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I recently got a squizz at some (very) old White Dwarfs. Some I hadn't seen before were the first half dozen produced back in the late '70's. (My first WD I ever purchased was issue 18 - my gaming career didn't begin until 1979) so I was surprised to find this on the front page of issue 4:



I mean I knew Blanche went way back with GW, I just had not realised it was quite to the very beginning! I chiefly remember him for the odd piece of cover art he did for WD in the early 80's, the "Blanchitsu", early "Eavy Metal articles and of course for the "Harry the Hammer" cover of WFB 1st edition.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with his work. In context some of his work does very well for me (such as this cover). However, I'm not convinced the scratchy/sketchy of some of his work does well for gamebook illustration. Taste is a funny thing. Can't argue with the man's pedigree though!

Me too. I think some of his stuff is really good, while some of it is rather miss. He was never one of my favourite GW Graphic Artists. But, you're right you can't argue about his pedigree.

I think blance has a very specific role to play with GW.

Providing the concept sketch work, huge panoramic pics to give impressios. He's great at providing a feel to 40k, but there are other artists with a cleaner style that work much better at unit description pics... as evidenced by the totally ridiculous daemon army book and codex.

Osbad wrote:I recently got a squizz at some (very) old White Dwarfs. Some I hadn't seen before were the first half dozen produced back in the late '70's. (My first WD I ever purchased was issue 18 - my gaming career didn't begin until 1979) so I was surprised to find this on the front page of issue 4:

n00b!

Osbad wrote:


I mean I knew Blanche went way back with GW, I just had not realised it was quite to the very beginning! I chiefly remember him for the odd piece of cover art he did for WD in the early 80's, the "Blanchitsu", early "Eavy Metal articles and of course for the "Harry the Hammer" cover of WFB 1st edition.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with his work. In context some of his work does very well for me (such as this cover). However, I'm not convinced the scratchy/sketchy of some of his work does well for gamebook illustration. Taste is a funny thing. Can't argue with the man's pedigree though!

I totally agree with your assessment of his oeuvre. Some of his illos are very good, and others just don't seem to work.

Ive read he runs the direction of the art department of GW so hes doing something right..

Ive never really enjoyed his style and his hatred of blue just confunds me.

Blanche is indeed the Director of Art at GW. Like him or loathe him, he's the one who gave us the current gothic style that permeates everything GW makes.

from the WW blog :

Our current Art and Design Exhibition has been selected and laid out by John Blanche, our Director of Art and a veteran of 25 years working with Games Workshop.

To tie in with this display there will be two opportunities to drop by for a closer look at John’s work and an informal chat with him about artwork, painting miniatures and his unique style.

John will be with the Art Exhibition from 11.00am to 3.00pm on Tuesday 27th of October and Sunday 22nd of November.

This is a free event and no ticket is required, simply drop in and say hallo on the day.

..if anyone's in the neighbourhood...


hmm.... first the LoD thread and we get those minis..now this and we get the above....

..anyone want to start the XXX homemade film *starlet of your choice* thread soonish ...?

I would like to reed that "Alice in the dungeonland" thing
sounds funny ^^

When I was approaching the hobby in my teen years, his drawings where the ones a liked the lesser. Because of their weird proportions and the colour. But after some time, I realized that his pics are the BEST showing how 40k feels. When I saw some of his minis painted I fell in love with them. Blanche = Imperium of Mankind


I think I have invented half of the words I've used in the previous sentences lol

I have White Dwarf #1 somewhere. I'll find it tomorrow and scan some of the artwork. Not sure if there's any Blanche in there though...



Ghidorah

I've never been a big fan of his work on a technical level, but for design and atmosphere I think he's brilliant. I'm glad he is at the position he is because it suits his talent perfectly.

To be honest, I don't like much of John Blanche's work, dunno why, some of it just looks like it was drawn by a nine year-old with a big pot of India Ink.

John's art is awesome no doubt, but it looks like a talented child drew it in comparison with the other artist's detail and line weight. And it seems all the things he draws resemble Chaos in some way.

Boss 'eadbreaka wrote:To be honest, I don't like much of John Blanche's work, dunno why, some of it just looks like it was drawn by a nine year-old with a big pot of India Ink.

You obviously like some of his work though, because he created the Evil Sun on your avatar...

Obviously his work is more about atmosphere and background rather than a clean image.

I used to hate his stuff as a teenager, but he's grown on me over the years.

Mark Gibbons remains my favourite GW artist though...

This looks like ancient stuff...

Not the biggest fan of Blanche (his colouring is not to my taste but hey, who am I to judge..), but he has some nice things floating around..

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I think blance has a very specific role to play with GW.

Providing the concept sketch work, huge panoramic pics to give impressios. He's great at providing a feel to 40k, but there are other artists with a cleaner style that work much better at unit description pics... as evidenced by the totally ridiculous daemon army book and codex.

This. That keeper of secrets is damn ugly.