Fantasy Visuals: John Blanche - Part I (the '70s and '80s)

Mona and the Moonman, 1980s

John Blanche is undeniably one of the most influential artist of Warhammer. No other artist had a comparable impact on the visual language of every Warhammer setting, from Fantasy to 40K to Mordheim to Age of Sigmar.

There isn't a lot of information on John Blanche's biography on the internet: he doesn't keep, like many artists do, a personal blog, or even a shop where third parties sell his current works. The following is all I could collect from a handful of interviews on magazines and prefaces on books - feel free to correct or update information if you know more.
 
Blanche was born somewhere in England on 26th October, 1948 from a a working class family. While displaying an early interest for artistic things, he grew up in an environment that was not supportive, and had only his spare time to dedicate to art, often doodling on scrap pieces of paper whenever he could. Eventually he managed to attend an Art College and it was only during these years, in the '60s, that he was exposed to fine arts and a positive attitude towards pure imagination, embracing the new culture of the time. Yet he recalls his teachers ranged between the two opposites of a stubbornly practical attitude, more focused on business opportunities than art for art's sake, and intellectuals, more interested in the ideas behind paintings than the paintings themselves.

During this time Blanche discovered the Lord of the Rings and the Fantasy genre, and quickly decided that, as a grown up, he would rather draw monsters and mythological creatures rather than do advertisements for commercial products or be, as he called it in an interview, an "existentialist".

The first job he landed after college was hardly exciting, and yet at the same time perfectly fitting to the character, as Blanche was hired as an assistant to a taxidermist working in a Georgian manor house. Not long afterwards, feeling more confident in his skills, Blanche moved to London and here he got in touch with Roger Dean, already an established artist, who helped him with counsels and contacts.

In1977 Blanche started working as a freelance with Asgard miniatures, founded by Bryan Ansell, as an illustrator and miniature painter. He also designed a miniature, the Trunkhand Tuskoid, still sold today by Viking Forge.

Trunkhand Tuskoid, Asgard miniatures

In 1978 Bryan Ansell, who had moved to Games Workshop, hired Blanche as one of the freelance artists in the team: John started pianting several covers for D&D products and White Dwarf issues, for which he painted the very first colour cover in the Summer of 1978.

In that same period Blanche received a commission for five illustrations for David Day's "A Tolkien Bestiary", published in 1978.

In 1979 Blanche single-handedly illustrated "The Prince and the Woodcutter" by Henry Wolffe, with a series of beautiful tables.

In 1986 Games Workshop's HQ relocated from London to Nottingham. Blanche moved to the East Midlands, received the new position of Art Director and started working on what would become Warhammer 40K, first published as Rogue Trader in 1987. From this point he became less and less involved with Warhammer Fantasy, for which he still created some colour illustrations that, even if not really connected to the game, managed to become iconic and shaped the image of the setting.

Voodoo Forest / Pirates (1986)

"Terror of the Lichemaster", 1986

The Enemy Within (1986)

Knight Panther (1986)

Hrotyogg's Tower (1986)

Skeleton Horde (1986)

Khare (1980s)

Swamp Dragon (1980s)

Ignorant Armies (1989)

After 1986, Blanche dedicated most of his energies to the new futuristic setting of WH40K, defining its visual language and themes. At that same time, White Dwarf started the popular column Blanchitsu, where Blanche would give tips and advice on painting and converting miniatures.

The Emperor on the Golden Throne (1987)

"Adeptus Titanicus"

Coke Runner (1980s)

Genestealers (1980s)

These years are full of notable pieces of art from Blanche, both paintings and miniatures: one of the most famous is the Three-headed Minotaur with the Mona Lisa banner, which he entered in the competition at Games Day 1987 and won him the top prize. This is one of the few pieces that changed the way people looked at and painted miniatures.

Possibly from the late '80s is also the Undead Horde diorama, still on display at Warhammer World, a true masterpiece.

Image from Eldritch Epistles blog

In 1989 Blanche published a book collection his previous works for Games Workshop, together with fellow artist Ian Miller, under the title Ratspike. Now again this was a milestone in British Fantasy art.

John Blanche's style was absolutely unique: he drew inspiration from a myriads of sources but then combined them in something utterly new. Among his artistic influences he counted Rembrandt, Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymous Bosch, Leonardo da Vinci, pre-Raphaelite Edward Burn Jones, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, the Robinsons, K. Friedrich, Géricault, Gèrome, Jim Burns and Patrick Woodroffe. And these are probably only some of a longer list. 

Blanche's style has sometimes been defined "Gothic Punk", as it combines elements of romantic gothic horror with punk aesthetics from his time. "To me fantasy is much darker than American High Fantasy, certainly more violent, and more oppressive. But it's also very real," he said. "I didn't see fantasy being occupied by shiny characters, it was all very Dickensian. Fantasy denizens to me all look like Fagin. Everybody has an eye-patch and a wooden leg, dirty fingernails, and worn clothes. And thereby lies the strength of it. It is evocative, there is so much background there, the universes are so strong."

His early work relied heavily on technical drawing pens combined with washes of watercolour. Later in the '80s he switched to inks and acrylics, and although he tried to imitate traditional oil paintings, he rarely used oil colours at all. 

When painting something, he would often put together a set of visual references collected independently, by sketching them first and then transferring them on art board. After building shades with pencils or pens, he would then switch to a limited selection of inks and acrylics, often yellow, red and white (he would very rarely used blue). Following this, he would spend considerable time building glaze effects - these give a special light to his work, but are sadly lost for the most part when such works are printed. As a last touch he would occasionally add elements with an airbrush, especially as mist and haze in the background. Lastly, he would add random elements with quick, freely applied strokes of brush, airbrush or by just dripping pigments on the board.

Blanche has sometimes compared himself to medieval illuminators, the painters of miniatures, and indeed he is famous because his average work is very small - smaller than A4 in size. 

Continues on Part II.