Miniature Painting Styles: Blanchitsu

We have been talking about Fantasy Art in the column "Fantasy Visuals", but there is a specific kind of art that is both dear to us miniature lovers and at the same time massively underrated: miniature art, the thing we do in our spare time.

Sure, a miniature is not a painting, and it will hardly ever be considered "fine art", but still there is a degree of art in it. There are certainly outstanding examples of miniature painting, and we are going to look at them with a critical approach, to try and understand them and, maybe, draw inspiration for our little lead soldiers.

The first style that I'd like to look at is Blanchitsu, that is the style of John Blanche, Art Director of Games Workshop during most of the '80s and part of the '90s. The word Blanchitsu come originally from a column in White Dwarf magazines, where Blanche was showing his painted figures and giving tips, interesting stuff closer to actual painting than anything you'd read today in White Dwarf, things like mixing black and red, or highlighting brown with blue to give it a cold feel. It was always an interesting read.

Eventually, the term Blanchitsu came to be applied to miniatures painted in the style of John Blanche, especially in the style post-'90s that was significantly darker than the original '80s feel, still much closer to Heavy Metal style.

So how do you paint Blanchitsu? Well, there isn't a strict recipe, but here are the main elements that define the style:

1) Use weird miniatures, or at least convert them to have grotesque elements. Artificial eyes and limbs, animal heads, organic or mechanical tentacles, hunchbacks, oversized or undersized body parts, wrinkled skin, shabby robes are only some of the things you may do.

2) If you will, add plenty of skulls and scrolls, especially where they don't make any sense. They're very Blanchitsu. 

3) Use a limited colour palette: generally avoid blue and all cold colours. Go heavy with browns and warm earthy colours; true black and true white are off limits: instead use dark grey and off-white; yellowish-green, brown-yellow, reddish-orange are always good. Brighten up with red and yellow elements, like symbols painted on robes or standards.

4) Only work fine detail on free-hand elements. Paint the rest in a messy style - it will increase the grotesque feeling. 

4) Use plenty of dry-brush, or washes and inks to build structure and lights. Since the palette is limited, you will need a strong light/dark contrast to bring your piece to life.

I was lucky enough to find an original piece by Blanche on eBay, an Orc Biker. Apparently it belonged to a set shown at Warhammer World that was dismissed and sold to friends of the staff or something. It was then resold in pieces on the internet.

It's quite interesting to look at the original and all its details.  It's obviously speed-painted, but the details are really rough from a close look, especially the black and white chequers. Most of the surfaces are either quickly dry-brushed or heavily washed with Seraphim Sepia, Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. And yet, when you look at the whole, everything comes together and it is a perfect piece.

Blanchitsu is a great style for both beginners and veterans. It's simple enough to be used by anyone, but it leave room for improvement and you can tell a good Blanchitsu from a bad one, just like Impressionist paintings. It's especially effective when applied to monsters, less so if you want to paint an epic hero or a positive character: in the grim darkness of Blanchitsu Warhammer, there are no good heroes or emissaries of light, only desperation and the laughter of thirsting gods.