The Signature of Civilisations

"Art is the signature of civilisations" - Beverly Sills

Words are really my business but great Black Library artists like Jon Sullivan, Stefan Kopinski and Neil Roberts are magnificent ambassadors for Warhammer and Warhammer 40k writers. There's a great deal of creative work on the internet relating to the Warhammer universes, and although not legitimate in the same way as a Games Workshop commissioned piece of art for a novel front cover or a codex, these pieces of art a wonderful in both their skill and variety. I'm not above admitting that I often use them here on the blog to illustrate the content of my posts. I've decided that it's not really fair to do this without appropriate recognition. I've therefore dedicated the bottom section of the blog to the original pieces of art that I use as a mini showcase, with the artist's name when I can track it down. If you would like to see more of their work then a swift internet search on Google or the excellent Deviantart site should do the trick.

On a similar theme I was sorry to see that Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie died earlier this month. I loved his concept pieces for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and remember seeing them first as a child. The pictures speak for themselves. R.I.P. Ralph McQuarrie.

























As a bonus, here is another atmospheric Ralph McQuarrie piece, but it is not concept art for the Star Wars films identified above. Extra brownie points for those who know where it is actually from. Something else from my youth.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No idea, it looks like Star Wars to me!

ROB SANDERS said...

It is Star Wars - but where is it from? Clue: it doesn't depict a scene from the films. It was something else McQuarrie was commissioned to do.

aaronspuler said...

Splinter of the Mind's Eye

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter_of_the_Mind%27s_Eye

ROB SANDERS said...

The force is strong with this one...