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Okay, here be post 40,000 or 40k as done by me. If I could've timed it any better I would've done it on the first of January, to coincide with the year that 40k turns 30, but oh well, gotta make do and all that I suppose.

First off, many thanks to the mods and other assorted overlords for keeping this place running and in order with a well-placed mailed fist to the chin and a jackboot to the knackers from time to time. Also a big thank you to the many users here (except for the gakheels put on ignore, you utterly disgust me) for all the interesting discussions, topics and whatnot, you make Dakka by far the most enjoyable on-line hobby-related community out there.

For those hoping I'd stop now, sorry! Nope can't do. Not until I've surpassed the post count of Alpharius. That's right Alph, even if it takes me a decade, some day I will surpass you!

So, to celebrate reaching this pointless milestone (and ensure that it won't be locked as spam) I'd like to indulge in something I enjoy an awful lot about the setting: the art of the dark millennium! Three decades of 40k has spawned quite a few pieces of art over the years and I'm curious to see what your favourite piece or pieces of 40k art are! It could be a splash page or side filler from a codex or rulebook, cover art belonging to a novel or splatbook, or some of that sweet box art we used to have back in the day. So, post that here along with, if possible, a description please of why you like it so much.

Now, I don't care if you dislike a certain artist, or feel the need to tell others that liking an artist is akin to having a mental disability or a crime against common sense, take that somewhere else please, thankyouverymuch.

To kick things off.. here are some of my personal favourites, starting with "Aftermath" from the Only War core rulebook, done by Diego Gisbert Llorens:



Why is this one of my favourites? In a word: Humanity.

First time I saw it was in a White Dwarf, as part of a preview article on the upcoming Imperial Guard themed roleplaying game "Only War". Only War took quite a departure from the conventional stuff done by GW's art studio by not just depicting Guardsmen fighting and dying in droves, but also giving us glimpses of a life beyond that of dying in trenches or decorating the armour of champions of chaos.

This piece in particular, showing a weary Mordian trooper, post battle, is simply amazing, especially when compared to an earlier piece of art depicting her in a pristine uniform standing to attention. Something often missing from the setting is that humanity. Sure, we get to hear about staggering casualties, uncommon bravery, dying a noble death, winning despite the odds and all that, but little moments such as these, when the last shot is fired, when you finally get a chance to catch your breath, are moments not normally shown all that much by GW.

Care was taken to show that the horrors of war are not just physical, but also present on an emotional level. You can see she's been through a lot, her clothes dirty and in tatters (not to mention her collar undone, unheard of in the Iron Guard!) and then there's the tears running down her face, not so subtly hinting at the horrors of war.

Bonus points for the artist for having the trooper recharge her lasgun cells by a fire, one of those things often mentioned in the fluff and fictional handbooks / primers.

Another personal favourite is "Imperial Knight and Lady" by Kevin Chin, from Codex: Imperial Knights:



Another "behind the scenes" shot, where a lady (either a Sacristan, Adept of the Mechanicus itself, or a consort who has long since given herself over to augmetics to expand her life or take on a whole new role within the Questoris Familia) holds a sword aloft as she leads a procession of sacristans and towering Imperial Knights to war. Or perhaps they have returned from a campaign? Either way, it presents a triumphant scene. A grotesque one at that.

At first glance it very much invokes a familiar sense of something we'd see in a medieval setting, fluttering pennants, a congregation of servants walking in wake of the lady, holding aloft banners of house Terryn, a great iron gate looming in the background.. But at the same time it also very much hammers home just how alien the forty first millennium really is, with the Lady being a grotesque, spider-legged construct with way too many skulls peeking out from under her robes, not to mention a brood of eerie cherubs either clinging to her frame or flying about her like heralds, while the servants lining the sides are half man, half machine.

Long and short of it, bloody grim dark!

So, those are some of mine, what are yours?

So, just how many of the 40,000 posts are due to a certain thread in the DCM forum?

That thread is no longer in use, due to feedback. And the threat of a lynch mob.

If that thread was still around though, I would catch up to Alph in no time at all!

Congrats, Brook! I've always loved the stuff you've posted!

Here's to 40,000 more posts! oh wait... I heard a rumor they're going to Age of Sigmar you!... soon your art related posts will be nothing but memes! Gotta wait now for BrookM: The General's Handbook.



This is still one of my favorite 40k related pics:


My favorite 40k artist though would have to be good ol' Karl Kopinski. Funny thing is though I love his non-40k stuff more than his 40k stuff.

John Blanche comes in a close second... there's something cool and old school about his stuff... reminds me of old Heavy Metal Magazine before it seemed to get super mainstream.

 BrookM wrote:
That thread is no longer in use, due to feedback. And the threat of a lynch mob.

I let my DCM Membership lag for a bit and then you hit me with that hammer blow BrookM! Oh god, I'm going to have to shut myself away from the internet for a week to cope.

...Or just visit certain sections of tumblr.

I'd imagine you've been making up for that with the art threads instead, its just came to the point that that's spilling over into the rest of the site. Oh dear...

Congrats. ...I think. ...We'll not discuss all those hamsters you could have raised in the time you've spent here. You could be the master of a travelling hamster circus by now if you had! Oh such broken dreams!

* Oh, and just to check. I assume posting the work of a certain Mr Blanche'll lead to a quiet word from the mods behind the scenes?

Congrats Brooke, that is an awesome achievement.

Wow I really love that second pic, and your description of it, too

 BrookM wrote:
Okay, here be post 40,000 or 40k as done by me. If I could've timed it any better I would've done it on the first of January, to coincide with the year that 40k turns 30, but oh well, gotta make do and all that I suppose.

Congrats on the milestone, and on the longevity here!

Both are...impressive!

And it totally slipped my mind that 2017 is the big 3-0 for 40K - surely GW will be releasing 8th Edition next year, right?

And hopefully fixing the mess that they've made in the last 5 or so years?

 BrookM wrote:

For those hoping I'd stop now, sorry! Nope can't do. Not until I've surpassed the post count of Alpharius. That's right Alph, even if it takes me a decade, some day I will surpass you!

Well, since I'm dead now, that shouldn't be too hard.

Unless now I'm Omegon, posing as Alpharius, continuing on Alpharius' work, whether or not I like it?

messhallcook wrote:
Congrats, Brook! I've always loved the stuff you've posted!

Here's to 40,000 more posts! oh wait... I heard a rumor they're going to Age of Sigmar you!... soon your art related posts will be nothing but memes! Gotta wait now for BrookM: The General's Handbook.



This is still one of my favorite 40k related pics:


My favorite 40k artist though would have to be good ol' Karl Kopinski. Funny thing is though I love his non-40k stuff more than his 40k stuff.

John Blanche comes in a close second... there's something cool and old school about his stuff... reminds me of old Heavy Metal Magazine before it seemed to get super mainstream.

I think you need to kill me off first before I can be rebooted, a prospect some posters here would be a all to happy to oblige to.

Karl has been quite busy back in those days, also doing a lot of the art for AT-43 IIRC. He had a peculiar way of doing faces (along with Adrian Smith), which makes identifying his art easier than that of others. Young Eisenhorn is a badass and it is one of my all-time favourites put out by BL.


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 Wyrmalla wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
That thread is no longer in use, due to feedback. And the threat of a lynch mob.

I let my DCM Membership lag for a bit and then you hit me with that hammer blow BrookM! Oh god, I'm going to have to shut myself away from the internet for a week to cope.

...Or just visit certain sections of tumblr.

I'd imagine you've been making up for that with the art threads instead, its just came to the point that that's spilling over into the rest of the site. Oh dear...

Mostly art and other general annoyance, sometimes when I look at posts hard enough I can hear the gnashing of teeth.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Congrats. ...I think. ...We'll not discuss all those hamsters you could have raised in the time you've spent here. You could be the master of a travelling hamster circus by now if you had! Oh such broken dreams!

Hamsters are delicious. Orrrrrrrr so I've heard. So chances of that circus happening..

 Wyrmalla wrote:
* Oh, and just to check. I assume posting the work of a certain Mr Blanche'll lead to a quiet word from the mods behind the scenes?

You can post stuff of Blance for sure! I just don't want people to barge in here just to winge about his distinct style and use of a colour palette.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Alpharius wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
Okay, here be post 40,000 or 40k as done by me. If I could've timed it any better I would've done it on the first of January, to coincide with the year that 40k turns 30, but oh well, gotta make do and all that I suppose.

Congrats on the milestone, and on the longevity here!

Both are...impressive!

And it totally slipped my mind that 2017 is the big 3-0 for 40K - surely GW will be releasing 8th Edition next year, right?

And hopefully fixing the mess that they've made in the last 5 or so years?

Who knows, maybe they'll do a reboot. Maybe they'll tack on more rules. Maybe they'll change the page layout and leave it at that.

 Alpharius wrote:

 BrookM wrote:

For those hoping I'd stop now, sorry! Nope can't do. Not until I've surpassed the post count of Alpharius. That's right Alph, even if it takes me a decade, some day I will surpass you!

Well, since I'm dead now, that shouldn't be too hard.

Unless now I'm Omegon, posing as Alpharius, continuing on Alpharius' work, whether or not I like it?

It's not like you to give up so easily. Not unless this is another one of those moustache twirling ploys designed to catch me off guard or worse.. me waking up one morning with a post count of 1, with all the other posts suddenly added to yours.

Ooh, great concept. I'd like to use my reply to sing the praises of Gary Harrod, whose distinctive style really stuck with me.

Their starkness and use of tone, with details blown out or shrouded in blackness, is striking and stark – very evocative of the early days of GW, and sharing a lot in common with 2000AD.


Close, oppressive, intimate. None of the grandiosity or scale of much 40k art, instead claustrophobic and reminiscent of Alien.


Harrod's got a great sense of rhythm, which means his high-contrast, no outline approach remains clean and readable.

Paul Bonner is another hero of mine. I loved his Imperial Guard and Squat work, but for me his ork pieces are the highlight – universally charming, and really capturing the brutal but slightly zany and blackly comical feel of Rogue Trader-era orks. This picture's a great example – it feels like a team photo or class portrait; right down to the leftmost ork clownishly holding his fingers up behind his seated comrade.

Just look at each ork – every single one has a distinct character; from the hard-nosed and slightly pompous boss to the grimacing, serious-looking ork to his immediate right, to slouching, fidgetting lad on the far left of the image.

I won't bother regurgitating all of the Mark Gibson art work that I love so much. He is one of the driving factors (combine his art with Jes Goodwin sculpts = why I got into 40K).

Apologist wrote:Ooh, great concept. I'd like to use my reply to sing the praises of Gary Harrod, whose distinctive style really stuck with me.

Their starkness and use of tone, with details blown out or shrouded in blackness, is striking and stark – very evocative of the early days of GW, and sharing a lot in common with 2000AD.


Close, oppressive, intimate. None of the grandiosity or scale of much 40k art, instead claustrophobic and reminiscent of Alien.


Harrod's got a great sense of rhythm, which means his high-contrast, no outline approach remains clean and readable.

I'm hoping to see a lot of his work in the Index Imperialis - Apocrypha, whenever it arrives at my place. Thanks for bringing this artist to my attention, even a quick Google search resulted in some damned fine classical hobby art.

Apologist wrote:Paul Bonner is another hero of mine. I loved his Imperial Guard and Squat work, but for me his ork pieces are the highlight – universally charming, and really capturing the brutal but slightly zany and blackly comical feel of Rogue Trader-era orks. This picture's a great example – it feels like a team photo or class portrait; right down to the leftmost ork clownishly holding his fingers up behind his seated comrade.

Just look at each ork – every single one has a distinct character; from the hard-nosed and slightly pompous boss to the grimacing, serious-looking ork to his immediate right, to slouching, fidgetting lad on the far left of the image.

Paul Bonner is to me the "ork guy", can't really say I know him for anything else. His orks were more cartoony, but they certainly had a great flair to them, so much so that I think his art was the inspiration for this model released a while back:

Elbows wrote:I won't bother regurgitating all of the Mark Gibson art work that I love so much. He is one of the driving factors (combine his art with Jes Goodwin sculpts = why I got into 40K).

Please do! But the name rings a bell for sure, wasn't he the one who did that gnarly Chaos Terminator art? With the massive combi-bolter and chainfist?

I'm pretty biased towards Dark Angels' obviously, but here we go.

First up, a picture of a Chapter Masterl from the 6th edition codex (on the left):



I love the absolute grittiness of this piece. It instills the superiority and power of the Space Marines while also showing them as grizzled and rough warriors of a dark age.

Next is (I assume) another Chapter Master or Sergeant from the front of the 6th edition codex:



Again, the power and superiority of the Space Marines show, but I feel like this also shows the hatred and judgement that is so keen of the Dark Angels.

I think this picture pretty much drums up the insanity of the 40k (Necromunda) experience, I submit: The Redeemer!

Flaming head gear, underslung flamer with chainsword... he is pretty much the poster-child for the universe.



And we are in with the new.
The cover art for a book called "Enforcer" which I enjoyed a great deal.
A seriously kick-butt character that would be the poster-child for Imperial Law, no-nonsense and fierce.
Oddly, many people confuse her with a Sister of Battle...

Shira Calpurnia the "Enforcer" actually had a trilogy, and it was pretty cool.

While I can't speak for the first two pieces of art (though I do recall that the first piece was originally black and white IIRC), the last one is called "Dark Angels Veteran" and was done by Raymond Swanland, who did most, if not all of the conventional codex book covers for the duration of the 6th and 7th edition. Most of the Dark Angels art falls into the dark, gritty and brooding category and thankfully, most of the artists who tackle them do a good show of pulling this off.

My own favourite with regards to the Dark Angels has always been the cover art of the 3rd edition mini-dex (a single bright figure in the midst of a sea of dark green warriors, all blasting away!), which I sadly can't find in a nice enough quality to do it justice and a more recent piece of everybody's favourite fallen angel Cypher, from his dataslate IIRC:


BAD ASSSSSSSSSSSS...


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 Talizvar wrote:
I think this picture pretty much drums up the insanity of the 40k (Necromunda) experience, I submit: The Redeemer!

Flaming head gear, underslung flamer with chainsword... he is pretty much the poster-child for the universe.

That comic was insane and for me on the par with stuff like Deff Skwadron, chock full of horrible puns, one-liners and well.. how absurdly grim dark the underhive could be at times.

Also features the best use of the term "decimation" yet!

 Talizvar wrote:

And we are in with the new.
The cover art for a book called "Enforcer" which I enjoyed a great deal.
A seriously kick-butt character that would be the poster-child for Imperial Law, no-nonsense and fierce.
Oddly, many people confuse her with a Sister of Battle...

The gun design of the omnibus always bothered me a bit, but it pretty neatly describes the character to us. I've always liked the cover of Blind myself, back before it was turned into an omnibus:

Congrats BrookM! Quite the milestone!

I am a sucker for Mark Gibbons, love his art. A personal favourite of mine is an oldie;



He has many more older art (and I love em all) and it's a shame he doesn't draw much for GW (at least not to my knowing).

Sorry, you're correct, I typed "Gibson" earlier, but it is in fact Gibbons. He was a staple in 2nd edition with an incredible amount of fantastic black and white art. Some iconic pieces inspired by miniatures (or inspiring miniatures themselves).

He did a lot of work in both Fantasy and 40K and specialist games (Warhammer Quest, Necromunda, etc.). His style and proportions were comical in many aspects,but comical in a way that almost matched the miniatures perfectly.

This is arguably one of his more famous pieces, the Terminator you spoke of:


He was the go-to guy for a lot of characters in the 2nd ed. codices.





Famous bits from Necromunda




"The" avatar picture for a decade or more.

His work was really captivating and solid.

 Low_K wrote:
Congrats BrookM! Quite the milestone!

I am a sucker for Mark Gibbons, love his art. A personal favourite of mine is an oldie;



He has many more older art (and I love em all) and it's a shame he doesn't draw much for GW (at least not to my knowing).

Ah yes, this is how ALL Blood Axe Kommandos should dress!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Elbows wrote:
Sorry, you're correct, I typed "Gibson" earlier, but it is in fact Gibbons. He was a staple in 2nd edition with an incredible amount of fantastic black and white art. Some iconic pieces inspired by miniatures (or inspiring miniatures themselves).

He did a lot of work in both Fantasy and 40K and specialist games (Warhammer Quest, Necromunda, etc.). His style and proportions were comical in many aspects,but comical in a way that almost matched the miniatures perfectly.

This is arguably one of his more famous pieces, the Terminator you spoke of:

Spoiler:

He was the go-to guy for a lot of characters in the 2nd ed. codices.





Famous bits from Necromunda

"The" avatar picture for a decade or more.

His work was really captivating and solid.

He's certainly a staple when I think of the art of that era, the interrogator-chaplain in particular is an awesome piece full of character and a nice step away from "Space Marines are defacto good guys", I mean, just like at how spiky and menacing he looks!

Ditto with Mephiston, he's supposed to be this great hero of the Imperium, though I think the artist may have overdone the vampire bits a bit too much..?

I'll always have a soft spot for those older black and white pieces, it's one of the reasons I never regretted paying through the nose at a GW store for Inquis Exterminatus all those years ago!

 Low_K wrote:
Congrats BrookM! Quite the milestone!

I am a sucker for Mark Gibbons, love his art. A personal favourite of mine is an oldie;



He has many more older art (and I love em all) and it's a shame he doesn't draw much for GW (at least not to my knowing).

This was the piece of art that started me on playing Blood Axe orks way back in the day.