# The Holy Trinity of early Wh40k: Wil Rees, John Blanche and Ian Miller



## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

Three illustrators sharing strong Renaissance roots.

Wil Rees. I admire him the most:
Fuck Yeah... British Old School Gaming

Exclusive: Wil Rees talks Warhammer, inspirations and working for Hollywood - | movies, TV, videogames, crowd-funding - Shadowlocked: find the future!

John Blanche:
gothic punk

Ian Miller:
Fuck Yeah... British Old School GamingSearch results for: ian miller
Interview with British illustrator Ian Miller - Friday Illustrated


Wil Rees and Ian Miller were very strongly inspired by Durer. Sadly Wil Rees no longer makes works in this style  .

John Blanche still works at Games Workshop as an art director.


----------



## Miniblini (Jun 4, 2014)

Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar said:


> Wil Rees and Ian Miller were very strongly inspired by Durer. Sadly Wil Rees no longer makes works in this style  .


Oh, woah, now that you mention it, I see what you mean!!!

The art is very different than modern day Warhammer 40k! The Renaissance style gives it an even more unique feel.


----------



## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

Miniblini said:


> Oh, woah, now that you mention it, I see what you mean!!!
> 
> The art is very different than modern day Warhammer 40k! The Renaissance style gives it an even more unique feel.


First edition had very eclectic art. Ranging from cartoony illustrations by artists that 
usually draw AD2000 comics to stuff inspired by Renaissance's masters.










Another important early Wh40k artist:
Workshop by tonyhippy | Photobucket

I think Rees and Miller were very important for the atmosphere of the 1st edition. They were the original GRIMDARK artists.

Additionally, Rees has designed darker, more detailed Space Marines:








They weren't adopted, though as at some point they decided to sell massive boxes of plastic space marines and back then plastic couldn't hold that kind of detail.

Returning to atmosphere...
For some reason 2nd edition made without Rees and Miller looks like this:
OLDHAMMER HERESY: Taking stock of 2nd edition WH40k.


----------



## Worriedfunction (Jun 2, 2011)

This was the style I was most drawn to when I first got into tabletop stuff.

I also own a book which is an A - Z encyclopedia of Tolkein and there is a lot of Ian Miller artwork in it.


----------



## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

Worriedfunction said:


> This was the style I was most drawn to when I first got into tabletop stuff.


Cool. I wonder what caused them to turn Wh40k 2nd ed into Kitschhammer 40k.



Worriedfunction said:


> I also own a book which is an A - Z encyclopedia of Tolkein and there is a lot of Ian Miller artwork in it.


Yeah. I've seen it. Manual of the computer game _War in Middle Earth_ has some of them.

Do you have _Art of Ian Miller_?


----------

