These fine-art inspired Warhammer 40k Space Marine paint schemes are the work of Emma Svensson, aka hobby YouTuber Dice ‘N Demons. Svensson uploaded a video showing how she created a Van Gogh-Marine on Tuesday, following up with a splattery Jackson Pollock battle brother on Thursday.
“Van Gogh is cool and so are Space Marines, so why not combine the two?” Svensson asks in her first video. The first Marine is inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night, an impressionist painting that uses primary colours and violent brush-strokes to convey the emotional impact of a vibrant night scene in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
Svensson uses Akhelian Green Contrast paint over a white base to create the rich blue background. She applies traditional, opaque miniature paints with a flexible rubber sculpting tool to create the distinctive ‘brush strokes’.
Her fans suggested she should adapt art from the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock for the second Space Marine. Svennson picked Pollock’s ‘One: Number 31, 1950’, a piece he created by dripping paint across a canvas. Working from a white base coat with a Skeleton Bone contrast paint foundation, Svensson flicked multiple layers of paint over the marine to create the chaotic, highly randomised outcome.
The Pollock marine honestly looks pretty well camouflaged for urban warfare, and both figures are extremely striking. It’s an interesting turn for Svensson, who is best known for painting miniatures with a unique, extremely vibrant cross-hatch style. “I usually spend a bit of time building up the colors – especially for the brightest highlights. And then I use a lot of fluorescent paints”, she tells Wargamer. You can find more of her work on her YouTube channel.
Svensson started collecting Warhammer in 2017. “I just walked by a new store with Warhammer stuff in the windows, went in, asked questions and was immediately hooked”, she says. She plays both Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar. She doesn’t have any formal art training, but found fine art inspirational for her hobby, telling Wargamer: “I wanted to try something new, something with a focus on not just colour but also texture so I started looking at different painting styles and artists”.
Svensson isn’t a fan of planning, so doesn’t have her next project pinned down. She does think that we might see more art Marines, as well as “something like a Picasso-inspired Imperial Knight in monochrome”.
The creativity of the miniature painting community continues to astound. While at Warhammer Fest 2023 – when we weren’t queuing for a game of Warhammer 40k 10th edition – Wargamer spoke to Albert Moreto Font, the overall winner of the 2023 Golden Demon painting competition, and to Baharroth, who had turned the illustration The Coronation of Guilliman into a jaw-dropping 3D diorama.