Reported in various forums and confirmed by several reliable sources, Rick Priestly has left Games Workshop after 28 years with the company.

A sad loss and a passing of an era.

Via: Tabletop Gaming News

The High Elves are a strange, long-lived and mystical race. They are a race of many differing qualities, which makes them a challenging prospect for our artists. Paul Dainton has drawn his fair share of High Elves, painting not only the cover of the latest High Elf army book but most of bestiary pieces as well. “Compared to the other races in Warhammer, High Elves look reasonably human, but they are far from it. In fact, they’re more alien in their behaviour than, say an Orc is to a human,” he says.

‘The challenge is to make them utterly alien, rather than just very tall humans,” he continues.  “Another pitfall is to make them overly fey and effeminate, when the opposite is actually true. You want them to look threatening, almost sinister; they are beings that are basically immortal and far from being overtly good, I could imagine them looking down upon humans as we look upon an insect.”

Paul is also keen to point out that you should never draw a smiling Elf.  “They are a stern race, and a smile would rob them of that power. The exception is what I’d term as a “cat’s smile”. A slight uplift at the corner of the mouth can give them an a knowing or arrogant air – a look that is more than suitable.”

A common element that you’ll see in a lot of High Elf art are the creatures. Whilst drawing Elves there is a danger of them looking too mundane you have no such issues when painting Dragons, Griffons and other mythical beasts.  “The creatures are part of the tapestry, as important an element to High Elves as their magic or the serried ranks. You can clearly see that in the pictures we’ve done right through the ages. It links into the fact that the High Elves are steeped in history and magic, after all, it is they who once rode Dragons to war.”

Paul briefly mentioned the well-regimented ranks of High Elves in the previous paragraph and I bring it up now as it’s not only a key image that’s associated with the Elves of Ulthuan but there’s an important point he wants to make. “You’ll find descriptions in the army book and in articles about how well disciplined the High Elves are and their exceptional abilities at fighting in a group. But – in my mind, anyway – they’re not drilled like in the same way that humans learn to fight in ranks; I see it as far more natural. I imagine observing a unit of High Elves on the battlefield to be an almost beautiful dance. You know when you see undersea footage of giant shoals of fish and how they swirl and change direction as one with no noticeable signal – it’s natural and fluid, and somehow striking. That’s how I think High Elf infantry regiments fight, it’s certainly what I try to get across in my artwork.”

via Art of Warhammer: High Elves | Games Workshop.

The month for High Elves has begun with a bumper release of online articles and painted High Elves models (not all are nice though and many looked rushed…) at the Games Workshop site. I went down today for the latest White Dwarf but it was sold out! Imagine that…but I manage to get my hands on the High Elves Magic Card Deck. A full review on that soon! Meanwhile check out the links and some selected images below.

1) High Elf Art

2) High Elves Painting Tips (Part 1)

3) High Elves Painting Tips (Part 2)

4) Island of Blood Box Set High Elves Painting Tips

5) High Elves Sample Armies

The month of October focusing on The High Elves is around the corner! We get an early start with a High Elves focused White Dwarf. Check out the awesome cover!

Get it now by your usual means!

Finally! Much better than hand painting those red sea dragons!

And sanity prevails! The classic metal Lothern Sea Guard has been re-released. Enough of the silly fumbling of parts!

Via: GW