot British |
Known for | Fantasy art, illustration |
Christos "Chris" Achilléos [3] (26 August 1947 – 6 December 2021) was a Cypriot-born British painter and illustrator who specialised in fantasy artwork and glamour illustration.
Born in Famagusta, Cyprus, his family emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1959, where he resided. [4] He attended the Hornsey College of Art. [5]
His work has appeared in Heavy Metal and Radio Times magazines, on book covers (including series based on the Conan the Barbarian character, TV's Doctor Who [6] and Star Trek, [7] as well as the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series), [8] and in collections of his own work. He has also participated in various film projects including Heavy Metal and Willow as a conceptual artist, [6] (his iconic poster image commissioned in 1980 featuring Taarna and her birdlike steed are still featured on the DVD release) [9] and created a proposed poster for Blade Runner. [10]
Achilléos created the controversial cover for Whitesnake's 1979 album, Lovehunter, which showed a naked woman straddling a giant serpent. In an interview with MelodicRock, Gary Hughes stated that Achilléos thereafter "had a policy of not working with bands". [11] The original artwork, along with several other pieces, were stolen from him in the 1980s and sold to a private collector. [12] However, he designed an album cover and artwork in 2003 with Gary Hughes' rock opera Once and Future King Part I. [13] His influence was also felt in the Kate Bush video for " Babooshka", in which the character's costume resembles the cover portrait he did of the heroine of the 1978 novel Raven - Swordsmistress of Chaos. [14] [15]
Following 1990, he mostly worked in designing fantasy trading cards as well as selling prints and original works of art. [5]
Chris Achilléos died on 6 December 2021, at the age of 74. [1] [2]
Achilléos had published several book collections, including:[ citation needed]
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He had a bad experience after his Lovehunter cover and for years he has had a policy of not working with bands anymore.
Artistic concepts and choreography throughout by Kate Bush Babooshka costume based on an illustration by Chris Achilleos and released by Pamela Keats.