Warhammer Creatures: Skaven

The world of Warhammer Fantasy and futuristic universe of Warhammer 40,000, created by the company Games Workshop, are table-top strategy games using highly detailed miniatures. Warhammer spans a wide range of other media, mainly in the form of books, but also films and games. With such a vast range of races and creatures, Warhammer makes for an ideal source to try applying my personal style unto established designs. The reasoning for this is that the notable artists who produce work for Games Workshop each have a distinctive, instantly recognizable style. This is an important point in general when seeking a job in the artistic field, so it makes sense to explore such an avenue in this project.

The first concepts I have produced are based on the Warhammer Fantasy race known as Skaven; insidious rat-men whose society is a constant bloody torrent of civil war, bribery and assassinations. Looking at the images of the Skaven within the books, it has become apparent that each artist has a different appearance for the rat-men, though all follow the notion of them being corrupt, vile creatures with an interest in only themselves. From artists such as Adrian Smith, Alex Boyd and Paul Dainton, below are some examples of the different visuals they portray.

The Skaven concepts I have drawn first seek to emulate the official artwork, to better understand the anatomical differences used by each of the artists to create their own style, before moving on to using them as inspiration to develop a personal style. This is also the first time I am using the Copic markers on normal paper as opposed to the disappointing Copic marker pad discussed in the previous post regarding the Evolve creature design.

Though this is only one race from the whole Warhammer Fantasy world, I know that I wish to be creating more concepts for the other races and creatures to play a part in my final portfolio. Whilst drawing the Skaven, I noticed that there is a blend of both character and creature design. It got me wondering where and if the line is drawn between the two, or if they merge and flow as one. Just a thought as to whether it's appropriate to call the project one based around creature design, when there are also character design elements. I believe it is, as the project does indeed focus on creature anatomy and other factors, as opposed to character design. Though as I have stated, I think they're two concepts that merge often and you can get a lot of creatures with characters and characters that happen to be creatures (most commonly seen in humanoids). It's not something that is important or concerning to the project as a whole; it's just an interesting thought that when I have the time I might ponder over more and research further into.

Copic markers are an interesting material to work with; very quickly you become accustomed to what colours work well and which ones suit your personal style. Though I have a long way to go with them, it is clear to me that they are an excellent method to render images and I have already learned a few techniques via trial and error; such as using a translucent blue colour to add extra tone to the skin of creatures, but it also works on most materials such as metal to give it more depth.