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 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Hellebore wrote:
I didn't think anything of it after I got it until I walked passed the hobby shop down the road and saw things very similar to it in the store. I picked up my first white dwarf (182) partly because of the amazing cover.

Isn't that a Mark Gibbons piece?

Yup, probably still my favourite GW illustrator to this day, especially when he was illustrating from a jes goodwin design sketch, which is why all his 2nd ed eldar stuff looks so phenomenal.

In my mind, John Blanche is the soul and atmosphere of 40k and an 'artist' in that sense of the work.

Mark Gibbons was their best illustrator, which is not to denigrate illustration vs 'art' (in the sense that I am using it) but to say that Blanche's work functions differently to the other artists that worked on 40k.

 Irkjoe wrote:
The blanche templars on the 3rd edition rulebook left a lasting impression.

This thread will be a good reminder just how bad the current art is.

Really? Its reminding me how terrible nostalgia goggles are. Some of these pieces are legitimately awful- composition, color choices, proportions...

---
That said, my big draw is some of the Chaos art from Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness, while there are some clear misses in the book, a lot of it was great. Particularly the Ian Miller chapter pieces- they're legitimately weird and otherworldly.
One of the great things about the book is they gave all the artists little icons on the title page, and snuck them onto each piece so you could find out who did them.

I just wish I could unlink the book from Genesis' Invisible Touch album. I picked up both on the same trip to London, and listened to it over and over again as I read it. Though admittedly 'Domino' fits the book really well, with its talk about seeing terrible things, crazy voices, and a beautiful river of blood.

Waaargh the orks was even more uneven for art, but there are some classic ork illustrations (and stories) in there.

Voss wrote:

 Irkjoe wrote:
The blanche templars on the 3rd edition rulebook left a lasting impression.

This thread will be a good reminder just how bad the current art is.

Really? Its reminding me how terrible nostalgia goggles are. Some of these pieces are legitimately awful- composition, color choices, proportions...

I struggle to convey it with words, there's something about how the old art was actually drawn/painted that isn't achieved by digital art. Some of it has a graininess that is completely lost in the new stuff. The old stuff was more stylized as well.

 Irkjoe wrote:

Voss wrote:

 Irkjoe wrote:
The blanche templars on the 3rd edition rulebook left a lasting impression.

This thread will be a good reminder just how bad the current art is.

Really? Its reminding me how terrible nostalgia goggles are. Some of these pieces are legitimately awful- composition, color choices, proportions...

I struggle to convey it with words, there's something about how the old art was actually drawn/painted that isn't achieved by digital art. Some of it has a graininess that is completely lost in the new stuff. The old stuff was more stylized as well.

It's that stylized way about it that I'm not a fan of. The new art looks more "realistic" and warlike, and also just doesn't look silly with that sort of hot-for-leather heavy-metal-rocker-from-the-dead look that a lot of older art seems to have, which really doesn't look like it's depicting military forces or operations much at all.

For me, it wasn't the artwork, it was the minis (and the game) themselves. A lot of the artwork was actually off-putting.

That's not to say there isn't 40K art that I like, it just wasn't what "sold me" on 40K.

Out of 40K though, I think some of my favorite is the Imperial Fist artwork for the original Rogue Trader cover (and to a lesser degree, the remake with primaris), and the original Eldar codex.

My all-time favorite has always been the Emperor vs. Horus.

Yeah, the famous portrait of Joey DeMaio.


About Blanche (and other old artwork) I think you're missing the point. They're not "good" in terms of realism or composition or whatev. They are good because they really convey the idea that the setting is both historical and futuristic.
They reminded me of the Ortodox iconography, or of medieval miniature. Do you think they draw like they did because they were not good enough?
Illustrations covers a lot of meaning, and make a lot of sense that in the future the exact representation of reality is not the main goal.

So, those were this borderline in-setting out-setting idea going on with illustration.
Compare it to the current publicity poster we have...

 Cybtroll wrote:
Yeah, the famous portrait of Joey DeMaio.


About Blanche (and other old artwork) I think you're missing the point. They're not "good" in terms of realism or composition or whatev. They are good because they really convey the idea that the setting is both historical and futuristic.
They reminded me of the Ortodox iconography, or of medieval miniature. Do you think they draw like they did because they were not good enough?
Illustrations covers a lot of meaning, and make a lot of sense that in the future the exact representation of reality is not the main goal.

So, those were this borderline in-setting out-setting idea going on with illustration.
Compare it to the current publicity poster we have...

But they don't seem historical, futuristic, or evocative of the idea of the darkest possible future of man where we live under a fascist theocracy in perpetual war against everything. Just kind of weird and very 80's with big hair, high heels & leather, disco colors on armor and a dose of just weird random body-horror stuff.


Like compare


to



The cover of the 2003 witch hunters codex is in my opinion a lot better than the cover of the 1997 one. It conveys a lot more grim darkness where there is a facsist theocracy. The 1997 one has a sexed-up lady in leather with heels. big hair, and a gun. The 2003 one is a man being summarily executed by being burned alive as a group of Sisters and an Inquisitor walk forward stoically with an angel and dark church in the background. It has the least sexy depiction of a repentia ever [and what I wished the new models were instead of a skintight short-shorts catsuit with chains and spikes like a BDSM festival] still providing some kind of body horror weirdness, though it is appropriate because that's actually a unit we have [though the weird robo-tentacle people with misshapen skulls and hunchbacks and rags are far less appropriate in the IG codex, for example]

The current Sisters codex cover is somewhere it between. It's better than the 1997 one, without a doubt, since it's still a lady standing there but she at least looks churchy instead of goth-sexy and has like storm clouds gathering and a halo and a procession, though it's not as good as the 2003 one which feels fantastically totalitarian and grim-dark.


Not to say that the 1997 is of low technical quality. It's of very high technical quality. It's just an aesthetic choice that I don't feel is particularly evocative of the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war, fascist oppression and brutal suppression of independence and will, and a theocracy to guide the masses to their deaths for the gain of distant oligarchs.

Both are good, but the Blanchian style is crazier, which I prefer. It's a better style for letting you know that your imagination can run wild with the setting. It says "F*** it, man. Go ape s***" with your ideas!" It frees up the creative liscense. Two thumbs up.

Because as I've said before, blanche produces art which is as much about what it evokes and makes you feel as it is about drawing a picture.

The other artists at GW generally produce illustrations which are very literal and less evocative. They can be cool and brutal and accurate but they lack that art quality.

I would like photo realistic images even less than the illustrations. The texture of art.media is a unique feature of it and a photo is just a photo no matter how clever it was produced.

Constantinius schism, 4th edition CSM dex.

The horde of rabble inspired me after the let down of the dex.

Since then i have been a sucker for all things of mortal chaos.

The second edition Eldar artwork. I could taste the ****ing rainbow and I wanted more.

I seem to be a fair bit younger than the average person on this thread (I'm currently a college student, or "university" for those over in Europe), but I still remember a couple of pieces of art that made me want to join the hobby back in middle school. Specifically, I saw the cover art for the 7th edition Tyranids codex in about 2014 or 2015, and I absolutely fell in love with both the setting and the army. I've always been a fan of the spiky, angled art style on this piece, and I remember it being one of the first times I saw a monster in fantasy art which looked genuinely intimidating. It helped that I think I saw this during a (the last?) big Tyranid release, as the GW store I was in was absolutely plastered with Hive Crones and Exocrines.

I remember the Orks codex from around this time also having amazing cover art.

If you consider videogames art...

The moment I played the Dawn of War tutorial and, zooming in, saw a Space Marine skewer an Ork and then having to use his boot to take the combat knife out. THAT moment sold 40k to me.

There is a picture of an ultramarine of crimsion fist land raider, that looks like a tank attack durning the battle of Somme. First art for w40k I ever saw, and I liked it very much.

Well this has been a walk down memory lane. Love it, thank you for creating the thread OP

Gitdakka wrote:
Easy choice

Ahh yeah!! Thats the stuff..

Technically it would be DoW, but I remember seeing Dainton's work when walking by the store and when hanging out with a friend. Daemonhunters ended up being my first army.

There was no art that got me in to 40K, really.

However, art that made me want to get Black Templars would be:



or


Hard to really say which one was the most central, really.

Oh buddy. I dont know where to start. Theres just so many. Some that stand out though is the one with Tyranids and Daemons fighting. We all know that one, with the Bloodthirster choking a carnifex with its whip.
And this old Wulfen one. https://images.app.goo.gl/M6pajCdVyNStDtz27
This one is so crazy because as a kid I didnt know who the Wulfen were and it confused then feth outta me. I thought it was chaos marines killing Chaos guard but those evil looking werewolves are actually the "good guys". Its so damn 40k!

Gitdakka wrote:
Easy choice

My first box, and led to my first (terribly painted) army - Black Templars

These 2 just encapsulate what I love about 40k.

 Argive wrote:

Gitdakka wrote:
Easy choice

Ahh yeah!! Thats the stuff..

Ah yes. That picture. Sadly the only thing it evokes for me is a bit of spite about 'this is why Dark Angels are green now, so GW could shoe-horn in yet another close combat marine chapter?'

I loved the old black and white drawings, there was so much detail and they were a bit wonky which added to the dystopian effect. It’s still how I think of the 40K universes.

Most of the late Rogue Trader era and 2nd edition artwork published in White Dwarf got me into the game, and White Dwarf was really my only insight into the hobby at the time, no interwebz back then! Yes I've been in it for that long...

Some of my favourites from around that time or 2nd edition era, that people haven't already posted, are below.

Dark Angels Interrogator Chaplain by Mark Gibbons


Space Hulk Deathwing and Genestealer box cover artwork


Box art for Space Hulk the video game (1993)


Cover of White Dwarf 155, actually taken from the Vehicle Manual cover.



And the original Emperor vs Horus and Mike McVey's diorama based on it -







There was also a black and white piece of artwork depicting a few Imperial Guardsmen, Catachan Jungle Fighters iirc, and you'd swear that one of them was a spitting image of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I can't find it at this time. Strangely it's not in the 2nd edition IG codex.

Collected some of my fav MG 2nd ed eldar pics and a couple of others of his that were what illustrated 40k for me.

It was never just about the art for me. It was the stories that went along with them. This art/fluff bit here though is what took ownership of my soul for some reason as a kid. So much other good art posted on this thread.

Great thread!

While the art didn't really sell me on 40k (ork models and fluff did), this was one of my favorite art pieces starting day 1:

Probably this one, but really it was the great battle scenes from this book like:


I love all the old black and white art as well. Gorgeous stuff.

No doubt that the rogue trader cover was what first drew me in,. Collected a lot of bits and pieces, mostly space elf raiders as they were then.
Then I saw the aspect warriors concept art by jes Goodwin and the rest was history!
https://images.app.goo.gl/6e5qwhjT1u86SQ8i9

 Da Boss wrote:
Probably this one, but really it was the great battle scenes from this book like:

The classic Speeder, banners everywhere and dreads on square bases