Warhammer 40K artist John Blanche retires from Games Workshop

John Blanche has left Games Workshop, after 46 years. He was the artist responsible for the creation of the Warhammer 40K and Warhammer 40K visual languages. John Blanche’s work in the Warhammer and 40K franchises is iconic, with vivid depictions, strong brush strokes, and sharp contrast in values. Blanche has retired from Games Workshop. This is the company that produces the tabletop gaming lines.

Blanche’s work was used in White Dwarf magazine and on many of the covers of early edition Warhammer products. The way he depicted these fantasy realms was stark, exaggerated and sometimes even ugly. As a result, these images are unforgettable — I still remember being a teenager and seeing Blanche’s take on a Sister of Battle and the corpse Emperor of Mankind.

Grid View

Blanche has also painted miniatures and converted them, which inspired the Blanchitsu school. Blanche has been a guest on the Warhammer official podcasts and talked about how he makes his artworks to help inspire artists who create the Wargame models. It’s a fascinating look at both his process and the creation of Warhammer figures.

Gothicpunk, a blog hosted on Tumblr, has gone through great lengths to document and archive Blanche’s works. Subreddits such as ImaginaryWarhammer also regularly host and discuss pieces of Blanche’s art, some of which have continued to fascinate fans for decades. His style will go forward on the tabletop as well, whether it be in the grim depths of Necromunda’s hive worlds or on the zany fields of battle in Turnip28.

News of the announcement was made on May 31 by colleague Tuomas Pirinen on Twitter.Blanche has a blog. According to Pirinen, “we will see more of John’s genre-defining art as he can work projects of his own.”