54John Blanche

Born: 1948 (age 74 years), England, United Kingdom

During the 1960s Blanche was exposed to art and art movements, eventually attending art
college, where he entered a course on the strength of his drawings and paintings of battle
scenes and prehistoric conflicts,[2] and where he recounts that he was told he "had a romantic
spirit, but it would never earn me a living, so there was no point in doing it".
The people there seemed unaware of art in all its heroic glory. . . people stood back and
expected me to metamorphose into an existentialist of sorts. Well, I couldn't even spell that, so I
drifted into graphics and became exposed to illustration, hippydom, and The Lord of the Rings.
Even then, I was told never to invent for the sake of it and that I would never get a job painting
pictures of angels, dragons, goblins and trolls

Born John Blanche

Nationality British

Known for Illustration, modeling, miniature painting

Movement Fantasy, science fiction

Awards Master Painter, Games Day 1987

In 1977 Blanche became associated with Games Workshop, supplying the cover art for issue 4
of their gaming publication White Dwarf[5] and producing the cover art for the first British edition
of Dungeons & Dragons, for which the company possessed the UK licence, [6] and in 1978 the
magazine's first full-colour cover with issue 7.[7] After 1979 he continued to produce work for the
company, including further illustrations for the magazine and the box art for the first edition of
Games Workshop's own Warhammer Fantasy Battle game in 1983.

After the company's move to Nottingham in 1986, Blanche was eventually made art director of
Games Workshop through his acquaintance with new manager Bryan Ansell, directing the in-
house art department, commissioning work from outside illustrators, and producing designs
for Citadel Miniatures and artwork, and where he currently remains.

Blanche's early work tended to be executed using technical drawing pens combined with washes
of water-colour, a technique that remained until the early 1980s, after which he began to utilise
inks and acrylics instead, using what he describes as a 'fully-modeled painting technique'
designed to mimic the oil painting methods of classical and romantic art. He has also, albeit very
rarely, utilised oils. This glaze-based technique allows for undertones to shine through the
overlaid colours giving the finished image an inner light effect, although this is predominantly lost
in the reproduction process.[2] Most of Blanche's paintings, with a few exceptions, are smaller
than A4 in size. In executing work, he uses a variety of visual references ranging from friends
posing for paintings, books, and collections of images from printed colour supplements. Each
element of an image is constructed separately in a sketch pad, and planned on lay-out pads
before being transferred to art board. This is then shaded in with a pencil and coloured using a
limited selection of inks. Highlights and texture are added with white acrylic, and coloured
washes and glazes are overlaid on top of this. Airbrushes are also used to fill in large areas like
skies and to provide a smooth background for the image, and occasionally to add mists or
atmosphere. Random elements are sometimes incorporated, the result of freely applied strokes,
dripped pigment, and the use of the airbrush

John's often tiny paintings are immaculate, painstakingly accurate, jewel-like in the intensity of
repeatedly glazed colours. To be fully appreciated they must be seen as original for it is their
small size that somehow emphasizes their uniqueness. [...] John's fondness for Latin slogans
may seem out of place, and yet a glimpse of the originals makes one realise that such miniature
work is not even one step removed from the work of the medieval illuminator. What throws us is
the gods are different, or at least the devils are. This is very modern stuff. Different. Hard to
assess
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Johns art inspires me for its grim style it, makes my brain go
to a place where I can see a world of dark grit where none
survive where every human life is expandable, only few can
even die of old age.