Adrian Smith

Adrian Smith began his career in graphic design before turning to illustration and submitting his first drawings to Games Workshop. In 1992, he joined Fantasy Forge, where he worked on the science-fiction board game Kryomek, before following the company through its transformation into Grendel. From 1994, he collaborated with Wizards of the Coast, creating covers and artwork for Magic: The Gathering, then in 1996 he headed up the UK branch of the Swedish company Target Games. In late 1999, he returned to Games Workshop, where he worked alongside illustrators such as Karl Kopinski, Paul Dainton, John Wigley and Alex Boyd, becoming one of the defining artists of the Warhammer universe. He was particularly renowned for his work on Warhammer 40,000, where he helped shape its dark and realistic atmosphere alongside Ian Miller. He also illustrated numerous novels by Dan Abnett for Black Library between 2003 and 2008. His art book The Art of Adrian Smith was published earlier in 2003. Recognized as one of the pioneers of dark fantasy, he simultaneously pursued a career as a graphic designer for video games, working notably for EA Mythic and Ubisoft, while also developing the Broz comic art series with British writer Pat Mills from the 2000s onwards.