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On this sad day we raise our chalices to a great artist. Condolences to family and friends.

Oof, did not expect to wake up to this. RIP to a legend.

May he rest in eternal peace, we lost a good man. Condolences to his family, and let's all dearly remember his art and all the contributions he made to 40k.

Charax wrote:
We owe him a great deal

Games Workshop owes him a great deal, and so far I've not seen them say a word.

I am 101% certain an article is coming, they're just writing it.

 BorderCountess wrote:

Charax wrote:
We owe him a great deal

Games Workshop owes him a great deal, and so far I've not seen them say a word.

Yeah the stuff coming out at the moment is scheduled posts from ages ago. They're just putting something together.

I'm not so sure GW will say anything they haven't in the past when other artists and creators passed.

Sad news indeed. He definitely was instrumental in that early RT look and feel of the game.

Guy just nailed what 40k should be all about. RIP to a great artist

GW may have written him off when he released his paint range with Army Painter. Could see them being too petty to mention his name out of concern that an entire generation of newer hobbyits who dont recognize his name might google it and then come across a competing paint range and realize that theres an entire industry of miniatures and hobby supplies made by other companies and for other games.

RIP Mr.BLanche, I knew he was ill from his videos with Filmdeg on Youtube. He worked on his passions until the end even when he couldn't really draw anymore.
I'm still thinking of how I can honour the man?

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I'm not so sure GW will say anything they haven't in the past when other artists and creators passed.

I hope they say something. It is was quite petty to ignore the passing of Brian Ansell.

chaos0xomega wrote:GW may have written him off when he released his paint range with Army Painter. Could see them being too petty to mention his name out of concern that an entire generation of newer hobbyits who dont recognize his name might google it and then come across a competing paint range and realize that theres an entire industry of miniatures and hobby supplies made by other companies and for other games.

You make a good point, hope 'new'-GW takes a second to be humans.

Paul Hicks mentioning his favourite John Blanche artwork on FB made me think about my own.

For me, it has always been the Ecclesiarchy illustration from Warhammer 40,000.

Every time I looked at it, I discovered something new. The central figure is magnificent, but it is the incredible detail in the background—the pilgrims, the architecture, the strange faces and symbols—that kept drawing my eye back again and again.
What always struck me was how much it reminded me of Hieronymus Bosch. Not in imitation, but in spirit. Like Bosch, Blanche created worlds that felt vast, unsettling, sacred, grotesque, and utterly alive. There was always another story hidden in the shadows, another detail waiting to be discovered.
That was John Blanche's gift. He didn't just illustrate a setting—he made you believe there was an entire universe beyond the edge of the picture.

It is a sad day for the hobby. His work shaped the imagination of generations of gamers, painters, and artists, and his influence will remain visible every time we open a Warhammer book or place a miniature on the table.



Thank you for the inspiration, John. You will be deeply missed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 RedSarge wrote:

You make a good point, hope 'new'-GW takes a second to be humans.

100% spot on!

It's hard to pick a favourite, he did iconic box art, but also a lot of amazing character designs, which for us did a lot of heavy lifting in setting the tone and general vibe for games, or to show that in general, the setting was way more than angry bald men screaming while swinging a big sword and shooting a big gun at something coming towards them. So for me, it has to be this absolute baddie:

End Of An Era

Godspeed, Mr Blanche..

I think somewhat uniquely as an artist he was an incredible communicator. I think many artists aspire to that, but vanishingly few can engage your imagination on a different world.

A small tribute to his art...

















Happy Trees!



I'm a bit of a fan

The_Real_Chris wrote:
I think somewhat uniquely as an artist he was an incredible communicator. I think many artists aspire to that, but vanishingly few can engage your imagination on a different world.

This. Absolutely this.

His art didn’t just paint a picture, it explained the world and its concepts. I mean, his Inquisition works? Not just a painting of a future warrior, but one from a world you can tell at a glance hasn’t just gone very very wrong, but completely hatstand bonkers insane. The mishmash of styles on a single figure, from 80’s cyberpunk/Sigue Sigue Sputnik to Georgian Fashions including impractical wigs and court shoes, holding bizarre but still functional looking ancient weapons.

It was as if Da Vinci necked a bottle of Absinthe with Bosche, then entered a long period of collaboration. And it absolutely defined 40K, which remains to this day a glorious mish-mash of sources, inspirations and looks, which in turn is unique unto itself.

A rare, perhaps even entirely unique talent and style.

I’m currently trying to send a psychic message back in time to Wee Me, telling him to forgo lunch on that school trip to Greenwich, and buy the £2 copy of Ratspike found in a random charity shop.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

The_Real_Chris wrote:
I think somewhat uniquely as an artist he was an incredible communicator. I think many artists aspire to that, but vanishingly few can engage your imagination on a different world.

This. Absolutely this.

His art didn’t just paint a picture, it explained the world and its concepts. I mean, his Inquisition works? Not just a painting of a future warrior, but one from a world you can tell at a glance hasn’t just gone very very wrong, but completely hatstand bonkers insane. The mishmash of styles on a single figure, from 80’s cyberpunk/Sigue Sigue Sputnik to Georgian Fashions including impractical wigs and court shoes, holding bizarre but still functional looking ancient weapons.

It was as if Da Vinci necked a bottle of Absinthe with Bosche, then entered a long period of collaboration. And it absolutely defined 40K, which remains to this day a glorious mish-mash of sources, inspirations and looks, which in turn is unique unto itself.

A rare, perhaps even entirely unique talent and style.

I’m currently trying to send a psychic message back in time to Wee Me, telling him to forgo lunch on that school trip to Greenwich, and buy the £2 copy of Ratspike found in a random charity shop.

I think it's a particular testiment to his style and talent that modern corporate GW have been trying to sand the rough edges off of 40K for a solid 15 years now and are still struggling to get anywhere because that sinister oddness that permeated his work is so deep in the IP's DNA it just keeps bubbling back up to the surface.

If Games Workshop dont write any condolences it only means Firstborn marines had 2 hearts. Primaris marines cut them away.

Truly sad.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m currently trying to send a psychic message back in time to Wee Me, telling him to forgo lunch on that school trip to Greenwich, and buy the £2 copy of Ratspike found in a random charity shop.

A tangent but why did Ian Miller disappear from GWs artwork? He is awesome, even if I felt it was impossible to reproduce with models!

I'd be remiss I forgot my favorite faction

Warhammer Community wrote: It is with great sadness we learned of the passing of John Blanche.

John was an artistic powerhouse whose unmistakable style was a unique lens through which many of us came to know and love the worlds of Warhammer. John was also a friend and mentor to many of us here at Games Workshop. Our heartfelt condolences go to his family and friends.

The universe John helped create is a big place. He will be missed.

That post felt half-hearted and half-assed. That kind of effort should have been out yesterday.

However, I do appreciate how they subverted the introduction for him.

The news only broke yesterday. It’s not GW’s place to make such an announcement first. Or indeed without the family’s permission I’d say.

There are still many folks within GW who worked with him for years, if not decades. One imagines they’re lost for words, as many Dakkanauts were, and we only ever knew of him.

 BorderCountess wrote:
That post felt half-hearted and half-assed. That kind of effort should have been out yesterday.

However, I do appreciate how they subverted the introduction for him.

This does feel like the bare minimum. And yes, the “universe is a big place, he will be missed” was a nice touch.

Hopefully they will get a best of retrospective article of his work up. They seem to be fond of art over the ages pieces, doing one for an artist vs. an army would not be hard. And very appropriate.

Good god, I didn't see that coming. Had he been ill?

As folks here have said more eloquently than I, a sad loss and a great man whose influence will reverberate down the years. RIP John :-/

A sad day and a huge loss. Along with Jes Goodwin I think John Blanche was the most responsible for creating the visuals that are quintessentially 40k.

I'll be breaking out the black and red paint in his honour this weekend

When I was introduced to Warhammer 40,000 way back in 96' John Blanche's art was what pulled me in the most. It was wild and amazing.

Some time ago I bought the Dark Millennium playing cards. I have never opened them. Now I may never open them.

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Good god, I didn't see that coming. Had he been ill?

I think he had been having health issues for a little while. I don't know if the exact nature of those is public, and I think it's still a bit of a shock that he's passed.

I was honestly not expecting GW to acknowledge him in any way. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong