Tuesday, January 03, 2012

The Book

Recently I've spent handful of hours with my nose inside Emperor's Will, an awe-inspiring compilation book of Warhammer 40.000 artwork. This book is one that every enthusiastic 40k hobbyist should check out if they wish to dwell deeper in to the dark universe. The book is full of amazing, mind-opening images of paintings and illustrations made by Games Workshop's art department.

I'm not going to write another review of this tome, but if you're interested of one, I'd then recommend checking out Tears of Envy's blog.

The reason for me mentioning this book is that it has been inspiring me a lot lately, especially in my latest hobby related activity. The book also works as a proxy, reminding me of that moment I experienced the enlightenment and started re-organizing my thoughts regarding my creative side.

Speaking of creativity, here's the latest of my drawings, another member of the Imperial Inquisition...

Water colours, W&N inks, white acrylic paint and black ink pencil

Rifleman, veteran, devotee, religious fanatic, scum. These strong words shall tell his story for now. There's more to follow, I just need to finish Captain Gaga first, the one that has been lying in my drawer for too long...

O'yeah, I happened to visit my town's framing shop couple of weeks ago and for my delight they had a nice collection of painting stuff there too, one of them being nice collection of Winsor & Newton's inks. Of course I had to grab couple of them pots to take home with me so that I could finally try 'em out. I must say, they worked out pretty well, definitely something I'll try out in some of my next miniature projects...

7 comments:

  1. there isa wider creative component to the art indented illumination in that tome that goes beyond the art dept - BL, FF, and a few bits done bi other freelancers - however all lead bi a strong GW collective vision and that resides far across departmental borders and time .....

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  2. Thank you for the clarification J.B.! I would have liked to see more of your work in it though...

    It's a bit of a shame that there aren't any artist names mentioned in the book. I kind of liked the way every piece was "tagged" in the old days by the authors initials or some other symbol so you could easily see whose work was which.

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  3. Captain Gaga? I'm surely looking forward to see that finished. Waited it for a while!

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  4. Sorry Remos for keeping you waiting... and thank you for being patient! Trust me, she's going to be a wild one when she is ready ;)

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  5. its a book about the characters that surround the imperial cannon not an a book about art although there are collective credits at the back - i have a particular dislike of signiatures on illustrations - is all about images not personalities - then what about the involvement of other staff and the people who brief the art and have spent decades developing themes and ideas - some art can be full of amazing ideas and themes but most is part of team thinking and becomes an exercise in rendered techniques as well as giving a visual voice to such thoughts - this is commercial illustration - dont get me wrong tho i employ very talented guys who are cult personalities and have followings who follow their work sometimes forensically - but this time its all about the subject matter ....

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  6. I totally agree with you J.B. It's the sum of creative minds that stand behind those illustrations. Maybe that is one of the many things that make them so great. In a huge creative organization like GW with such a rich IP it's quite self-evident that there are lot of different factors behind each piece of art, not to mention all the rules that you have to stick to.

    For us common hobbyists it can sometimes be hard to understand what stands behind these wonderful images. Most hobbyists just throw themselves into what they do, enjoying what they do and not worrying too much what they might be missing. It's freedom, but usually lacks the order. By order I mean borders and certain factors that make the outcome more credible, more "warhammery".

    Warhammer, as universe, both fb and 40k, is quite flexible what comes to being the border, but along with the custom factors it comes to life. Such factors can be fluff, facts of the universe, the big picture or just small details such as very likely functionally working pneumatic limbs, realistical looking armament, clan leaders face paint etc.

    On corporate level you have many minds thinking these factors that are constantly mutating the universe and the art that forms from it. It's original and becomes de facto. On the other hand we have hobby level, where we try to figure the most parts on our own heads, leeching inspiration from sources such as The Emperor's Will, making the result more personal.

    It was Mikko who once said: "of course it has many similarities with Blanche's work - it's Warhammer 40k universe, after all..." when someone told that my drawing was very blanchian...

    What I ment with the signs in illustrations is that It's just that I'd like it to be easier to link who has made which visionary version of the Warhammer IP. Maybe this has something to do with my bad memory when it comes to  remembering names...

    p.s. It's all the subjectivities that make our lives rich.

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  7. yeah i understand - indeed i worried about it when i was putting it together but in the end a purity of view won out ....

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