John Blanche has passed away

[Corswain]

Very sad but what a wonderful legacy he has left for us all to enjoy and remember him by.

[TheWarmaster]

Alan Bligh

Paul Sawyer

..and now John Blanche. 
 

Devastating. 

I was friends with John on Facebook and had a couple of good chats with him about the setting over the years. 

[SalamandersBro]

Rest in peace man. I really enjoy his artwork. 

[Robbienw]

2 hours ago, TheWarmaster said:

Alan Bligh

Paul Sawyer

..and now John Blanche. 
 

Devastating. 

I was friends with John on Facebook and had a couple of good chats with him about the setting over the years. 

 

Brian Fawcett died last year as well, one of the key early Forgeworld designers.

[Gillyfish]

So back when I finished school in the late 90s I had a year out before I went to university. I had a piece-rate job and one of my colleagues was an artist (turns out art doesn't often pay well). I showed him some of the GW stuff, which I loved. Most of it he dismissed as a bit derivative, but John's work he paused on, a bit surprised. He described it as simultaneously by a really, really good artist and a really bad one. That description has never left me; this was someone who looked for art to do something new and exciting and it was what he had been trained for it to do. In common with many 'artists', there was a definite air of disdain for those trying to achieve photo-real(ish) illustration, but there was still something about John's work which made him pause and admire it. Probably the same aspect which captivates those of us who didn't study art too; the wild, flamboyant and (small c) chaotic nature of it all which is really evocative.

 

There are many GW artists I admire and John was amongst the most imaginative of them. It feels like he should have had a good few more years left in him. He will certainly not be forgotten.

[DanPesci]

THE reason I got so into 40k initially in the 90s. Nothing hit me so hard as the weird, dark, chaotic, dirty, sometimes comedic, often confusing but always world building art that John produced and that filled the early rulebooks and codex of my teen years. GRIM. DARK.

 

A very sad day indeed. Thoughts go out to his friends and family.

 

 

[Joe]

 

WarCom Article.

 

WarCom's post is up now.

[TheWarmaster]

2 hours ago, Robbienw said:

 

Brian Fawcett died last year as well, one of the key early Forgeworld designers.

That’s right, good shout. 
 

I wasn’t as familiar with him myself but it’s good that you pointed it out, thank you. 

[Robbienw]

For anyone who hasn't heard of him, he was the designer of the original Forgeworld Baneblade (Mars and Lucius patterns) and Shadowsword models.  His work on both also formed the base parts for the original FW Stormblade and Stormsword, with other designers doing the variant hull parts.

[Hungry Nostraman Lizard]

14 hours ago, Magos Takatus said:

I've been talking about this on Discord today, I can't believe I forgot to post here.

 

This is awful. I will crack open his Inquisitor sketchbook tomorrow and spend some time with that art. I spent a long time admiring the box art for the 40k 2nd edition box set that my brother bought for me long ago.  The box is long gone but that art is imprinted into the meat of my brain. From his epic, finely detailed battle scenes to his bizarre BDSM-inspired characters off the battlefield he inspired a lot of people. His technical execution was often imperfect, but it was hard to rival the mood his art created.

 

40k lore scroll be damned. You *will* be missed.

His weird BDSM/Gothic/Alternative style stuff worked so much. Probably influenced me to fall into the alternative life style myself, and I managed a goth store for a few years. The body horror and grotesque elements felt really cool, because it just permeated everything. Like I said before, Sir Blanche's artwork always fired my imagination. What kind of society exists that people can dress like that? IMPORTANT people, nonetheless. What's with the tubes? What do they DO? What does his little cog activate, if turned? What' that valve measuring exactly? 

Mind you, I don't want these questions answered; that's the fun of it. His art just made me ask them, though.

I've been flipping through my Visions book, I should take some pictures of my favorites that I can't find on google easily, share some here.
 

5 hours ago, TheWarmaster said:

Alan Bligh

Paul Sawyer

..and now John Blanche. 
 

Devastating. 

I was friends with John on Facebook and had a couple of good chats with him about the setting over the years. 

And Wayne England. I think he always crucial to the aesthetic of Warhammer that made so many of us love it. Mark Gibbons too, but he's alive as far as I know! *knock on wood*

 

33 minutes ago, Robbienw said:

For anyone who hasn't heard of him, he was the designer of the original Forgeworld Baneblade (Mars and Lucius patterns) and Shadowsword models.  His work on both also formed the base parts for the original FW Stormblade and Stormsword, with other designers doing the variant hull parts.

Did not know, thank you for educating me/us! He was also very talented. The baneblade is iconic. 

wayne-england-artwork-10.webp wayne-england-artwork-14.webp wayne-england-artwork-12.webp

[MoriyaSchism]

One John Blanche memory I have is seeing his converted Terminator Justicar painted red in the miniature showcase section of Codex Daemonhunters, it was so radically different from the rest of the things in the showcase. My favourite works of his are the single character pieces like all the examples of the typical Space Marine in Inquisitorial service, the designs of various "civil servants" in the Imperium or the Primarch designs. Really influential and groundbreaking work. I didn't get into Warhammer when his cover arts were on the fronts of starter boxes and books. When I started Karl Kopinski was doing most of the Codex covers. 

[Jukkiz]

1 hour ago, MoriyaSchism said:

One John Blanche memory I have is seeing his converted Terminator Justicar painted red in the miniature showcase section of Codex Daemonhunters, it was so radically different from the rest of the things in the showcase. My favourite works of his are the single character pieces like all the examples of the typical Space Marine in Inquisitorial service, the designs of various "civil servants" in the Imperium or the Primarch designs. Really influential and groundbreaking work. I didn't get into Warhammer when his cover arts were on the fronts of starter boxes and books. When I started Karl Kopinski was doing most of the Codex covers. 

This one? 

[Vassakov]

I just had a quick flick through "Dice Men" that's on my shelf and I'd completely forgotten that the very first Warhammer image - Harry the Hammer - was John Blanche. 

 

There at the beginning. Will almost certainly be there in spirit at the end.

 

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

RIP to a legend. His art was iconic. 

[roryokane]

Though I technically joined at the end of 2nd edition, I bought the 3rd Ed box set and rulebook, and John Blanche’s art wasn’t just on the cover - it was all over the book. He helped define the 40K GrimDark aesthetic, and thus, by extension, a huge part of my childhood. I’m surprised at how sad I feel about his passing, but there, I grew up seeing so much of his work that maybe that’s not surprising? I don’t know.

[Antarius]

4 hours ago, roryokane said:

Though I technically joined at the end of 2nd edition, I bought the 3rd Ed box set and rulebook, and John Blanche’s art wasn’t just on the cover - it was all over the book. He helped define the 40K GrimDark aesthetic, and thus, by extension, a huge part of my childhood. I’m surprised at how sad I feel about his passing, but there, I grew up seeing so much of his work that maybe that’s not surprising? I don’t know.

It is a strange sensation, when someone you din't know personally, but who has "always" been there and whose art has had a huge and formative influence in your life goes away.

I wouldn't say I'm sad exactly; he was an old man in poor health, so it probably was to be expected and not a tragedy in the true sense of the word. But I've felt strangely melancholic since I heard the news. It's the end of an era, even if it's an era that had, practically speaking, already ended.
A bit like when Ozzy died (Sabbath was and is a huge part of my musical journey). To me, the two were similar in their iconic style and presence. I will always be very grateful to both for their enormous influence on my life (even if my teachers and parents would probably call it a rather bad influence) and for expanding my horizons so wonderfully.

I am glad that they put up something on the warcom page. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but I had quietly marked that as a sort of "red line" for whether I would bother with GW in the future.

[roryokane]

7 hours ago, Antarius said:

It is a strange sensation, when someone you din't know personally, but who has "always" been there and whose art has had a huge and formative influence in your life goes away.

I wouldn't say I'm sad exactly; he was an old man in poor health, so it probably was to be expected and not a tragedy in the true sense of the word. But I've felt strangely melancholic since I heard the news. It's the end of an era, even if it's an era that had, practically speaking, already ended.
A bit like when Ozzy died (Sabbath was and is a huge part of my musical journey). To me, the two were similar in their iconic style and presence. I will always be very grateful to both for their enormous influence on my life (even if my teachers and parents would probably call it a rather bad influence) and for expanding my horizons so wonderfully.

I am glad that they put up something on the warcom page. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but I had quietly marked that as a sort of "red line" for whether I would bother with GW in the future.

I understand a *lot* of people had similar feelings when Sir Terry Pratchett died.

[Ripper.McGuirl]

8 hours ago, Antarius said:

I am glad that they put up something on the warcom page. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but I had quietly marked that as a sort of "red line" for whether I would bother with GW in the future.

I had the exact same feeling. I will say: basically everyone in this thread, and everyone everywhere else, including other artists, musicians/bands, and even other game companies have had more heartfelt words for his passing than Games Workshop’s post. I can’t help but feel it was a perfunctory corporate box-ticking and not them letting any actual humanity show through their feed.

[ZeroWolf]

24 minutes ago, Ripper.McGuirl said:

I had the exact same feeling. I will say: basically everyone in this thread, and everyone everywhere else, including other artists, musicians/bands, and even other game companies have had more heartfelt words for his passing than Games Workshop’s post. I can’t help but feel it was a perfunctory corporate box-ticking and not them letting any actual humanity show through their feed.

To be fair, the article was about what I was expecting and I thought it was fine, even if a lot of us beat them to the punch with the juxtaposition of the opening blurb' s last immortal words.

[Antarius]

I think it's a matter of perspective, more than anything else. A personal elegy is naturally more, well, personal than when someone is speaking on behalf of a group of people and a company at the same time. But I think there were some nice touches in there all the same, "he will be missed", for example has a nice ring to it in context.

 

If anything is corporate about it, I think it is that they do not call him out as the one person who has had the most influence on the look of Warhammer art, but they could hardly do that, I suppose. If they had posted nothing at all, it would have been shameful and I was honestly half expecting them not to, but I am quite happy to be wrong about that.

Edited 6 hours ago by Antarius

[de Selby]

Lots of people now at GW actually knew John Blanche personally, unlike me. I don't think it's the place of the corporation to speak for them personally. Just officially acknowledge the importance of his art, and his sad passing.

[Ripper.McGuirl]

I think that’s kind of my point: they don’t even say what he did at GW, how long he was there, or anything. A couple of his contributions being called out would have been in order for someone as long serving and instrumental as him.

 

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

We really turning this into another gw corpo evil thing?

Edited 2 hours ago by Mechanicus Tech-Support

[ZeroWolf]

11 minutes ago, Mechanicus Tech-Support said:

We really turning this into another gw corpo evil thing

Agreed, let's remember John and his legacy rather than allowing ourselves to be sidelined.

 

Was looking over some of his work today and I'm highly tempted to pick up his biography from Wombat Games, has anyone else looked at that.

 

This is still one of my favourites amongst many from his earlier 40k work

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

I had no idea about the biohraphy from wombat games, gonna have to give it a peak.

 

Had to take a look at warhammer art when I heard the news and the above is sold out atm sadly. But that piece blew my mind as a youngin

Edited 1 hour ago by Mechanicus Tech-Support