HR Giger And His Vast Influence On Gaming

Sad news today about the death of HR Giger. The Guardian rightly had an article about his influence on gaming - but they only mention game design for video games. 

There's no doubt that this is true: simply look at this screen grab from the classic R-Type.

But what they don't mention is his influence on one of the games we all love, Warhammer 40K. His influence was there right from the start in the posthuman terror of the dark millennium, and now all the more so when we consider the current Tyranid range (genestealers above all, of course) . His twisted imagination will be sorely missed, but his influence will live on in so much deviant art and, so closely to us, in the models we collect, paint and game with.

A Couple of Properly Grimy And Gothic Tyranid Images

For me, the Tyranids should be grimy and gothic. They certainly shouldn't have the bizarrely clean look that GW seem to like giving them. They're a heaving biomass of death - they shouldn't look like they've just had a shower. So I was pleased to see these images on the GW site today, which capture the kind of aesthetic I like. Grabbed, copied and shared for your enjoyment.

Artistic Inspiration On The March

On the weekend we took the children and their grandmother to the National Museum in Cardiff. The children loved the natural history sections as they always do and we had a few minutes to fit in some of the art galleries. As we had the kids in tow this was done at double quick time, but I did have a chance to snap a couple of what I think are new additions to the collection. Both of the following show the kinds of colour mix, blends, overlaying and shading that I'm experimenting with at the moment. Except that I'm doing it on a cyclops and a ghorgon. 

Woman at the bath - Edgar Degas.
National Museum Cardiff

Effect of snow at Petit-Montrouge - Edouard Manet.
National Museum Cardiff 

Inside Guillermo del Toro's Sketchbook

I have to share this art work with you because it's so very, very cool. It's from Guillermo del Toro's notebooks and I found it over at Geek Tyrant. I've always admired del Toro's work though I never realised he was such a talented artist - the rather vintage style of these sketches is simply terrific. I hope you enjoy them as much as I am. I'm really inspired to keep a sketchbook too.

Dusk Green Trolls And The Snowbound Undead

Comic artist Mark Lone produces some great fantasy prints. Even though they're more 'cartoony' than other art work that I'm studying for inspiration, there is plenty to draw on here. Take the following for example. The balance between the greens and the black in the first piece; the black, green and fire in the second; the frozen blues and greens in the third. All very useful for seeing how great impact can come from a limited palette.

Blue Dragons and Purple Vampires

I've been delving into Deviant Art again and this time I've been looking at works by AlexBoca. From this impressive collection I've focused on certain pictures as studies in blues and purples to help me develop my work across my Slaanesh miniatures. These are really helpful in letting me explore the paints that I have, the combinations I can employ, and the ways that I can develop my brush strokes - I want to further evolve my loose blending and layering in ways similar to the colours on the thigh of the dragon in the first picture. 

As always, enjoy!

Artistic Inspiration From Deviant Art: Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Just Plain Crazy

Deviant Art is fantastic inspiration for painting miniatures. It's full to the brim of work by indie artists in a range of mediums doing some cracking work in all the fantasy and science fiction genres. It's been a while since I've posted anything that I've been looking at, so here for your viewing pleasure is a small selection of work by the Russian artist PabelBilly. There's Slaanesh and Nurgle inspired and just plain crazy! Lovely stuff from a very talented chap.

John Blanche Illustrations From The Sorcery Spell Book

Our regular gaming nights currently involve a romp over the Shamutanti Hills as GM Andy guides his semi-competent players in typical semi-tolerant fashion (we do test his patience...). To aid my sorcerer, Andy handed me a copy of the Sorcery Spell Book during our last session. Not only did it help me sift through all the spells, it also gave me the chance to snap a few photos of the John Blanche illustrations within. Here are a few of my favourites...

Zombie Week: Day Two

Day Two... No true progress today due to long work journeys and it being our regular games night (with a first play test of some 40k skirmish rules I've been playing around with). So here a lovely zombie picture to cheer up a summer evening.

Some John Blanche Art From The 40k Rulebook, Just Because It's Great

Stunning Game Of Thrones Art

I found these on the official Game Of Thrones facebook page. They're stunning. It's interesting how much they remind me of some of the old Realm of Chaos era art work actually. Great aesthetic. The richness and the claustrophobia.  

New Genestealer Art

Just a quick heads up to all the genestealer fans out there: there's some great new art by a guy called Jon Sullivan over at Faeit 212, here's some of the best of it (really captures the foulness I always imagine of the beasts!)...

A Manhattan Gotham Mash-Up

A bit of a double-cult crossover geeky fun here, as the very talented artist Cynthia Sousa Rodgers - who goes by the deviant art handle of 'theamat' - blends the coolness of Manhattan and Gotham. I really love geek chic stuff like this. Here's the link.

10 Classic Scary Paintings

There's a nice little article in The Observer today piggybacking on Halloween - as is traditional at this time of year - which presents the rich horror that can be found in fine art through a "10 best..." series. Well worth a look. Here are a couple of my favourites:

Medusa: Caravaggio, 1596-98

Hell: Hans Memling, c1485

Steampunk Transformers

I found this image over at Will Draw For Fun, the blog of artist Brian Kesinger. Neat idea, don't you think?

The Art Of Godmachine

Just a quick heads-up today for a rather nifty artist who goes by the name Godmachine (and who is originally from my home town, Cardiff) - you can find his work on this tumblr site and there's a store on there for buying prints, but everything seems to be sold out at the moment. I've included a couple of my favourites here: 

Doctor Who In Wonderland

If you're on the lookout for good gifts for the geek in your life then pop over to Parodies Lost where you can find inspired prints like this one:

When you think about it, it's obvious: of course the doctor would have been to wonderland. Not that my wife ever reads my blog, but HINT... HINT...!

Darth Vader Vs. Alien Queen!

Oh boy do I have a treat for you today! I'm currently on the hunt for Star Wars fan art, particularly where it mashes up different science fantasy narratives and/or genres. The other day I showed you some 80s high school movie Star Wars characters, and previously I found Star Wars steampunk style. Today I have something from the ever popular 'Vs.' genre - it's the dark side of the force vs. the Aliens. These great pictures come from the artist Robert Shane, who lives here.

Old School Star Wars

New School Star Wars