The Best, The most Underrated and Iconic Art of John Blanche

[Zarrgon42]

Sadly John Blanche has passed away, the man who gave chaos form and the imperium made a great many works in his lifetime, I figured now would be a good time to look back on them and a new thread seperate from the main one would be best for it.

I don't know if we can post the art directly on the thread so either post the name of the piece or if you don't know the name post what book or where to find it. What in your mind is his best, most under rated or iconic work?

personally I say his best is Knights Panthar

his most under rated being his moria goblin art for Lord of The Rings Stratagy Battle Game

his most Iconic would be either the Emperor on the throne or the "harry the hammer" (the cover to fantasy first edition)

 

[willlucv]

That is very sad news, he was simply one of the key people in the development of British fantasy artwork and game concepts and obviously hugely influential. I really love the work he did on Steve Jackson's Sorcery series forming part of the Fighting Fantasy line. Khare, Cityport of Traps is my go to mental image of a fantasy city.

 

[Eric]

I don't know if we can post the art directly on the thread

I don't see a problem, as ever context is everything and we're discussing them in context. So granted if you happen to own the original Knights Panther and post a 600dpi scan, well maybe let's avoid that, but a normal web resolution image we can enjoy (of which there are millions and millions of copies all over the Internet) shouldn't bring down the GW lawyers I'd think!

The city-scape above is one of my favourites, I use it as my phone wallpaper so see it every day!

 

[orkwrangler]

I suspect the 40K 2nd edition cover was his most "commercial" painting with that Space Marine captain front & centre. Still, there is so much going on in the margins. Look at the ruined statues, for example.

 

[Fighelm]

His other stuff still inspires. Spending an age drinking his artwork in this evening... For instance=a 3 headed minotaur + mona lisa banner, art for the Khazad Dûm AD&D scenario in WD38, Fellowship ad & Amazons.

 

[Knight Girl]

This is a favorite of mine. I also agree about the Grandmaster of the Knights Panther, after Gericault.

 

[Brother Meredith]

I have a mildly obsessive 1k plus Pinterest board of his artwork…

https://pin.it/5owlqFTlR

 

[orkwrangler]

This is a favorite of mine.

The Codex Sisters of Battle cover art is the best 40K codex cover ever, at least in my opinion.

 

[Knight Girl]

Blanche's Knight Panther: he talked about how he based it on Gericault's "Charging Chausseur"

 

[orkwrangler]

There are so many iconic Blanche works it's hard to know where to draw the line.

Attached to this post are two miniature conversion guides that were published in Codex Chaos and Codex Sisters of Battle respectively.

 

[Knight Girl]

There are so many iconic Blanche works it's hard to know where to draw the line.

Attached to this post are two miniature conversion guides that were published in Codex Chaos and Codex Sisters of Battle respectively.

LOVE these! And they are still useful for tips and inspiration to this day.

 

[Fimm McCool]

They appeared in White Dwarf as well.

 

[Fighelm]

And a bewildering array of White Dwarf covers as well... ♥️

 

[Brother Meredith]

They appeared in White Dwarf as well.

Beat me to that one! 😉

I have his other contribution to FF, the 2 player Clash of Princes in the post due tomorrow and some custom frames for prints from (now defunct?) John Blanche Prints site also on their way, will get some pics taken when they arrive!

 

[Eric]

from (now defunct?) John Blanche Prints site

The printing company was bought so the "side business" alas went when that happened.

 

[Brother Meredith]

Hope you all have copies of his Voodoo Forest art books from Hollow Press? https://hollow-press.net/products/voodoo-forest

 

[Fighelm]

Reading the Grognadia blog last night. It mentions that at the outset of his illustrious (& prolific!) career, John did the cover art for GW's UK Holmes edition of D&D in 1977 (see pics). He also did art for the 1979 release of 'Heroes of the Dark Ages' rpg (can't find any pics though).

 

[Fighelm]

Hope you all have copies of his Voodoo Forest art books from Hollow Press? https://hollow-press.net/products/voodoo-forest?_pos=4&_psq=voo&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Sold out!

 

[Eric]

Hope you all have copies of his Voodoo Forest art books from Hollow Press? https://hollow-press.net/products/voodoo-forest

I've got a copy of that one and am hoping I'll be able to catch the reprint of https://hollow-press.net/products/scions-of-voodoo (the colour illustrations) this summer, but I expect it'll sell quickly.

 

[Old Hob]

I love this one.