Article by Peter Atkinson
If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint
~ Edward Hopper
I’m a great believer that the art of Warhammer (or any great setting) is a huge part of what draws us in – I’ve got youthful memories of staring at mind-blowing fantasy artworks for ages, soaking up every detail. You had to make your own entertainment, when you grew up before tablets were a thing.
We reached out for nominations for our readers’ favourite works of fantasy art from the Warhammer canon. The scope was Warhammer Fantasy / AOS and adjacent settings – so the likes of Mordheim and Blood Bowl are in, but no spacemen shooting aliens this time around. We’ll do the greatest Sci Fi art in a future contest.
So today we present to you the 16 Greatest Fantasy Artworks of all time1, ready to fight it out the death and crown the ultimate winner!
Here’s the full bracket:
Huh? Why are paintings fighting each other?
Mainly because it’s an effective way to frame a large poll like this – by the time you’ve scrolled down to the 16th nomination, you’ve pretty much forgotten the first half-dozen. Remember what I was saying about life before iPads? Of course you don’t, that was like three paragraphs ago. But also, we’re all wargamers here and we just enjoy seeing an adversarial process play out. Fight Fight Fight!
A note on crediting artists
GW is notoriously patchy on crediting artists, especially in the modern era. We’ve made a sincere effort to credit artists as far as possible, and you’ll see we’ve included a lot of hyperlinks to their own websites or online galleries. But we couldn’t find full details for a couple of them, so if you’re able to identify any that we’ve missed, please do let us know and we’ll be glad to update the article.
“AOS has some sweet art but I really love this other piece by Les Edwards / John Blanche, which…”
Yup, me too. We’re very keen to have another run at this for non-GW Fantasy art as its own separate category, so keep your eyes out for that one down the track 2.
So shall we get into it? The format is that we’ll present two artworks side by side, throw around some entrenched and half-assed opinions “discuss the artistic merits of each piece”, and then you can vote for which one progresses to next round!
A lot of us have searing memories of a particular artwork that blew our mind wide open to these amazing new worlds, and it’s time to celebrate that.
Ready? Let’s go.
Knight Panther, by John Blanche
Nominated by Xander Bennett: “It’s an obvious choice, but it blew my mind when I first saw it at age 6.”
It certainly doesn’t surprise me that King John was the first artist nominated, nor that his oeuvre was nominated more than once (as you’ll see). John Blanche has probably done more than any other individual to build the tone and feel of the Warhammer universes, and for that we’ll always be grateful.
Cities of Sigmar, Artist Unknown
Nominated by Will: “I like this one because it shows the contrast between the high fantasy elements of the setting and the regular people existing in it”.
Spot on. This piece exemplifies a really important subgenre in AOS art that illustrates everyday life away from the field of battle, with ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Here we see humanity, battered but unbroken.
The Vision of Mordheim, by Geoff Taylor
Nominated by Dr Internet: “The beautiful chaos that is Geoff Taylor’s cover of White Dwarf issue 238. Also known as the cover for MORDHEIM BABYYYY”.
“Beautiful chaos” is about right – this piece rewards exploration, because there’s loads going on. The cage hanging from the gallows pole still comes up in model kits today – from the Loonshrine to Swampboss Skumdrekk – and check out that little fella down at the front right, staring right back at you. Not easily forgotten.
Orruk Warclans Cover, by Johan Grenier
Nominated by Maximus: “This picture on the front of the 2nd Ed Orruk Warclans tome immediately grabbed my attention when I first got into AOS. Fuck yeah, I want that chunky boi and go smash shit! Orruks for me!”
Hey look, there’s some Bonesplitterz…I’m not crying, you’re crying! OK, I actually am crying.
One of my own personal favourites, and you can check out more of Johan Grenier’s work right here – this man clearly loves his orcs. The definitive image of greenskinz in the Mortal Realms.
Mordheim Illustration, by John Blanche
Nominated by AussieWargamer: “I adore every single illustration in the Mordheim rulebook. So hard to pick a favourite, so I’m kind of cheating with this full-page illustration including such Mordheim absurdities like the owl knight, the bone flute and whoever that dude is running through the arch. John Blanche insanity.”
Took me a while to spot the owl knight, but there he is! Those weird vulture creatures with human heads (towards the centre of the drawing) are peak Blanche.
Sigmar’s Host, by Paul Dainton
Nominated by Catfish Billy: “This has been one of my favourite art pieces. Other AOS art at the time was often too digitally smoothed, or just simple.”
Hailing from the 2018 AOS Core Book, this piece centres the lone Varanguard taking the fight to a mighty Stardrake. You can call them a lot of things, but never cowards. I really enjoy the shocking white hair on the Stormcast Eternal at the bottom right, and the turquoise-blue glow that echoes throughout the image.
White Dwarf 250: Empire Vs. Orcs and Goblins, by Geoff Taylor
Nominated by Graal: “The new WHFB box when I first started playing, and also the cover art of the first White Dwarf issue I ever had! While I don’t own any Destruction armies now, Orcs & Goblins was my first army back then 💚”
That first WHFB starter box always holds a special place in our memories – hopefully the young ins coming up now will have the same love for Dominion and Skaventide3. For me it was Cardboard Grom the Paunch, and for Hakan it was this classic artwork by Geoff Taylor.
Kharadron Overlords, Artist Unknown
Nominated by Peter Atkinson: The first piece nominated by our own writing team, this one is all Aethermatics and no brakes. There are a lot of thoughtful and evocative pieces in the Kharadron canon which I really appreciate, but I keep coming back to the unabashed mayhem in this work. The unusual pastel shades and cartoonish quality contrast with the subject matter – and with that poor Aleguzzler Gargant collapsing under a volley of fire, it’s even true to AOS gameplay.
Circle of Blood Cover, by Mark Gibbons
Nominated by Bradley Baker. Circle of Blood was a campaign supplement for WHFB 5th Edition, telling the story of the Red Duke and his incursions to Bretonnia. The glowing green sword is a centrepiece of the imagery, complemented by the green glow catching surface edges of the weaponry and combatants. It’s the swarm of bats that really stands out though – it looks like artist Mark Gibbons had some fun adding a ridiculous volume of them, and then when it was definitely too many, he went back and added way more. Welcome to Warhammer, where too much is never enough. I love it.
Big Monster Thingy4, by Paul Dainton
Nominated by Tropichammerz: “This piece of art from the AOS1 Core Book was when I really began appreciating how epic the scale of this new game was: we’ve got Gods fighting huge continent-sized monsters. As a big Fantasy player back in the day, this was the artwork that won me over to the setting.”
Ah, this takes me back to playing Shadow of the Colossus. I kind of want to play this out as a custom scenario, or maybe some kind of roll and write game, but I would need it it to be punishingly difficult. As a side-note, how cool are those floating rock columns? Artist Paul Dainton using those small details to tell us that we’re somewhere very different now.
Moonclan Grots, by John Blanche
Nominated by ItsJames: “John Blanche from the 4th Edition Orcs and Goblins book. Gave me a lifelong love of Night Goblins. 30 years old and it’s so iconic that it could be in the 4th Edition Battletome, no worries.”
The third entry for Johnny B, and I full agree with ItsJames’s comments on the timelessness of this work. That troll over to the left has clear echoes in the modern Rockguts and I’m proudly planting those Moon Icon banners on objectives to this day.
Nagash and Morghast, Artist Unkown
Nominated by Michael Thomson. Umm…what’s happening to those people being herded forwards? I’m gonna say “nothing good”. A dramatic reminder that Nagash is an unknowable eldritch God, and the representation we see on the tabletop (as cool as it is) is merely an avatar.
Breton Bowmen, by Karl Kopinski
Nominated by Nic Wright: “I’m shouting out who I consider to be the literal GOAT of Warhammer art – Karl Kopinski. For me he is the father of immersion in the world of Warhammer. He was grim before it was dark.
Kopinski had that iconic that sketchbook style that enables his work to pull you into a setting at the touch of a brush. An unbelievable artist who formed the backbone of much of the most-publicized and timeless art from Fantasy AND 40k. I can’t think of another artist of this ilk who has had so many miniatures created from direct replicas of his art as Karl.”
Dominion of Chaos, by Mark Holmes
Nominated by Grant Fraser: “Always loved this art. Something unsettling about seeing Khorne not in full blood rage. Every time I see it, I want to collect a Khorne army”.
What we’re seeing here is what happens to your town the day after Khorne appeared on the horizon. I’m sure Australian estate agents would still spout off about “Great Primary schools nearby”, but artist Mark Holmes is content to let that gigantic skull suspended from chains do the talking.
Blood Bowl Cover Art by Filipe Pagliuso
Nominated by Peter Atkinson. Let’s take a moment to celebrate the boxed games. I’m (just about) old enough to remember Man O’ War, but for me it’s the iconic cover art from the modern relaunch of Blood Bowl that takes the biscuit.
I love the kinetic energy of the various Grots – whether it’s sticking the boot in, or soaring optimistically for an attempted interception – but it’s the central collision that I love about this work. You just know that the next frame is a sickening impact, where the human guy takes the catch but gets absolutely nailed by that rampaging orc.
Can you imagine what it would be like playing NFL against orcs? That human catcher is really athletic, but he’s got no hope. Fucking BAM!
Gobbapalooza by Phil Moss
Nominated by AlmostHuman: “This has got to be my absolute favourite piece of Warhammer art ever. Likely because the Gobbapalooza is also my favourite set of models ever!”
The Gobbapalooza is a Goated kit – you could spend weeks painting it, exploring every hidden nook and detail. This work by Phil Moss is faithful to the minis, and I wish I had the brush skills to get that swirl going on Boggle Eye’s lunatic eyeballs. I still don’t know how Brewgit copes with that glowing metal bowl of red hot coals on his head, mind you!
So that’s a wrap! Thanks for voting, and if you appreciate Warhammer art you’ll probably enjoy the booming, dedicated subreddit. We’ll leave this poll open for a week or so, then smash into the next round, where we’ll report the results and invite you to vote on the Top 8!
Until then – have a good weekend, nerds. See you on the other side.
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- In our collective opinion, etc etc ↩︎
- Spoiler Alert: The iconic box art from Hero Quest will probably be my own pick, but there’s a lot of Fighting Fantasy art in the conversation too. I’m afraid that my imagination is limited to things I liked as a kid in the 90s. But hey, look who I’m talking to 😊 ↩︎
- Although I do suspect that the tight edition cycle might make it harder to build up the same attachment ↩︎
- Yup, that seems to be this painting’s actual name, as far as I can tell ↩︎
Plastic Craic 
4 thoughts on “What’s the Greatest Work of Fantasy Art? You Decide!”