I answered this in my post regarding other sculptors that I admire but felt that this was a good area to expand upon as Jes's place in my favourite sculptors list is a rather different kettle of fish to all the others.
The main upshot is this; my first thought when I hear the name Jes Goodwin is not of his miniatures sculpts but I immediately flash onto his concept art. Jes sculpts supremely well as we all know but, you know what, I think he draws miniatures at least as well as he sculpts them, maybe even more-so. I'm not sure it's possible to overstate the impact Jes's design work has had on the miniatures industry and it's as much in the design as in the execution.
I have Jes's artbook, The Gothic and the Eldritch. It's a fascinating book showing off the incredible work he has produced over the years and perfectly illustrates the level of detail and thought that goes into his work.
The new Dark Eldar range is a monument to forethought in a miniatures range. You can tell that this was not a 'dive in and sculpt' project and that there was a lot more to it than designing the look. The design process asks not just what something looks like but why it does and how it works. Then there's striking the balance of reality and looking good. Your average Space Marine throws accurate human anatomy out of the window but looks great despite this. In Jes's work the balance is always there and there's never the feeling of 'screw it, that'll do'.
So, designer before sculptor. Yes, Jes is a superb sculptor but my consideration is in a wider capacity. A thought occurred to me after my top sculptor posts. What about a different criteria. What if you take the sculptor and force them to produce in a creative vacuum so to speak. I mean you lock them away with no outside influences. No concepts feeding them. Nobody else's ideas. Just the sculptor in a room with the brief 'make great miniatures'. So, who would be the best in the world then?
To me that's an easier question to answer.
and of course that book is a decade old - theres so much more and eventually a new book should hit the shelves - the dark eldar work itself could fill a volume bi itself - jes's pre GW orcs and goblins are still some of mi favourites and without him there would be no skaven proving that jes has a command of the modern and sleek to the gribbley and plagued .......
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'd love to see another volume of Jes's concepts.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of his sculpts from the 80s. You mention his pre-GW Orcs but he also did some Lord of the Rings Orcs for GW back then. Beautiful Uruk Hai. I also loved his series of Ogres and am often tempted to sculpt my own version of Hrothyogg the Ogre who is one of my favourite minis of all time (though, like the Spined Dragon, I don't actually have one).
I really haven't seen that many of Jes' concepts and that's a true shame. Maybe I should go and buy that book you mentioned, might be a nice piece of inspiration too.
ReplyDeleteI really like Jes Goodwin's old miniatures, especially his human fighters, chaos champions and elven wardancers. I've been collecting the ever since I restarted my hobby couple of years ago. I think that his miniatures really catch the grim feel of the Old World, along with that little spice of dark humour.
i think that will have to be an ebayye item as it has been out of print for a long time .....
ReplyDeleteUsed copies on Amazon UK from £44.30. Ouch.
ReplyDeleteHey steve!
ReplyDeletelove your blog.. great posts, and i especially like your " best sculptors" posts, really great insight.
I've known Brian Nelson's work for a while, and recently MIKH as well! both definitely in the top.
I recently heard a lot about JAG. Is it true that a lot of top sculptors consider him to be THE best of the best? i heard in france his nickname is "GOD of sculpting"
Is J.B. John Blanches? if that's so, i'm a big fan of your work! who do you consider the best Miniature sculptor?
ReplyDeleteyup tis me - i to have the same list of sculptors bar two - steve himself and kev white - however they all have different aspects of skills and i do get to see some of the technical side of things which does increase an awareness and appreciation - theres some things jes has done recently that ranks with the best ive seen from our european brothers - brian nelson is achieving a finesse with plastics thats getting on par with metal and kev white has a beautiful understated but astounding grasp of realistic anatomy - steve does fine and clean the perfect painters figure - ask jes the same question ....
ReplyDeleteJAG is often referred to as the best sculptor in the world by other sculptors. Tom Meier is often mentioned in the same circles. I think much of this is due to a professional sculptors understanding of the level of work produced.
ReplyDeleteYeah, need to check out eBay for that book. I tend to crawl that place all the time when nourishing my hunger for the old miniatures.
ReplyDeleteTime for some auction snipinig...
Hey J.B.
ReplyDeleteI cant stress enough how big a fan of your work I am. I have several old White Dwarfs from the 80's with some of your art work in it, and i've followed a lot of your stuff through the years. I think its great to see you posting here on Steve's blog, great to have two awesome artists giving their opinions on miniatures here!
Its also awesome that you get to work with such talented sculptors as well! if you have time, can you ask Brian and Jes who they consider some of the best sculptors are? I know it'll be awkward for them to put themselves on that list, but I'd love to also hear who they think are some of the best... as I don't believe there is anyway of getting in contact with them (i've tried ... =( )
thanks J.B!
jes reads this blog - brian is a hermit
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty awesome! so many talented artist gathering on this one blog!
ReplyDeleteSorry J.B I had one more question thats always been on my mind. Jes and Brian are contracted to GW, does that mean they could never do commission pieces for people outside of GW?
Also, are you contracted only to do art for GW?
thanks for your time!
im the art director of GW - jes is the miniatures design manager - brian is a senior designer - and we are all full time employees and have been for ever which essentially means that we do not accept commissions - sorry .....
ReplyDeletea danger of highjacking steves thought provoking blog here so sorry......
ReplyDeleteNo worries John. The point of this blog is to inspire conversation. If it gets out of control then maybe I'll look into adding a small message board alongside it. But right now I think we're safe :)
ReplyDeleteWhat amazes me about Jes's work is that he manages to sculpt a model oozing with detail but makes it feel so natural and not over cluttered or overdone. You can see his appreciation for the design of miniatures in how his concepts transfer so easily to the sculpted form compared to most other artists / sculptors concept work.
ReplyDeleteBlanchitsu!
one aspect of the sculptors/designers job is to translate pace within a 3 dimensional form from what can be quite often a mass of drawn imagery - . quiet areas contrasting with busy areas of detail is not understood bi all - jes has a very advanced appreciation of such and will choose detail carefully - many of mi sketches will include many details and ideas which becomes useable information for the sculptor to make choices from but not to exactly copy as such .....
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, John tipped me off about the blog a couple of weeks ago...some really great insights in the previous posts, this one made me go all pink and shy though ;-] thank you for your kind words. John will know that 'pace' has always been an overriding factor for me, you sorta needed it when figures were smaller back in the day. Concept drawings are an interesting conundrum, I love John's stuff and actually find them easy to work from, it's all about the ideas, the mistake is to try to render them verbatim. I don't render my drawings in this way either. I use the proportions of the armature not the drawing and prefer to plan the pose in three dimensions, and liberally axe detail if it doesn't fit....the miniature is king!
ReplyDeleteThink of the concept drawing as a set of visual notes [that way we can ignore my dodgy anatomy and other faults]
Curiously, GW are far less rigid with their concept work than many of the continentals. Remember MIKH telling me that Rackham were pretty strict when it came to 'interpretation'.
I think this is another place where JAG scores highly, check out the miniature and the drawing for McVeys snake women, and see what he's added to the basic concept, that's some scary skills , right there...
......Oh and John, you know I'm not a manager, you silly fellowwe..
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog Jes, good to have your thoughts here.
ReplyDeleteMy personal thoughts on concept art always fall on the side of using it as inspiration rather than as an absolute. In any situation a sketch and a 28mm 3d sculpture are two entirely different things. I'd generally fall back on the thought that a concept artist knows how to draw a concept and a miniatures sculptor knows how to sculpt a miniature so let each of them do their job with as little constraint as possible. Hopefully that situation will leave you with the best possible product.
I've also heard that Rackham are very rigid with their concepts and Privateer too. In my experiences sculpting for GW I was always given a lot of freedom. Though I'm a much better sculptor than I was back then. Dark Age Games were open minded too, as long as I discussed changes with them.
sorry jes - i correct that statement - lets say inspirational guru - me im just OLD Father ART ....
ReplyDeletethank you for having me.................
ReplyDeletean understanding of miniatures can inform concept drawing, not just moulding issues, but scale needs to be taken in to account, the larger you draw, the harder it is to judge 'pace'........ i love the quick 'silhouette' concepts you see in computer game art books and the philosophy behind them....................
Have you seen the Treeman and Beastman concepts Stefan Kopinski has done for Maelstrom?.......well worth a butchers.........
Thats 'gnu' John, not 'guru' ;-]
That Maelstrom beast man is rather nice - especially from the torso up. The legs seem a little bit awkward to me...maybe 'lazy' is a better word. The tree man I don't like so much, but I've never seen a particularly inspiring one of those, I guess I'm possibly not the right person to comment on that. Anyhow, Jes's work borders on the miraculous as far as I'm concerned. The consistency of the quality over so many years never fails to impress me. Yet, I reckon it's your ability to make multi-part figures which actually look great when assembled which I love. And whilst I know sacrifices do have to be made between movement/compatibility, they always can be stuck together in so many ways, and just look...well...right!
ReplyDeleteThe Treeman and Beastman concepts are rather nicely done. I feel a little of the feel has been lost in translation to minis though...
ReplyDelete.....i thought they were a good illustration of some of the things we are talking about, especially as you can compare them to the finished miniature.......i know i'm particularly prone to 'lazy leg' syndrome in my stuff ;-]
ReplyDeletehey Mr.Jes Goodwin! great to see another legend of sculpting on Steve's Blog!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering, if you had to pick a top 2 or 3 best miniature sculptors who would be on your list and why ?
BTW, i'm really enjoying so many talented peoples' insight. I feel so privileged to hear all your thoughts!
that beastman is the bestist thing ive seen steph do ........
ReplyDeleteThis blog really is attracting some of the finest people. :D
ReplyDeleteI feel really bad now Steve after my other 'what about Jes' message.
Obviously I agree with you. As I said, for me it is the thinking behind the minis that makes them. The suspension of disbelief he achieves with the thought that goes in to how it would work if it was real whether it is a bit of technology or a creature, or a bit of kit ... does it for me.
I have a spare HrothYogg. If you want one drop me a line
(I have multiples of a lot of Jes's stuff).