Ever since Broken Realms: Morathi was announced, I have been filled with a deep passion for the dark elves of the Mortal Realms. Their dragon-riding, pirate-ship-sailing aesthetic called forth huge Elric of Melniboné vibes and even before I started playing Warhammer I had long been in search of Warhammer parts to kitbash my own Albino Prince model. This gave me a chance to relive that dream—but instead of a single model, I would have a whole army.
Elric of Melibone Art by Kamyu
So more and more details began to emerge of the story of Anvilgard—a pirate city home to the dark elves and a shadowy crime syndicate which controls it— and the role the city played in the Broken Realms saga. Without getting too heavily into it, Anvilgard is destroyed in the book (spoiler!), and it has been renamed and claimed by the titular anti-hero of the book: Morathi.
To me, this was awesome! Even though I loved the city of Anvilgard, it was great to see it destroyed as I instantly had the idea of a loyalist group of soldiers, still loyal to Anvilgard and fighting in urban guerilla warfare to reclaim the city to its former glory!
So, I've gone into a bit of how I made my list and my beginnings of my Anvilgard army (which you can read about here) and I have an idea for the story and environment that my army will be a part of: a band of gritty, worn soldiers who hunt and fight in the ruins of the shadowy port-city of Anvilgard. So far, so good! Now I need a color scheme.
For a long time I've been interested in the so-called "Grimdark" paint scheme for Warhammer. Though nowadays the Grimdark style is mostly portrayed as a heavily blackened, grimey paint scheme, the original source of the inspiration is quite the opposite. Although the grittiness (no, not that Gritty), is something that was very present in the beginning, the art of John Blanche—the predecessor (or progenitor?) of the Grimdark style, and where the style "Blanchitsu" gets its name—is quite bright working with lots of ochres, whites, reds, and browns.
Art by John Blanche
It was this color scheme that most attracted me to John Blanche's work, and I wanted to maintain that palette in the miniatures I was painting. John Blanche has painted for Warhammer since the mid-1970's and his art is so integral to the Warhammer aesthetic. This is especially true for Warhammer 40k, but I am working with fantasy models (specifically Age of Sigmar), and so reference was somewhat scarce, leaving me room to take inspiration when I needed it while still maintaining plenty of creative room to explore.
Initially I had thought of working purely with oil paints, and I had some oil pants that I had laying around the house which I decided to put to work, but in the end I was happy to find that I had Citadel Contrast Paints that would help me achieve the look I was going for in very minimal time.
Art by John Blanche
With all of this in mind, I set out for my first test model. I had actually bought some dark elves quite some time ago so I had room to experiment without mucking up the important models. I primed it how I normally would and got to work.
What I discovered was a very simple and effective method of painting which resulted in the look I was trying to achieve. Not many painters can say that, especially after little time in practice. I now have the method down to where I can finish a model in under an hour and includes a lot of really fun techniques like wet blending, oil washes, dry pigments, and texture paints.
In an effort to not bog this article down too much, I am going to be posting Blanchitsu Part 2 very soon in which I will detail my process and explain how to achieve what I think is a unique take on the grimdark aesthetic while maintaining a firm grip on the original source material.
I hope you're as excited as I am.
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