Adrian Smith is an illustrator who´s been working for Games Workshop off and on the last 25 years.
For me He will always be the man who, better than anyone else, defined what chaos should look like. His disturbing, finely rendered pencil drawings actually scared me when I first saw them (I was 12 or 13) and they haven´t lost their power in all these years.
Unfortunately he changed his style quite radically in the mid 90´s - and while I do like some of this new stuff, it´s not nearly as evokative as his early work.
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All images are © copyright Games Workshop
Looking over these pics, I'm once again astounded by how much depth Adrian Smith packs into each black and white piece. There's just so much curvaceous tone going on in there, if you squint just a wee little bit, the pics look like 3d dioramas.
ReplyDeleteAnd he really GETS each race so well. Chaos is repulsively disturbing, but somehow seductive as well. Orks are brutal, but still endearing. Tyrannids are intensely alien, and make my skin shiver. And Eldar are graceful and yet deadly.
Love it! Between John Blanche, Jes Goodwin, and Adrien Smith, GW's had some really great artists, each with their own distinct style. It's amazing how they all manage to fit within the same universe, eh?
Who's next? Mark Gibbons? Paul Bonner? Ian Miller? The Kopinski's? So many talented artists, each adding their imprint to the vast GW universes... I don't want to sound like a fanboy, but it's great to be reminded sometimes of how much fun GW art is.
Hard to avoid being a fanboy with illustrators like these... Next up is Paul Bonner!
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