David's Art and Photos

A place to view my art. My art is Warhammer 40K and Age of Sigmar minatures.

[strumwulf]

Finished up some more models

[titanomancy]

In Memoriam John Blanche October 1948 - June 2026

We're going to be doing this more often, you know.

John Blanche died this week, as reported by fellow former Games Workshop alum Trish Carden, passing away at the age of 78. Intensely private in his personal life - his birthday is observed in "late October" - details of his passing are understandably scarce. Although he retired a few years ago owing to poor health, I hope that his ultimate end was a peaceful one untroubled by sickness or infirmity.

I had the unique pleasure of meeting Blanche in a professional capacity, once, and he was precisely the sort of gregarious weirdo that one might assume from his work. Though our acquaintance was brief, it was one of the highlights of my association with Games Workshop.

In many ways, Blanche is synonymous with Warhammer - throughout much of Games Workshop's golden age in the 1990s, it was Blanche's art which formed people's first impressions of the setting and served as the initial hook to draw them into the grim darkness of the far future. It's certainly what hooked me.

His influence on the 40k aesthetic cannot be understated and is still felt, today, in ways both subtle and gross. In celebration of Blanche's life, take a moment to appreciate some of my favorite pieces of his.

Rest in peace.

[freyapoststhings]

can y'all imagine the fire nation soldiers' reactions if toph was sent to one of those "fully metal and inescapable" prisons in the middle of the ocean like katara and haru were on in s1e6.

Like, imagine they're like "hahaha you can't escape! There is no earth here for you to bend!" And this little 12yo blind girl starts laughing her ass off in their faces and then she just makes a fucking hole in the ground and falls through it.

The guards spend the next few hours freaking the fuck out because theres a little girl somewhere in their walls and her haunting cackles are everywhere

[oneheadtoanother]

idk anything about this but I love it

[jabberding0]

Claymation

[nowherelittlegirl]

My girls~🧎🏽‍♀️‍➡️✨

instagram

[gigan2323]

Today the Miniature / Wargaming community learned of John Blanche's passing. Its hard to even imagine how much he has influenced the aesthetics and artistic direction of Warhammer 40k, many of the foundational pieces of 40k art are John's work drenched in his Blanchitsu style. Grimdark as aesthetic was pioneered by him and his grimy, chaotic, brutal illustrations.

His influence will be felt for decades to come in millions of illustrations or miniature sculpted and painted, forever etched into the DNA of the grim darkness of the far future. Thank you John Blanche. It is always sad to see someone so foundational leave us but I guarantee this legend will be remembered for many many years.

[slithergaunt]

This is painful. John Blanche has passed on.

Games Workshop and Warhammer would be nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, without him.

He was the beating heart of GW's worlds, made theses little toy games feel like they had a whole universe behind them.

His body of work is STAGGERING, and the amount detail he packed into each piece truly dwarfed the game itself.

One of the Lords.

Farewell.

👑

[yodawgiheardyoulikemecha]

Adeptus Titanicus

John Blanche

[omercifulheaves]

Art by John Blanche R.I.P.

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[hypokeimena]

#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)

[brushmans-guild]

Eldar Harlequins, Warhammer 40k Citadel Miniatures March 2026

[vividciggy]

She's just so pickupable

Bonus nona spoiler sketch

[thebestthingaboutheroquest]

REST IN PEACE John Blanche. Warhammer and its fans owe a debt to his art.

[malinaa]

what if we all explode

[derring-do]

This very production of Orpheus & Eurydice is now available to stream, free, for the month of June.

[strumwulf]

Acquired some shipgirls mostly through the recent events. Also Oathed Taiho, and finished construction on Daisen

[artistapreguissosa]

"Sneaky midnight reel that nobody will see, just so instagram doesn't Exterminatus on me, but makes me happy because it contains some pretty #toxic men I have been drawing.

Gotta archive them somehow.

Best Higuruma Edit btw, Damn, seamless, damn, all credit goes to You buddy.✊🏾" — Might put It here Just aswell