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Alright so I have to say I am not a huge art buff or anything and haven't actually taken a hard look at the art in the rulebook but really like the art in most of the different codexs.
BUT today I was looking at the cover art for the rulebook and something looks WAAAAAYYYY off.

The main guy in the middle so so proportionate....his arms look miniature and his legs HUGE. It just looks wacky to me.

Does anyone else feel that way about the cover art? Am I missing something about the size of a space marines hands or something haha.
I just don't know why they would let such an proportionate guy on the front cover haha

Never noticed that before, but now that you mention it...

Maybe it's some sort of perspective-trick, where the legs are closer to you than the rest of the body?

The term you are looking for is forced perspective.

If it's forced perspective, it's god-awful

The main rulebook cover art has always bothered me. He looks like the game-hunter at the end of Beetle Juice with the shrunken head. I mean of all the cool pieces of art to toss on the MAIN RULEBOOK, they use one of the worst.

I don't think they did a good job if that is what they were going for

How can the arm be out and your legs way forward to make your arms look that tiny haha just an opinion

Space Marines are always disproportionately illustrated. It's unfortunately common:


But yeah, the dude's got tiny arms and huge legs.

Yeah, the tiny head thing is one thing, but at least the rest of the body is proportionate. Marneus Calgar has the worst case of shrunken head syndrome though.



I like to imagine he is actually curled up in a ball inside the chest of the suit.

Welcome to power armor art. lol The example posted isn't even the worst one. Check out the covers of the previous CSM 'dex and the current BA 'dex. The BA on the cover of his book would have to have a broken neck for his head to be cocked at that angle and be in that position and the guy on the old CSM cover either has the world's tiniest head OR he's actually a ratling and his arms and legs don't extend beyond the cuirass of his Power Armor. lol

It's a weird issue that only ever seems to effect Power Armor illustrations. I think it's hard for a lot of artists to reconcile a massive super-human who is wearing an even more massive suit of armor while not making things so outlandish that all you do is laugh ...

I like the cover art.

I think the issue most people have with the depiction of the Space Marines is that it's easy to forget they're in armor. If you wear power armor, your head will look disproportionately small in relation to the armor.

Since we rarely see unarmored examples, it's easy to forget that they're wearing a huge suit of armor over bodies that are likely proportionate to their heads.

Or maybe people assume that the armor is designed to be close fitting.

The two other examples given look fine to me. Just appears they are very large men in exceptionally large, and thick armor. Though the size of Calgar's armor makes him look more like a Centurion. Plenty of wiggle room I imagine.

One could also say they were reconstructed in proportions the Emperor found most effective for his intended use of them.

However, when it comes to the BRB, that cover is ridiculous. While I greatly enjoy the game, setting, and artwork from GW, and inspired by their product, some of the stuff GW approves baffles me. Never have I had a job that would approve such terrible submissions.

Thankfully, the CSM, SM, Black Legion supplement, and the Imperial Fists supplement all have normal power armor art that isn't wacky.

Lol good call, I never noticed that.
And what has been seen cannot be unseen.

I was gonna make a thread about this a while ago. I find a lot of 40k art and models to be impossible. Someone good at drawing should draw a body that fits in power armour (using a faded space marine diagram picture) and see what it looks like because i am sure, that the things in those suits is just a head and a mush of guts with wires coming out of it.

Space Marines are really big. Their armor is even bigger.

 chiefbigredman wrote:

Does anyone else feel that way about the cover art?

Absolutely, it is horrible and has bugged me since the moment I saw it. The arm and hand holding the plasma pistol are just bizarre, it is like perspective suddenly started to work backwards (things getting smaller as the get closer.) I cannot understand how the artist could have fethed up so badly, considering that judging by the rest of the picture, he seems to be quite skilled.

Thanks for the picture. But when done like that the space marines look incredibly different to most artwork i see. Looks very round and stubby. But explains a lot.

Talking about Astartes´ proportions, I like this fan-made attempt at it.


Here is the link to the blog, with interesting comments: http://tiny-plastic-dead.tumblr.com/post/50262558697/ah-yes-thank-you-i-need-to-reblog-this-if-just

On topic, I don´t like the rulebook cover art at all. Most figures at out of proportion, and it is a really bad example of the "this game has awesome Space Marines, as well as some other factions for losers" attitude from GW. It is the rulebook, it should have art concerning the setting, not just some random bolter porn.

This last picture is definitely more along the lines of what I imagined. That first one with the anatomy I always felt they looked too stumpy, and squatty to be able to move. Like the documentary on Schwarzenegger I saw where he was so big he could barely feed himself.

 Badger_Bhoy wrote:
This last picture is definitely more along the lines of what I imagined. That first one with the anatomy I always felt they looked too stumpy, and squatty to be able to move. Like the documentary on Schwarzenegger I saw where he was so big he could barely feed himself.

agreed haha. That scared me as a kid... his arms where so huge...

I HATED the 5th edition CSM codex cover. He had a beer gut and everything. Jeez, put your HELMET back on!