This morning I learned of the death of long time fantasy artist Wayne England, he passed away last night on 02/09/2016, I don’t know the details of his death, nor will I ever seek them out. I will just share with you my thoughts about my time with Wayne England. Out of all the Artist deaths that have occurred so far in 2016, this one is different for me. Mr England wasn’t a contemporary, but rather a colleague… I was for far too brief a time lucky enough to have worked alongside him.

As many of you know I was once an Employee of Games Workshop, and while I poke a lot of fun at the insanity of working in a place that seemed to have paranoia cooked into its corporate culture, I did get to work with a lot of insanely talented driven people. One of these folk was Wayne England; we spent a far too brief period working together on the new layout designs (at the time) for White Dwarf magazine (for the Paul Sawyer era). I found his insight and passion for design invigorating and the challenge of working through several concepts a growing experience that made me a better graphic designer. He was a top bloke, full of fire and a little whimsy.

For those of you who don’t know who Wayne England is, he was a fantasy artist and if you played Magic, Dungeons & Dragons or any of the Games Workshop games you would have been exposed to his art. And although this was not the sum of his work it is what many will remember him for.

His style was almost marble-esque, his colors vibrant and strong with a carved in stone feel to his work, it felt solid, heavy and the texture, and detail he put into his work was simply… genius.

Thank you Mr England for my memory of working with you… Thank you for your art, your joy and sharing your passion with the world. My condolences to his family. RIP.