Probably one of the most important elements when choosing a game is its rules system. However, artwork plays an equally important part in immersing the player in to the game itself. Excellent artwork helps convey characters, situations and adds to the overall enjoyment of the game. I see it much like how decent special effects nowadays in films help with a dramatic and believable action scene.

The following artists are some of the best I’ve seen. Some of you may agree or disagree and I hope that you’ll pass on your thoughts in the comments section below.

Steve Argyle (www.steveargyle.com  / Deviant Art Profile: steveargyle.deviantart.com)

An artist I admire simply for his skill in creating some seductive fantasy females. You can find his artwork in WIzard of the Coasts products such as Magic the Gathering. This talented artist already has a growing following in amongst digital artists

 Innistrad – Magic The Gathering – Steve Arygle

Larry Elmore (larryelmore.com)

A name which goes hand-in-hand with classic Dungeons and Dragons. His artwork inspired generations of fantasy artists and his paintings for D&D are incredibly iconic such as the cover of the Red Box starter set back in the early 80s. Artist Ralph Horsle recently did the updated Redbox art in 2010 which was directly inspired by Larry’s original masterpiece.

 Classic Red Box Cover Art – Larry Elmore

Check out these other D&D artists:-

Keith Parkinson  - www.keithparkinson.com/main.php

Clyde Caldwell - www.clydecaldwell.com

 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons – Clyde Caldwell

Paul Bonner (www.paulbonner.net)

Paul works exclusively in water colour and has provided art for Rackham, Games Workshop and FASA in the past. Bonner’s paintings are incredibly detailed and contain rich narrative inspired from folklore and legends. He still works for GW on a freelance basis and creates illustrations for World of Warcraft.

Paul Bonner

Mario Wibisono ( www.mariowibisono.com Deviant ART Profile: raynkazuya.deviantart.com)

Oriental flavour to the proceedings with Mario’s exquisite fantasy art for AEGs Legend of the Five Rings CCG and RPGs. His digital artwork offers a dynamic realism which is quite unlike most artists in the industry I know of.

Honourable Mentions

Franz Frazeta (frankfrazetta.net)

The Grandfather of Fantasy Art and not necessarily table top games artwork . His excellent reputation for me comes from his work on Conan which supplied the template for most artists when approaching fantasy artists. Again, ‘pin up’ style women with equally buffed up strong men were the staple. Frazeta’s work portrayed the brutally and romanticism needed to bring Robert E Howard’s Conan world alive. Frazeta died in 2010 but left a huge legacy of work for future artists to admire.

So, you’ve got your rules memorised and your armies bought, what next?  Painting is a little hit n’ miss for some but luckily for us hobbyist’s there’s ways to get around to producing some great looking armies with a great paint dip produced by Army Painter.

This tub-of-goodness will get you some pretty decent results if used correctly. What it essentially does is add shading to your miniature without you having to apply paint techniques in order to achieve contrasting areas of light and dark.. So if you feel your painting skills aren’t up to scratch or you want to get a good looking army out for an incoming tournament quickly, here’s where to start for some good looking figures.

What you will need:

Army Painter Quickshade (‘Strong Tone’ for best results) – Each can is 250ml.

Paint brushes (obviously) – Sizes 00 and 000

Pliers

Miniature preparation tool kit with small files, glue, sharp scalpel knife and clippers.

Matt Varnish (Ideally Matt Varnish Spray)

I shall be prepping an Ork from Warhammer 40k. The model comes from the ‘Assault On Black Reach’ set. All plastic miniatures are part of a sprue that need to be carefully clipped using clippers and assembled using super glue.

Step 1 – Your Ork Miniature must be removed and assembled

Remove the pieces that make up the Ork which is the head, body and gun arm in this case. The Ork must be cleaned with a small file, removing any loose plastic and sometimes fine mould lines that run across the model.

Step 2 – Your Ork miniature should be undercoated in Chaos Black  and then painted with various base coat colours

Undercoating is an important part of getting paint to stick on your miniature and also it makes sure that dark shadowy areas and gaps remain black. I’ve then basecoated the Ork with Games Workshop acrylic paints. Here is the list I used:-

Citadel (Games Workshop) Foundation Series:-

• Knarloc Green – Skin
• Adeptus BattleGrey- [Clothing]
• Calthan Brown - [Clothing]
• Khemri Brown - [Clothing]
• Astronomican Grey- [Clothing]

Citadel (Games Workshop) Acrylic Paints:-

• Bestial Brown- [Clothing]
• Shining Gold – [Plate armour]
• Chaos Black
• Boltgun Metal – {Axe, Gun, Buckle]
• Terracotta (or Red Gore + Bestial Brown) – [Clothing]

This list actually contains a few colours I’ve favoured but it’s a choice that is entirely up to you. It’s not uncommon to hear of some painting the whole miniature in green and dipping it. As always better looking game on the tabletop is best, so  I encourage beginners to use varied base coat colours to make the miniature look more interesting.

The Art of Dipping

The dipping part of all this is easy although make sure that you work in area with nothing around that you don’t want to see stained. It’s also worth pointing out that Army Painter whiffs of gloss paint so opening a window maybe a good idea. Make sure you give the can a really shake before use.

Grab your painted miniature with some old pliers and dip the figure quickly in and out of the can. Always allow any excess Quickshade fluid to drop back in.  Sometimes it might be possible to flick excess off but that depends on if you have something like a back garden where you don’t mind where the excess goes.

Step 3 – Use pilers to hold the miniature at the plastic base

The next step is to grab some cotton buds and dab away any pooling of Quickshade in gaps and model detailing. This is particular important as if the dip dries within any model detailing, it will be lost. This is best done immediately after dipping. The pooling is a slight negative on the product but its easily remedied.

Step 4 – Use cotton bud to soak up excess Quickshade

After the coating has fully dried (Best results overnight), the next stage is retouching and highlights. Sometimes you maybe just happy with the results and go straight to the matt varnish. However, I like to add highlights and/or retouch any areas. With the Ork, I added a highlight on the skin and clothing. I added more detailing on the axe, gun and face.

Step 5 – Highlights and Retouches

Once the highlight step is finished you can dress up the base accordingly with fine stone gravel ‘sand’ and static grass.

Finally, knock out the glossy sheen from the QuickShade dip, grab some matt varnish and  apply over the miniature.

You then should have a fully useable, battle ready miniature and in fraction of the time.

The completed miniature!

You can buy Quick Shade at Spinning Dice Games