New art by Adrian Smith

[grailkeeper]

Hopefully this is the start of somwthing more.

[grailkeeper]

Turns out it's from his YouTube channel and is labelled fan art. Might be the start of something but not something GW official.

 

https://youtu.be/HCm4TXiSKpc?si=wsiDNaxnMe0N5KZ6

[Shovellovin]

That is really an awesome piece. I agree with you, hopefully more artwork is in the pipeline.  I'd love to see this style return to the Chaos codex.

[Shinespider]

Wonderful. My brain can barely perceive it as something new, I feel like it has to be some old piece that was just overlooked. 

[Pacific81]

Wow..used to love his art in some of the old Chaos Codecies - the ones of the marines of the four pantheons which are absolutely iconic.

 

If this isn't being used in a publication it certainly should be!

[Xirix]

Did he do the art for the 3rd/4th Edition Chaos Codex? Looks very familiar, especially the guy in the middle.

[Etruscan]

Fabulous evocative work. Would love to see more of this style in GW codexes as a whole.

[grailkeeper]

He also had this on his instagram (couldn't seem to link directly on mobile).

[Captain Coolpants]

I wish I could art good... Or at all

[grailkeeper]

Just now, USNCenturion said:

Thanks for this. Love his art. The stuff these days is just so uninspired. Give me Kopinski and Smith and Gallagher. 

Dave Gibbo s had some pretty iconic stuff in the early days. But yeah for me Adrian Amith is THE warhammer artist.

 

I don't know why he stopped but I hope GW see this and send a big truck full of money to his house so that he comes back.

[TheMawr]

24 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

He also had this on his instagram (couldn't seem to link directly on mobile).

 

Not meant as a snap at both pieces of artwork, but both give me the feeling of being AI art trained on adrian smith work rather than work from adrian smith himself.

I cant yet fully put my finger on why exactly. Its also difficult, as some elements that are things to recognise very good AI work, are elements he always had in his art. (and before anyone questions the logic.. AI has made massive steps past few months, its way beyond what was in some topics here same time last year.)

 

edit : it could be they are quicker more sketchy work from him perhaps, and Im used to his more finetuned work. Contrast is also lower than usual ( and I dont mean as a filter or setting,but manually made contrast.)

Edited January 22 by TheMawr

[Borbarad]

Old man Smith is one of the greats of Warhammer artwork. Iconic. 

[grailkeeper]

1 minute ago, TheMawr said:

 

Not meant as a snap at both pieces of artwork, but both give me the feeling of being AI art trained on adrian smith work rather than work from adrian smith himself.

I cant yet fully put my finger on why exactly. Its also difficult, as some elements that are things to recognise very good AI work, are elements he always had in his art. (and before anyone questions the logic.. AI has made massive steps past few months, its way beyond what was in some topics here same time last year.)

 

 

It's not AI art but I could see GW embracing AI. They don't give a lot of credit to the creative that work for them, now more than ever. The current AIs available to the public can already do a pretty decent space marine. I'm sure privately licenced by gw in a few years could be do a job that we couldn't identify.

[Kastor Krieg]

8 minutes ago, TheMawr said:

Not meant as a snap at both pieces of artwork, but both give me the feeling of being AI art trained on adrian smith work rather than work from adrian smith himself.

I cant yet fully put my finger on why exactly. Its also difficult, as some elements that are things to recognise very good AI work, are elements he always had in his art

Had the exact same feeling. It's something to do with how "procedural" filling areas with details looks in AI "art".

There's a lot of detail that doesn't mesh internally or is completely disjointed from the surface it's supposedly on. The weapon is egregiously dumb as well, simplistic as a shape. There are also "tells" visible to those who are in on the lore, unlike the AI - the clearly Slaaneshi / Noise Marine heads, but "triad" Nurgle symbols and flies are a dead giveaway. The multi-eyed belt screams Tzeentch instead. The pipes don't make sense. The "armour studs" are peppered around not uniformly and just randomly off to one side (middle guy)

 

Edited January 22 by Kastor Krieg

[grailkeeper]

It's not Ai. You can see him inking in the pencils in the youtube video I linked to..

[Pacific81]

It might be that as this isn't official GW art he can just do what he likes with it, rather than it having to confirm directly to the lore descriptions of these things.

 

Hence it being a bit 'uncanny valley' because you expect things to be in a certain place in a certain way.

[TheMawr]

5 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

 

 

It's not AI art but I could see GW embracing AI. They don't give a lot of credit to the creative that work for them, now more than ever. The current AIs available to the public can already do a pretty decent space marine. I'm sure privately licenced by gw in a few years could be do a job that we couldn't identify.

 

As it was official and Adrian smith is an analog artist I already didnt think so, but now went and watched the video :)

You are underestimating how far AI art is already though, especially when using trainers... part of me is ok with it.. it competes with digital artists mostly I think, while probably adding more value to analog artists. However the main reason GW wont use it yet isnt about what it can and cant do, but rather the legal issues still surrounding it.

 

Anyway back to the adrian smith artwork appreciation topic. ;)

[Kastor Krieg]

4 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Turns out it's from his YouTube channel and is labelled fan art. Might be the start of something but not something GW official.

 

https://youtu.be/HCm4TXiSKpc?si=wsiDNaxnMe0N5KZ6

Damn, I guess even Adrian Smith sometimes makes a lemon.

Edited January 22 by Kastor Krieg

[TheMawr]

10 minutes ago, Pacific81 said:

It might be that as this isn't official GW art he can just do what he likes with it, rather than it having to confirm directly to the lore descriptions of these things.

 

Hence it being a bit 'uncanny valley' because you expect things to be in a certain place in a certain way.

 

No kastor krieg pointed it out well, but as I said originally, that its interesting that its things he always had to some extend that just so happen to coincide with typical AI elements.

Its not a matter of doubting the art (as there is evidence of him drawing it )

Adrian smith is THE AI and always has been. Man of Iron.

[N1SB]

5 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Turns out it's from his YouTube channel and is labelled fan art. Might be the start of something but not something GW official.

 

https://youtu.be/HCm4TXiSKpc?si=wsiDNaxnMe0N5KZ6

 

Hey everyone, go through this link to give him a thumbs up, because maybe he'll make more if he sees a lot of Likes!  

 

 

[Kastor Krieg]

2 hours ago, TheMawr said:

its things he always had to some extend that just so happen to coincide with typical AI elements.

Oh yeah, absolutely. That kind of slap-dash approach to realism was always his thing, it's a bit more expressed here and thus tripped up those of us who now align those qualities with AI "art". Lot less exposure to Adrian Smith these days, much more to Dall-E or Midjourney and our pattern-recognition jelly goes WUT IZ DAT? IZ DAT A EY AY GIT?

[Cenobite Terminator]

I’ve always found Adrian to be very detail oriented.

[Orion]

Dude, that's nuts!

Really cool to see the process too. A lot of the time it's hard to tell the scale of the image and how it's composed on paper when it's in the codexes and rulebooks.

[Beta galactosidase]

If you go through Smith’s unofficial work I think there are many examples of the nurgle triad and other chaos imagery  not being exactly the same as official green-blue-red-purple chaos pantheon.  He seems to have his own ideas.  I appreciate it.  Especially chaos but most concepts are a little less nailed-down  than in official work

[apologist]

5 hours ago, Beta galactosidase said:

If you go through Smith’s unofficial work I think there are many examples of the nurgle triad and other chaos imagery  not being exactly the same as official green-blue-red-purple chaos pantheon.  He seems to have his own ideas.  I appreciate it.  Especially chaos but most concepts are a little less nailed-down  than in official work

That aspect of Chaos as intentionally blurry, deliberately contrary and – well, Chaotic – is something that has gradually been refined out from official publications, which is a bit of a shame, I think. There's always been an uneasy idea of what non-aligned Chaos marines look like – and since, I imagine, they are the rule rather than the exception, that seems odd. 

 

Adrian Smith's artwork has always had a wonderful sense of horror to it. I can't really express it beyond he really seems to get the obsessive madness that's so key to the Warhammer universes.