Confirmed by his Mordheim co-creator [Toumas Pirinen](https://bsky.app/profile/tuomaspirinen.bsky.social/post/3mneyszkigs2t) on Bluesky he passed away a few days ago. He had been quite ill for a while so its not that surprising but its still a hell of a loss both for the hobby and art in general. Blanche's unique "Blanchitsu" art style was influencing everything from the tabletop as early as the UK first edition of D&D to music doing cover albums for bands like Sabbat.

He just recently completed a kickstarter for a small duel based minis game called En Guarde! and had been working on some new warhammer art books but sadly his ongoing health issues took their toll.

Personally he has always been a huge influence for me since i saw his iconic Canoness Veridyan art for the cover of 2nd editions Codex Sisters of Battle. Its why i've been a Sisters player for over 25 years. but in general he was a great artist who would do stuff like famously creating a ton of original border art for every page of the Mordheim rulebook under his own initiative just "to make it look better innit?". He's been an inspiration to the hobby for so long theres now entire painting and modelling schools based on his artworks. The free digital magazine 28 being a famous example of this.

But wether you are a GW oldhead or just someone whos admired the designs of stuff like the 3rd edition onwards look of space marines for example it cannot be overstated how much John Blanche was key and core to those designs' origins and with his particular style no longer around its such a loss for the medium but also a hell of a legacy at the end of the day.

John Blanche, artist behind most of Warhammers iconic grimdark art style has passed away