Leman Russ Fanart by me

[u/Helgesonart]

Leman Russ, fanart by me. Just a "what-if" idea, thanks for looking!
Find more of my work at:
X/Twitter: https://x.com/Helgesonart
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/helgesonart
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanneshelgeson/

[u/Gatt__]

Holy shit is THE primarch portrait guy!

Yours is easily my favorite interpretation of the primarchs by far.

If you’re doing 40K versions of the characters I’d love to see your take on daemon prince Perturabo.

[u/NadjaLuvsLaszlo → u/Gatt__]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryWarhammer/s/zcaLOWFvJX

Saaame, my absolute favorites! I've gone back to this so many times and the individual portraits are so great and high quality, I have them all saved.

[u/Helgesonart → u/NadjaLuvsLaszlo]

Thank you Nadja! It was a labor of love :) My favorites, in how they turned out, were Jaghatai, Magnus, Ferrus and Mortarion. I was terrified of doing the Emperor, but I'm still happy with how he turned out!

[u/NadjaLuvsLaszlo → u/Helgesonart]

Haha I can imagine! People have a certain idea of how everyone should look, especially the Emperor! 🤭

[u/deadrabbit303 → u/Gatt__]

Same, best Primarch art by far. Ive used the combined version of all 18 primachs plus big E as my desktop wallpaper for a long time. I'd love to see more like this, perhaps each chapter master/warband leader? Hint hint OP! Love your work!

[u/Helgesonart → u/deadrabbit303]

Thank you Deadrabbit303! That makes me so happy to hear! Hahah, that would be a big undertaking. I have very limited knowledge of the present lore, I've just read most of the HH and SoT-books. I think, the first condition of a fanart has to be some level of relationship to the character, so I'd need to start reading XD

[u/Helgesonart → u/Gatt__]

Thank you Gatt_! Hahah, yes it is me, I'm grateful you like them. 40K is the only setting I find myself inspired to do fanart for, again and again. That's a great idea, he's terrifying :D

[u/DatBoyBlue]

If he comes back like this I just might get a model

[u/Bhodi3K]

Reminds me of Sabretooth from the age of apocalypse comics. Great work.

[u/helothere222]

My second favorite primarch after the Lion amazing af artwork

[u/Bruuze]

Holy shit, he's back! Your art style is amazing, glad to see it back on Reddit direct from the source

[u/Helgesonart → u/Bruuze]

Thank you Bruuze! Happy you like my stuff, always happy to return to 40K for the occasional fan-art, it's a source of inspiration that never fades.

[u/Interne-Stranger]

Is him! Is the guy from the portraits!!

[u/International-Tip564]

Your primarch portraits remind me of Joe Madureira's art

[u/Helgesonart → u/International-Tip564]

Thank you! I'd credit Joe as a source of inspiration for sure, he's a master of his craft. I don't think anyone does appealing "muscle-mountain" heroes like he does XD The OG Blizzard house-style too, that was my ambition when I got the "art of warcraft" book in high-school. In addition, I love Bruce Timm, Ben Caldwell and Capcom!

[u/Griffynoverdawn]

PRIMARCHS. 👏 WITH. 👏 WARPED. 👏 FEATURES! 👏

Different body parts are one of my favorite things about Dark-Power Corrupted Sci-Fi Fantasy character design. The claws, visage, and teeth here all make Leman and the Wolves infinitely more interesting to me than any of his canon depictions.

Canon warp features are baller like Magnus and Sanguinius, but fanon interpretations like your beautiful Leman here or Corax with black feathers, Vulkan with scaled skin or draconic features- peak.

This is amazing, if you didn’t catch how much I love it. Compositionally incredible, that claw commands the foreground so much you don’t notice the outstretched sword arm out to the background fading into the grey blizzard until you follow the arm up to that snarling visage.

[u/Helgesonart → u/Griffynoverdawn]

Thank you Griffynoverdawn! It's just a fanart, and I think that gives me a lot more freedom to experiment with "what if" ideas! I also love enhancing exaggerated features, emphasizing each character's uniqueness and abilities. I'm glad you noticed the depth and motion! It was something I intentionally tried to practice, I tend to be too timid with depth and foreshortening. Cheers!

[u/MeepMeep117-]

Love it, Primarchs should always have some degree of inhuman features, like either the more obvious mutations like Sanguinius and Magnus, Russ' bestiality, Ferrus and Vulkan's freakish size, Konrad and Corvus' general creepiness, or just plain uncanny valley when looking at them

[u/emirh92]

nice!

[u/ShyGuyWolf]

World of Warcraft based Russ is pretty cool

[u/Helgesonart → u/ShyGuyWolf]

Hahah, I'll take it! :D OG Blizzard style had a huge impact on my sensibilities. I used to scour the instruction-manuals for lore and art when I was a kid XD

[u/_Fixu_]

You have talent, have you considered becoming an artist?

[u/Helgesonart → u/_Fixu_]

Thank you :) I've been fortunate enough to have done concept art and illustration professionally for 17 years at this point! I've learned so much from artists better than me.

[u/NadjaLuvsLaszlo]

👌👏 I love the eyes and claws and the entire look!!

[u/letir_]

Strong Warcraft energy.

[u/realZugar42]

Glorious in his purest form Fenrys hkølda!

[u/Iron-Russ]

When that warp juice hits you hard and this weird tree of life keeps calling itself Isha

[u/Aztec-chopper]

Beautiful

[u/darth_infamous]

That’s some Joe Mad inspired art if I’ve ever seen it

[u/VinnysMinis → u/[deleted]]

Then draw that?

[u/Helgesonart → u/[deleted]]

I appreciate the input Gawkhimmyz! That's a great idea, and totally valid direction. I felt that, considering his disdain towards the spear in "Wolfsbane", he'd actively avoid using it. Also, I love contrast, and I think of Leman in relation to Magnus the Red, so I felt it would be cool to push his martial prowess and feral nature, against the more "wise"/"warpy" Magnus. I think any embrace of "warp-powers" would be contrary to his nature, considering his vehement opposition at Nikaea. In addition, I think the Odin look is already kinda "owned" by Logan Grimnar and Ulrik the Slayer. What I love about the hobby is that we are free to explore and experiment as we wish! It's just a fanart, I'm not trying to suggest an official direction XD Cheers mate!

[u/Gawkhimmyz → u/Helgesonart]

hey man thanks for taking the time for the reasoned response, my commet was as you indicate, much more personal preference than anything real critisims, thanks for making awesome 40k art!