Hello faithful followers,

Once again, I seem to have been letting things go for a long time before getting back to making art. It has been a busy past 7 months or so. Work, kids, new house, etc. You know how it goes.

This post is one I make in an effort to rekindle my passion to make art, to create, and to keep improving. I am sure some of you will look and say this or that, but I am pleased as I am happy I even have something to share at this point. So may wish to and so many keep letting things get int the ways. I did. This is my effort to not have that happen. Hopefully, this will help others get inspired to wake up and just start making.

Above you see a finished, colored piece. As the title of this post conveys, I still had more of my initial fan art sketches from when Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade came out. As I was always a Chaos boy, I created several variations of Chaos themed weapons. This was one of the rougher sketches - one of my favorite weapons - the heavy bolter, of the Chaos persuasion.

As I have done before, I was oping to share the different stages I have used to create this particular chaos heavy bolter. Below, I will have shared the black and white line sketch, then the grayscale shaded version, and the final colored piece. What was different with this approach from the others is that typically I was scanning the outline drawing done by hand and then printing it again to shade in with pencil. Once scanned again I then used a Multiply filter in Photoshop to paint over with color. This time, I used digital methods the whole time after the initial sketch.

I also used a slightly different set of brushes and colors and a varied approach to layer organization and filters. I still used Multiply to add color. However, I did three layer to add the shade, gray, dark, and light.

Hope you enjoy! See the bottom for the write up on this weapon's history.

#warhammer #wh40k #chaos #heavybolter

Greetings all!

Had a chance to do a bit more work on this series. Getting closer to the end and looking forward to it. Pretty soon, I shall have the other Chaos Cursed Armor, Grenade, etc. to add to the collection.

For now, I have uploaded the steps and final piece most recently worked on.

For those that do not know, this is a Chaos Space Marine version of a Chainsword - common tool of vanquishing one's enemies in the grimdark of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe (Eternal Crusade included).

The process has been largely the same:

1. Outline sketch in just dark black lines and white
2. Scanned into PC and edit in Photoshop to clean up lines (crop, paste, mirror if half image needing to be stitched).
3. Print on illustration paper with high contrast
4. Using a good pencil (I prefer the Black Warrior Mirado), and imaging a fake light source, add shading and highlights to denote value, depth, and dimension.
5. Scan that into PC as well. Making sure that each step is saved as a new file.
6. Open file in Photoshop and lay some base colors down using layer over grayscale image set to a Multiply blend setting.
   
7. If needed, add some layers to work in more dark shadows and lighter edge highlights. The shadows layer likely you'll want on Multiply again. However, the highlights can be Normal, but different Opacity.

Here are other steps of this Chaos Space Marine Chainsword fan art I did:

My cousin and her SO recently commissioned me to paint some of their miniatures for the tabletop game Zombicide (site here).

This was an undertaking to say the least. Many minis and lots of need for gory, yucky details. I have never painted them before, but what can I say? It was a ... BLAST! I really enjoyed painting them. For one, it was a nice break not having to assemble them first. Also, they are a fun set of sculpts to work on.

Other than trying new painting techniques and using different paints, it was a straightforward project. Loved each one. And now, for ALL THE PICS. Enjoy!

Evening faithful readers,

Here is the post I was teasing about on my FaceBook page a bit ago. The process of scanning and doing the paint-over of this piece is finally to a point where I am thinking it can be shared.

This is a series of the main steps in the piece that is another Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade fan art. I had done an outline sketch of this a long time ago and never finished it. Now, I am done with it, for now.

Above is the grayscale image of my pencil shading that was scanned into photoshop. Then I used the multiply layer mode and layed done some base colors. The third image above is the final version with final shadows and highlighting added.

Below are the high-res shots. Hope you enjoy this Chaos Space Marine Breastplate with Nurgle's Touch! A little rot never hurt nobody, right?!

The Putrifier's Coverings
Lan Nukio stood waiting for a sign, helm swaying in anticipation that the enemy could surprise him from any direction, at any time. He had been the last one to remain alive after clearing the last hold of heretics. Their presence revolting and physically ailing to him, such was the level of their vileness.
A loud clang came from behind and his senses were alight. No less than 10 figures festooned with horns, cracked bells, and random growths shambled into view. His vision suddenly blurred and his joints stiffened. He vomitted within his helm, but, for his sake, the filtering mechanism within kept him from gagging on it. That said, he remained affected. Several swarms of bloat-flies swirled into the space and around him. They landed on him and began burowing into his armor's joints and weak points. He stumbled on several cables running along the floor and fell.
Now on his knees, Nukio strained to move. His hand itched as it tried to reach for a krak grenade on his belt. No luck there. It seemed his body was in the grips of paralyzing, arthritic pain. He relented, closed his eyes for a moment, and requested strength from the Emperor.
Just then, he opened his eyes and saw another figure had entered the room from behind, blotting most of the light.
The other figues took position around him. Their weapons pointed at Nukio, but more as a formality, for certainly they did not think he was a threat to them.
As the figure came closer, Nukio's breathing became ragged, and filled with phlegm. He spat it several times - tasting blood and mucus.
Visions of rotting flesh, foetid giant insects, and a gaping maw atop a smiling putrid belly danced through his mind.
The figure leaned close to Nukio, as if to sniff him. He tapped three times in a specific pattern on his torso's armor.
Nukio saw clearly for a moment.
To say the breastplate of this traitor marine was disgusting and vile was an understatement. It was a nauseating set of colors, with wet and open wounds, oozing with fluids.The structure was not recognizeable as previous Astartes wargear. Now, it was more a product of the full onset of the ruinous powers and augmented by the favorings of Nurgle. Black, we boils seemed to writhe with life. In one, Nukio could have sworn he saw an eye jittering about. The closer it was and the longer he stared at it, he felt it's power building over him. He felt his will giving way. His health was fading. His sanity escaping. His back arched and he felt the breaking of bones as his body fell into a crippling spasm. A bang rebounded in his helm as it bounced off the plasteel flooring. His vision faded.
The last memory of Nukio's life was that he had had heard the figure utter these words in a spittle filled, rattling, low voice, "Rejoice, brother, as you have fallen in the name of disease. Grandfather Nurgle's warmth welcomes you. Savor these moments for they are the purest of what true living can give. Remember this is the day you met Nurgle's Putrifier - for I am he - and these are my annointed coverings, built to spread the joy of Nurgle's Touch. Good bye, brother. I envy you."

Excited to share this new post. WARNING - lost of pictures here! The wife got me the Warhammer 40K Chaos Space Marine forgefiend / maulerfiend kit. In my version, I ended up accidentally creating a hybrid version (misread the instructions) - part forgefiend and part maulerfiend. He has one of the cannons and one of the mauler claws used. I painted using folk art paints, primed with krylon, sealed with krylon, and also a few drops of p3 wash. The images below show its progress as being built.

Above: Just finished assembly on the forge / maulerfiend. I guess we could call it a bit of a conversion.

Above: She got a base coat. A little different color there, but you'll see why soon. Below: The base coat of the trim goes down. Thinned paints of course! A yellow here for trim as I originally wanted to do a gold or brass trim.

Below: Next, the actual red goes down as a layer. Also, did some washing on the model with P3 armor wash and red wash from P3.

Below: Details of the chaos fiend model begin to be called out within the model. The teeth, the glowing bits, etc. Also, you'll see the trim turned to black at this point, recalling an older style of painting Khorne models.

Below: Some final tweaks, highlights, clean-ups, etc.

Below: Finally, finished up some basing and then sealed up the old fiend. ;)

Thanks for reading all! Leave a comment and I'll try to answer questions!! #paintingwarhammer

Hey all!

I have had a chance to finish up another Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade fan art piece. This time, it is a straight up plasma pistol - of the Chaos Space Marine persuasion. This one began years ago as a line drawing, then moved to a shaded sketch on paper, and them I scanned it into my PC. Just today, I finished adding color to it via Photoshop CC with the help of my trusty Wacom Pen and Tablet. This took overall, 10-12 hours to complete. Instead of going into more detail on the production of it and what it is, I thought I would copy what I did on the last one and write up a brief story on the weapon - to give it a life of its own, beyond the imagery.

"Harud was a man once. A Terran like many others of his kind. He had received the gene-seed of his legion and joined the ranks of his brethren as one of the universe's most effective warriors - the Adeptus Astartes - a Space Marine. However, within Harud, there lived a flaw. His legion was prone to self-interest, pride, envy, and the thirst for power and glory. During the Horus Heresy, their leaders joined the Warmaster as a means to an end - to attain the power and eternal glory promised by the Ruinous Powers. Now, Harud was a twisted, hateful shadow of himself. He was more 'thing' than man, and loved his weapons more than life itself. At his side, over many ages, was one in particular. His most prized possession was an ancient plasma pistol of particular craftsmanship and design. At first, it had no name. It was simply a tool. But once the warp took hold of its owner and it had been party to many atrocities, it began to take on a personality with characteristics of its own. It seemed to purr with content when killing and more so in close combat. Turning adversaries to boiling, melting, steaming piles of matter - they would glow with plasma energy tainted with coruscating warp influence. Never satisfied, Harud had his warpsmith add a blade of malice and vile intent to the weapon to make his work in melee easier and more, well, satisfying. The weapon would seem to squeal with zeal and glee once blood touched the blade. To add to his notable achievements, he had once slain a warpfiend in a duel over an insult. The creature's skull was then grafted to the weapon to increase both its reliability and its potency. Malefic inscriptions also granted its owner unnatural aim and control while firing.  This weapon of Harud's had seen to the end of many thousands of souls. It had surged with hate and bitter rage for so long. It bred hummed with vile contempt and sowed fear into those informed enough to know of it's sordid past. Harud rather enjoyed it. To him, it was a friend, an ally, an integral part of his being. He had come to calling it a name as a form of endearment. That name was simple. It was 'Omen'."

More Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade fan art here. This time an older sketch of a Chaos Space Marine bolter / boltgun. I have included the original sketch, shaded sketch, and then two colored version of the chaos boltgun. The colored versions were both scanned and painted in Adobe Photoshop CC.

The images of the colored version are very similar, except one is without extra, dramatic shading. That one has lighting and shading involved, but is largely intended to be rendered in it's local color.

As far as boltguns go in warhammer 40,000, the types and versions used by the Chaos and Heretic factions are many and varied in pattern, accessory, size, etc. The one pictured here has more ornate touches with gold and brass work, inscriptions, a strap made of the tanned hide of some fallen xenos, the dried hide of a human foe, and warp-tainted metal.

More than likely, based on the color scheme here, this chaos space marine bolter is the property of a champion of the Word Bearers chapter of heretic Astartes.

Hope you all enjoy. See below for more fan art of Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade.

I just realized I haven't shared this. It was my most recent miniature from the Warhammer 40,000 Dark Imperium box set. This is the Lord of Contagion Death Guard Chaos Space Marine that comes with the set. First time I have set out to take decent photos of a mini as well. I have take other photos, but none so staged. Actually, this was for the purpose of entering a competition on facebook for painting sponsored by Citadel / Games Workshop. Got a few angles and shots here. Let me know what you all think and if you like the scheme. Enjoy all! I hope to post more here soon.

It has been a while. All of you that still come and look frequently are awesome. I thank you. As a reward, I worked hard the last few nights to provide a new update. This post includes a color version of the grayscale of the chaos space marine lascannon concept design for Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. With this full color version comes some faction markings and designs consistent with one of my long favored chaos chapters - The Night Lords. The first image posted was drawn on paper, scanned, printed, inked and shaded, then re-scanned and painted digitally using Adobe Photoshop CC. Below, I have included some process shots.

There are some traditional markings and colors associated with the Night Lords Chaos Space Marines - including the lightning bolt motifs and the dark blues accented with the yellowish and dirty-golds. Some new elements included are the parts draped in claimed hides, stitched together in some places. A chaos weapon would never be complete without icons of the ruinous powers so I have incorporated a prominent chaos star pendant off the main portion of the lascannon. The views here show the back or outer portion of the lascannon's power supply backpack on the bottom of the image. Connected to that is the glowing power supply cabling to the main weapon and shoulder rest, which you can see the inside of from this angle. There is a sighting device, controls, the barrel, and grips with the trigger underneath the head of the cannon's demon-like countenance greeting its victims. Topping it off - we see the warp-influenced structure has given way to spikes, horns, and twisting corruption sprinkled throughout.

The method here was one I had researched as a more efficient way of getting better at painting and at working more cleanly in Photoshop. I have utilized several layers, broken down by main colors, and painted at 100% opacity for most of the time while having the layer set to Multiply. This way the colors and the undersketch's grayscale shading both show and mix together in an acceptable way. Of course, beyond that, there were small tweaks as needed.

As always, happy to hear feedback and hope you all at least enjoy!

Stay tuned as there is more to come!

Feel free to leave your comments.

7/8/17 Update to post: I had managed to finally scan an image in after fixing my scanner/printer and the wifi. The update is a finished grayscale of the Chaos Space Marine Lascannon of Doom. ;) It is now in the gallery next to the lascannon outline sketch. Enjoy and Thanks!

Good Evening Followers!
I suppose it is fitting that I finally give some updates from post a while back on some fan art for the computer video game Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade - especially since I am now waiting for the Eternal Crusade patch update to finish on Steam.
Ok, so let's see. We have a finished color piece of a Chaos Space Marine Missile Launcher. This is something I think I would really like to see as new wargear in W40K: Eternal Crusade. It was one of the first heavey weapons I ever painted on the minis in real life as a kid and it always had such immense possibilities for destruction. Anyways, I did the sketches here on paper, scanned, and then colored in the lovely Photoshop CC.
We also have a grayscale Chaos Space Marine Boltgun. This one still needs a bit of refining before coloring, which will be coming soon. I know that the Chaos Space Marine faction in Eternal Crusade already has several skins for their boltguns, but I think more options would be good. I also like the addition of melee attachments and marksman scopes. But, that may just be me.
I did purchase the Chaos Space Marine Power Cestus, because blood for the blood god! ;) This post has my vision of the old model's power claw. This concept is shaded in from the original outline drawing. I think it would have been a neat alternative for Eternal Crusade.
Next is a grayscale and outline of a proposed Chaos Space Marine Plasma Pistol - again with a melee theme. I will soon have to get to coloring this. Again, through a pinge of the warp and heresy, I did purchase the Chaos themed plasma pistol within the actual game of Eternal Crusade.
Following these I made a Chaos Talon / Blade, Chainsword, Blighted Nurgle Armor, Ossified Chaos Armor, Chaos Frag Grenade, Chaos Heavy Bolter, Chaos Krak Grenade, and a Chaos Space Marine Lascannon.
Now, these were done initially prior to launch, so, I did not know what they would look like at the time. Funny what they have now and what I see here.
Anyways, as always, hope you enjoy, have fun, and let Chaos Reign!
Keep Slaughtering Crusaders!
Until next post!