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It must have been sudden, he has been working on some art for Age of Tyrants within the last 2 weeks, all of the colour paintings for that were done by him.

Fantastic artist, one of the best, everything his art was always atmospheric and evocative, perfect for sci-fi art with an alien twist to it.

His art was a big part of my original interest in GW. His work has been a major part of this industry and seeing the likes of Andy Chambers and Avatars of War giving personal accounts of their time with him on Facebook, it's clear that he was a creative force and an easy person to know and befriend. For all the skulls and death and carnage he illustrated, it's ironic that kindness and imagination are the key things he'll be remembered for. If that's not a testament to who he was, I don't know what is.
As a fledgling designer for miniatures who was brought round to this industry as a kid inspired by that art I say only rest in peace Mr England.
RIP

Take the hint.
Reds8n

Requiem aeternum dona eis, Domine
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Requiescat in pace. Amen.

The first time I, as a hobby new bod, heard of him was this post. I looked around a little and like his black and white work best. The priest or zealot with the skulls... his skull-engraving adept, skin stretched over machinery. Brilliant. We will not see such talent again, I fear. So much sleek characterless rubbish in its place -- rest in peace. I am sure there are manuscripts aplenty needing illuminating in Heaven.

Yet his paintings and drawings are a perpetual memorial for him.

Just saw this. I've got nothing to add that would be more substantive than what has already been said, but it certainly makes me very sad.

Phenomenal talent, and one of the unsung heroes in the founding of the 40k universe. Sad year so far.

Thank you for illustrating my favourite setting Wayne. :(

Just wanted to express how sad the whole Age of Tyrants team is about losing out friend, our creative muse and business partner; Wayne England.

The guy was a diamond in the rough. Absolutely fantastic. His imagery was dark, moody, brooding and unremitting. His personality, on the other hand, was the absolute opposite. He was elated, merry and wished the best of EVERYONE else. He celebrated every single success, no matter how small or how big.

An inspiration indeed.

Here's what John, our CEO, had to say about it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1520354196/age-of-tyrants/posts/1487865

Thanks for posting that Rob,

 rob_alderman wrote:
Just wanted to express how sad the whole Age of Tyrants team is about losing out friend, our creative muse and business partner; Wayne England.

The guy was a diamond in the rough. Absolutely fantastic. His imagery was dark, moody, brooding and unremitting. His personality, on the other hand, was the absolute opposite. He was elated, merry and wished the best of EVERYONE else. He celebrated every single success, no matter how small or how big.

An inspiration indeed.

Here's what John, our CEO, had to say about it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1520354196/age-of-tyrants/posts/1487865

Linking to the Kickstarter is a low blow. I think you meant well but it seems like a shameless plug taking advantage of a tragedy.

I don't feel that at all. I could perhaps have been C&Ped here, but AoT has already done well and is about to end anyway. If you read the post/update, there's no "sell" there at all.

If you're wondering, I'm not a AoT backer, either - so not being a defender or anything like that. I think it's just people sharing their grief.

 Azazelx wrote:
I don't feel that at all. I could perhaps have been C&Ped here, but AoT has already done well and is about to end anyway. If you read the post/update, there's no "sell" there at all.

If you're wondering, I'm not a AoT backer, either - so not being a defender or anything like that. I think it's just people sharing their grief.

Yeah, it's just that.. they have a website. I believe they have a Facebook as well. Instead of posting to any of those places they pick the one place where only backers can comment? It's in poor taste IMO. If others don't see it that way fine.. It just struck me as a bad choice.

I made that post with the best of intentions. It's just where the information is. Sorry if it came across any other way.

Sorry, I'm angry now. Actually.

How the hell dare you say it was for a plug? More than that, a shameless one?! That is actually disgusting. I shared the update directly, because of the message within it. If people want to pledge, fine, but I'm not saying they have to. I made that post with all the best intentions in the world. I've lost a friend and all you have to say about it is that I'm plugging a kickstarter that he worked on?

I don't want this thread to turn nasty, but I think that needed to be said.

RIP Wayne, we've lost a great team player, friend and muse - that's all that matters.

I would encourage you all to also check out his work on Avatars of War and Voodooworx, they are his most recent projects, in addition to Age of Tyrants. The work he did for GW is phenomenal, but his reach was much further than that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry for the tone, but that really did make me angry and, with these things, its hard to filter that. No offense intended and I can see it your way, I just want to be clear that was not how it was intended.

 MLaw wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:
I don't feel that at all. I could perhaps have been C&Ped here, but AoT has already done well and is about to end anyway. If you read the post/update, there's no "sell" there at all.

If you're wondering, I'm not a AoT backer, either - so not being a defender or anything like that. I think it's just people sharing their grief.

Yeah, it's just that.. they have a website. I believe they have a Facebook as well. Instead of posting to any of those places they pick the one place where only backers can comment? It's in poor taste IMO. If others don't see it that way fine.. It just struck me as a bad choice.

You know that Wayne was a really active and key part of that project, right? I think he was even a shareholder/partner of some kind, and mates with those guys. I know it's the internet and all, which means being recalcitrant and cynical is the norm, but you could reflect on it all, and maybe even apologise after some thought.

@Longtime Dakkanaut
I was thinking about how I would reply for a while now, the whole thing is still very unreal. Just to correct you on some salient points, I posted on Wayne's passing not only on my own Facebook page but also on the games page and on the updates on our Kickstarter the day after I was told the news. I did think that was very appropriate, Wayne was not only part of the inspiration team behind this venture he was an owner and my business partner and a friend of over 20 years.
I think your comments are demeaning and unnecessary.

[MOD EDIT - OFF TOPIC, RULE#1, etc. - ALPHARIUS]

They've clarified their intent with their comment. Given their closeness to the deceased I feel we can let this go. And by feel like we can I mean drop it.

 scarletsquig wrote:
It must have been sudden, he has been working on some art for Age of Tyrants within the last 2 weeks, all of the colour paintings for that were done by him.

Fantastic artist, one of the best, everything his art was always atmospheric and evocative, perfect for sci-fi art with an alien twist to it.

I saw that. I'm not old enough to remember the good ol days of OTT Warhammer art but I felt a desire to get one of those early bird pledges for some of his last art pieces. They truly are inspiring. It's a sad loss for all and I'm sure he'll be missed, and remembered forever in the Halls of Valhalla.

Yeah. I never met Wayne but it seems really strange to me. Very comparable to Bowie's passing for me personally. I remember being blown away when I first saw the cover art for White Dwarf 110 and the bio inside that talked about his doing yoghurt pots before sending stuff to GW.

The whole look of how titans and knights' carapace are painted even today still goes back to his AT artwork, as well as so much more. Just a huge influence on GW at that key period of time and by extension the whole non-historical section of our hobby.

I was browsing through Blood Bowl's 3rd Edition lately. Wayne England really set the mood for all the books and releases. Still great after all those years.


(Was it coloured by FFG?)








One of his classics - The Citadel Combat Cards 'wooden logo'





Arcane Magic's cover is still one of my favourites of his WFB artwork

Warhams-77 wrote:

(Was it coloured by FFG?)

No, most GW artwork is colored, but hey why pay for CMYK, greyscale is good enouph its not like their books costed way above average historically.

Some GW art through the years has been produced in colour, others in B&W/grey. I've only ever seen that top one in B&W, so not sure if it was coloured later or if it's actually the original. Same deal with the others there which I've only ever seen in B&W, so perhaps there are colour originals somewhere? The level of gradient certainly suggests that they may be coloured.

Sad to hear of his passing.

Since Blood Bowl and 40k 2nd ed were my entry point into wargaming, his art was what informed my views of the Warhammer universes.
Iconic and they set the tone especially for Blood Bowl.
Aren't many of the little bits of page dividers/headers his art as well? Like the Chaos star in the middle of the page, and the various team icons for Blood Bowl. There's a consistent and clean style in those I always associated with his GW art.