Old Warhammer Art Went Hard

I loved the disproportionate and brightly colored bullshit they had going on, it also made me feel better about all my terrible pieces. Will be missed.

So in my headcannon, the Titan and the Gargant are not even aware of each other, much less shooting at each other. There is just so much over-the-top awesomeness going on all the time that they were both engaged in completely unrelated battles and are about to stumble upon one another by pure happenstance.

The primary danger when fighting Eldar is the fact that they trigger seizures whenever they move too fast.

"Everything in my mind is cooler than what GW has come up with." Immensely powerful statement.

Old Warhammer art is akin to trippy prog metal album art. Somehow being ugly, beautiful, and a tad cartoony all at once. Its truly the best.

The funny thing is it was Adrian Smith who did both of those Horus Versus Emperor pieces. The way he developed his talent over the decades has always been inspiring.

A lot of the old Warhammer art gives me the same feel I get from those late Renaissance paintings of battlefields, especially from those Dutch and Flemish artists who depicted massive battlefields with immense numbers of soldiers. It’s this sense of scale a lot of art doesn’t get at, and it’s kinda niche, but it reminds me of that.

Speaking of how metal Warhammer art is, there was an old school British death metal band called Bolt Thrower that took the majority of their early inspiration from Warhammer and 40k. They had song titles like 'World Eater' and 'Through the Eye of Terror' and to me sounds exactly like what music themed around 40k would sound like. The coolest part is that Games Workshop even licensed some of their artwork for the band to use on their album covers, the artwork of the Crimson Fists' last stand that you showed was used as the cover of their album 'Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness'. If we're talking about Warhammer art they definitely deserve a mention, even if they didn't do visual art. Because when people say "Warhammer is metal as fuck," Bolt Thrower is the metal they are talking about, even if they don't realize it.

I have always loved the old warhammer fantasy art. It was so much more vibrant and aesthetically pleasing. I’m now constantly looking for old rule and lore books just to appreciate the art.

It is true, older 40k art had a different tone to it, newer 40k art makes characters and scenes look more heroic, which really seems at odds with the setting for me.

I absolutely love the old “maybe the original?” Picture of the Emperor on the Golden Throne, the one where he is a withered husk of a being with a mass of pipes and wires plugged into him. And a line of people disappearing into the distance. Also the little IV blood bag is funny

Some of these have this special energy... like they were drawn by a skillfull artist and a five year old at the same time.

Fun game: when looking at old 40k art, play a game me and buddies used to as kids- Find the Hidden Titan! Seriously. When they aren’t the focus, it’s shocking how often they are in this huge subtle background presence that you don’t even notice.

Adrian Smith is the artist of the featured Chaos Champion w/ axe and sword. His art is a goldmine of inspiration.

Adrian Smith to me is peak Warhammer art. He nailed the perfect balance between epic scale and absolute grimdark horror. The Emperor vs Horus piece alone deserves to be in a museum.

The thing I especially like about the old WH40k Art is that it had this old medieval feel to the pieces, like "what if futuristic war battles were depicted by an artist from the medieval ages/renaissance eras?" kind of vibe. I like the new WH40k art, but something about the old artwork just hits in a way I really love. Great video Pancreas. Edit: Same holds true for the classic Oldhammer art.

A good 80% of why I love that crimson fists piece so much is because it's the cover of one of my all time favorite death metal albums: Bolt Thrower's magnum opus - Realm of Chaos.

I'm so glad you brought up the old black and white Elder Art. No other Eldar artwork gives off just how alien they are to humanity and its really what made me fall in love with them.

The old art always reminds me of those historical paintings like that famous Delaware river crossing or Napoleon climbing the mountain with a horse. It makes it feel more historic and impacting that it was an important battle or scene taking place. Warhammer is essentially just a big historical museum filled with Comedy, Drama, Tragedy, and etc.

Surprised John Blanche art wasn’t included. That guy captures the insanity and decay of the imperium perfectly