Horus Heresy: Know No Fear

It's out.

Go here to get your copy...

...and Black Library are selling wallpapers of it as well, if you like that sort of thing.

Check out my previous post about the cover.

Coming up - Cardiff International Comic Expo and Black Library Live...

First look: Cover: Know No Fear

Hello one and all!

So, Black Library have put the final (lo-res) image up for the new Dan Abnett Horus Heresy novel, "Know No Fear" and here it is for your perusal:

(Above)
Zero-G punchup!
Ultramarine Primarch, Roboute Guilliman
PUNCHING THE HEAD OFF
a heretic WordBearer

(Above, detail)

The face was inspired
by the previous Ultramarine I painted
for 'Battle for the Abyss'

(Above)

I LOVED adding the details
on this one, the blood globules hanging in space,
the ship detailing and all the rest.

The idea for this image was to have a true 360 degree punch up, so the cover was designed to show some combat if you turned the image round to any angle.

I added a harsh lens-flare with lens dust, the kind of which you see on the NASA Apollo Moon-landing photographs (a great inspiration for this piece)

Well ,that's all for this time, when the book's out I'll do a full process post - sketches and reference. But for now, enjoy the hard vacuum of space...!

Cover: 2000AD Prog 1665

Tharg is being very good to me at the minute - he's given me plenty of lovely covers to do and here's the latest cover for Prog 1665: (Sinister Dexter) "The Deadliest Duo":


It was great fun working on this one as it's a step away from the explosions and gritted teeth that usually appear in my work. Also, I love the way there are no header/ footer bars on this, the image just bleeds off the page - luvverly bit of design, Tharg!

As always it starts with a sketch:


Then my wife took a few reference photos with me 'in costume' holding various plastic toy gun props - hey, no sniggering at the back!:


Then I painted up the final version, paying close attention to their expressions, I wanted them to look like they'd just stepped out of a futuristic/ cop/ buddy/ hitmen film ( a sort of Beverly Hills Cop meets Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer):


Here's a little fact, fact fans... Dan Abnett, the writer of Sinister Dexter, is also one of the fantastic writers for the Horus Heresy series, of which I do the covers - Oh, and did I mention that Dan is an AWESOME chap!

The great thing about 2000AD covers is the quick turnaround - you do the illustration, next few weeks it's in the shops - sorted!