Horus Heresy: Tales of Heresy

Time flies when you're having fun, eh! These Horus Heresy posts are fast catching me up, I think this is from one of the latest books to be printed. It means I'll have to start rationing the relevant posts until further books are out. Hopefully I'll be able to add a few more 'How-to' bits to the posts, 'cos it seems people like that sort of thing.

There will still be plenty to read about though, as I can finally start showing exciting and cool work from some of my other clients.

With this piece, the 'Tales of Heresy', I really wanted to capture the raw anger and power in the Primarch Angron as he leads his World Eaters into battle. I like the fact he's standing on the Imperial Aquila (the double-headed eagle), one of the first tangible references to the Warhammer 40,000 future to come.

This Angron was based on the sketches in the Horus Heresy Collected Visions books by John Blanche.

Artwork (c) Games Workshop 2009. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission

I was trying to be a bit more daring with my colour use in this piece, with the greens and reds (I'd been watching a few too many Hammer Horror films at around that time), I thought it'd give the image some Chaotic 'kick'. Plus, I was overlaying many layers of paint scribbles and imperfections to give it a ruddy, grimy, weathered feel.

Trivia: The rubble and debris are photo-referenced from the old RAF airbase near Manby in Lincolnshire.

Adventures in Life Drawing: 001

Aah, no sooner have we moved into our new house than I have found a life drawing class to disappear to every Monday night! It's run by some old school friends of ours here in Louth, right in the shadow of St James' Church - it's a regular rural idyll here, I tells ya!

St James Church - Photo by Derek Roberts
(no relation)

Anyway, they're a really nice bunch of people of all levels and it's a fairly informal excuse to break out my art tools once in a while - there's no using the Cintiq there, *gulps*

I started this week with a few warm-up sketches using tools I'm familiar with, Blue/ Red pencils, Brush pen, WhiteOut pen and some Letraset ProMarkers:

(Above)
Blue pencils to define the overall form, Red Pencils to tighten the anatomy,
Black brush pen to define the shapes and Black KarismaColor pencils and WhiteOut Pens to add shading.

(Above)
Letraset ProMarker pens to block the shapes and shadows, Faber Castell Pitt and Pentel Fountain Pens to add the line details.
Again, WhiteOut pens substitute for the lack of an undo button!

Then I broke out my secret weapon - something I've been threatening myself with all these years... Charcoal!

(Above)
Charcoal: For The Win!

Using a totally different medium from my normal set was verrrry exciting, the potential use of 'sfumato', 'chiaruscuro' and 'tenebrism' (artsy- fartsy terms, I know - but they do apply here) to the sheer muckiness of it all - I loved getting my hands dirty! It felt like sculpting the picture as opposed to just delineating it. I know it doesn't look like much now, but hopefully this will inform my work and start pushing my artistic side upwards and onwards.

Anyway, I'm stiill buzzing from the thought of doing more charcoal drawing - I'll go and calm down and get on with some work, maybe a Johnny Alpha or two...?

The Times They Are a-Changin' / Luke Skywalker

Well, I've been offline a few days whilst my family and I make the move from busy Nottingham to rural Lincolnshire. This should mean more help in looking after our two children, as both sets of Grandparents live up the road from our new Georgian townhouse (complete with its own study, from which I'm writing this blog - cool, huh!).

So, ideally, I should be able to spend more time working, woohoo!

Anyways, I digress - enough of my yakking and more pics:


"Luke Skywalker" was a portfolio piece to try my hand at likenesses. As an image I wanted to have a brooding Luke poised between the Light and Dark side, at the moment of choosing from the two paths. The intense contrast in lighting is quite illustrative and probably something I'd like to develop further.

"Luke Skywalker" Detail

He was fun to work on as, at the time, I was working at Free Radical Design on the Star Wars Battlefront 3 FPS project before it was moved over to another developer. He was made with 3DSMax, Maya, ZBrush and Photoshop. The bulk of the image was painted as I find it's easier to really get some character into an image if it's been hand finished.

Also, notice how I tend to add a low opacity CMYK noise 'grain' to the image to knock back the cleanliness of the finished render.

Trivia: The reference photos of me holding two wrapping paper rolls does not look anywhere as moody as the final piece ;)

Sneak Peak: Classic BattleTech

Here's a sneak peek from a series of internal illustrations for Catalyst Game Labs' "Classic BattleTech" RPG books.

It was a quick job and I re-used a technique from an old colleague of mine, Nick Carver, whereby you paint the tonal values in black and white first, then lay down the colouring at the end. This was a more painterly job as time was so short and I'm pleased with the results.

Anyways, here's the image:

Ooh, intense!

Also, I attended Bristol Comic Con this weekend and had a great time meeting folks who love comics and those who love making comics. I had a few meetings that might, again, provide some interesting and exciting news in the near future - so, WATCH THIS SPACE!

Breaking News!

Update time!

As if one post per month wasn't enough - now you get two in one day!

The newly announced cover for Horus Heresy: A Thousand Sons is up at the Black Library. Here it is for those who want to have a look right now:


I think this one turned out really well - especially when Darius Hinks' superb design work is added to the mix. Well done us!

And in other news, I'm in the process of setting up some verrrry exciting work with a world renowned publishing/ media house - I can't wait to go public with the news, it's going to make my year!

Right, deep breaths, got to calm down...

Horus Heresy: Mechanicum

Back to the semi-regular posts about my work on the on-going (and best-selling!) Horus Heresy series. This time round - 'Mechanicum'

Like Legion there was one main character to focus on in this image, this time an Adeptus. The detailing on his mandible and chest box were great fun to work on, even if it isn't always immediately obvious. I find that the interplay of light, reflection and shadows at least hints at the intricate detail I like to add to the characters.

The Martian setting was great fun to do, with the Forge, the crazy mechanical creatures and robots all adding to the carnage.

Artwork (c) Games Workshop 2009. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission

Trivia: The background robots and vehicles are all old Citadel miniatures, Crusader class robots and Imperial Moles - for those interested.

Black Library Live! 2009

Hello,

This is just a quick post about the Black Library Live! 2009 event which happened last week - and what an event it was.

The ever long queues, if only they were all here to see me!
Image courtesy Black Library Facebook site

Smaller in scale than the annual Games Workshop Games Day but the fans were certainly no less passionate. It's always great to meet the readers of the books, find out there favourite covers, listen to their theories about the imagery and generally just have a chat with the people that make it all worthwhile!

(L-R) Me, Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill setting up.
I feel like Brian May to their Freddie Mercury!
image courtesy Black Library Facebook site

In addition to the fantastic hospitality of the Black Library, it's always great to meet the other authors and artists - Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, Jon Sullivan, James Swallow et al.

All in all a great day - I look forward to many more!