Harry the Hammer & Friends (Part 1 - John Blanche)

I'm lucky enough to live within striking distance of Wargames Foundry, and was very pleased to visit the Harry the Hammer & Friends exhibition on it's opening day.

The exhibition runs to 12th December 2021 and comprises art from the private collection of Bryan and Diane Ansell. The exhibition features some iconic pieces from the early days of Citadel and Games Workshop by artists including John Blanche, Ian Miller and Wayne England. 

Harry the Hammer & Friends (Part 2 - Ian Miller & Others)

Part 2 of the pictures I took at the Harry the Hammer & Friends exhibition at Wargames Foundry. This time Ian Miller and other artists.

Original Art - Part 8: Karl Kopinski's Craftworld Eldar

Back in 2011, I found myself in a café bar in an old Victorian music hall in Nottingham, my wallet full of cash. I was there to meet the ex-GW artist Karl Kopinski to purchase a pair of stunning illustrations. Karl and I conducted the transaction over a pint, and I came away a little poorer, but very happy indeed.

The two pieces of artwork I purchased were published in the Codex Craftworld Eldar book in 2000. The mini-dex provided rules for fielding the various major Eldar Craftworlds. Each Craftworld receiving a two-page spread, accompanied by one of Karl's illustrations.

Codex Craftworld Eldar, published in 2000.

Original Art - Part 7: Ian Miller's Scavvy Concept Sheets

Ian Miller is intrinsically linked with the early art of Games Workshop. His iconic and often disturbing images set the tone for many Games Workshop publications, including Rogue Trader and Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness. Ian has long since left his work with Games Workshop behind, and is a respected and well-recognised artist outside of the sci-fantasy genre.

Six months or so ago, my friend Graham Apperley got in touch with Ian and arranged to buy a few pieces of GW artwork. I had always assumed Ian Miller's pieces were well out of my price range, but when I was given the opportunity to buy the sheet below, I jumped at the chance:

Sheet 2: Note the flamer crew, robotic dogs and preponderence of weird prosthetics

What you are looking at is an A3 sheet of concept sketches for "Hive Gang Scavvies" by Ian, drawn in 1989.

An Interview With...Illustrator Des Hanley

If you've been involved in the Games Workshop hobby for any length of time, you can't fail to be impressed from the lush and plentiful illustrations littered across their publications. From the early days in the 1980s, through to the present time, GW has literally published thousands of wonderful pieces of artwork in rulebooks, sourcebooks and novels. Each piece adds to the atmosphere of GW's fantasy worlds, and many are instantly unforgettable.

40k Chaos 'Abaddon & Cypher' (Des Hanley)

Des Hanley is one of the illustrators who responsible for some of this output. Working as an illustrator for GW from Oct 95 to Feb 1999, he worked on a wide range of projects, including Warhammer army books, Warhammer 40,000 codicies and the Battle Fleet Gothic game. Des has been kind enough to subject himself to being interviewed on his career in illustration and time working for GW.

Original Art - Part 6: Rogue Trader & Confrontation by Martin McKenna

I started my collection of GW original artwork by tracking down Eldar-themed pieces, but sometimes opportunities come along which just require a broadening of horizons. Last year I made contact with Martin McKenna and was offered a wide selection of pieces, including Rogue Trader, WFRP and others besides. Martin's style is very precise, often with great attention to the expressions of the characters he's drawing. After much consideration, I decided purchase three of Martin's lovely pieces, this being the first:

 

Original Art - Part 5: Fangorn's Epic Painting

Back in June last year (before I'd started this blog), I sent across some info to Orlygg over at Realm of Chaos 80s on some of my original GW artwork, as part of his 'Where are they now' series.

 

The largest piece in my collection of artwork, and indeed the only colour piece, is the artwork used for the Epic Eldar Legion and Ork Horde boxed sets, painted by Chris Baker AKA Fangorn:

 

The Tony Ackland Acquisition - Update

Earlier today I posted about the Tony Ackland originals I bought last week. Tony has been kind enough to send me a couple of messages helping to ID the pieces, for which I'm very grateful.

While all of my other pieces of original GW art have been purchased directly from the artists or artist's family, this has not been the case for the Tony Ackland pieces.

It transpires that this selection of artwork was due to be returned to Tony by GW, when they cleared out the archives 10 or so years back. Sadly, this never happened (you know the story from my earlier post). While I'm not sure I'll be arrested for dealing in stolen goods, it's added a bit of a sour note to the acquisition, and I'm happy to say I'll be returning a couple of pieces to Tony to fill a hole or two in his personal archive and (hopefully) make amends for the original loss.

Original Art - Part 4: The Tony Ackland Acquisition

I always like it when big special delivery boxes arrive at my door!

 

But what's inside?

One or two of you might have seen seven pieces of original GW artwork on ebay last week. Not too many of you though, as after nearly a week of being up for sale, only one had a bid. All seven pieces appeared to be by Tony Ackland, as one auction showed Tony's name on the protective cover, and all the others had reference codes e.g. 'TAxxxx'

I was quite keen on picking up one or two of the pieces, and decided to contact the seller to see if he would sell direct (I know, not entirely the most ethical way of ebay buying). Not only was the seller happy to do this, but it turned out he had 23 Tony Ackland originals he also wanted to sell. After a little bit of negotiation, I purchased all 23, and here are the contents of the box:

23 pieces of GW history

Original Art - Part 3: Eldar Terrain & Cityscapes by Roberto Cirillo

After the purchase of artwork by Tony Hough and Des Hanley, it's safe to say that I was now in full on collecting mode. By instinct rather than design, I had sought out Eldar pieces, and it now struck me that this would be a nice collection to put together. The parameters were fairly broad - I would just see what pieces of Eldar artwork I could acquire by contacting ex-GW artists. Although the artwork in current publications now appears to be largely digital, even 5 or 6 years ago GW was still producing large quantities of traditional artwork.

My approach to tracking down the artists was simply to scan through GW publications, and try and make contact through any online presence. Through this process I came across Roberto Cirillo; if you're not familiar with Roberto as a GW artist, it's because he worked for GW, primarily as a concept artist for 3 years during the early 2000s. His output included Tau, Tyranid and Imperial Guard concepts, as well as the bulk of the design for the Warhammer 40k Cityfight scenery. You can see some of his excellent concept work at http://rcstudio.co.uk/

Given the nature of Roberto's role at GW, it is no surprise that the bulk of his output was never published (although you can see the outcomes in the models sculpted from his work). Roberto is also a skilled technical draughtsman, and you may recognise his highly detailed cityscapes and battlefield illustrations from the Warhammer 40k 'Cities of Death' (2006) and 'Apocalypse' (2007) supplements.

'Dhneb Capitalis' from Cities of Death (top), 'The Defence of Cyros Prime' from Apocalypse (bottom)

Original Art - Part 2: Craftworld Eldar by Des Hanley

Last month I showcased my three pieces of original art by Tony Hough. That iconic 'Eldar Broadside' piece was the first piece of GW artwork I bought. Today I'm going to share my second and third pieces, both by Des Hanley.

In 2011, I happened to spy a post on Frothers by Des Hanley. He had, he said, a selection of art from his time with GW, that he was looking to sell. Interested, I asked Des if he had any Eldar pieces. Happily he did:

Original Art: Spacefleet Eldar by Tony Hough

Back in 2008, I happened to flick through my copy of White Dwarf 127 from July 1990 (still my favourite issue because of the Craftworld Eldar background and army list). There, on page 18, was a 10.5x8cm reproduction of a piece of Tony Hough artwork. The image, in the imitable Tony Hough style, shows a group of Eldar talking tactics, poetry or perhaps musing on what they will have for dinner, while in the background, beams of catastrophic energy pulse from one side of the image to the other.

If you're not familiar with the image, here it is as it appears in print:

White Dwarf 127, p18

Owning John Blanche Originals

It's taken me a couple of decades to take to the work of John Blanche. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s I viewed his artwork as too loose, his figure proportions and perspective were off. His increasingly orange work jarred. In short, I didn't like it at all.

With that said, over recent times, I've grown to love John's work. I realise now that his vision has been an incredibly strong driver into the look and feel of Games Workshop's universes, and underpins much of what I enjoy about the background, artwork and miniatures.

In recent times I've taken to picking up odd sources of John Blanche's work where I can; books like Ratspike, White Dwarfs; you know the sort of thing. Even the odd local magazine! Gothic Punk is an excellent resource if you want to check out John's work.

Gothic Punk on tumblr; probably the best online resource for John Blanche artwork