Stunning fantasy illustrations from scratchboard artist Nicolas Delort

Date
7 October 2014

Before I write anything about illustrator Nicolas Delort I feel like full disclosure is necessary; between the ages of 11 and 14 I spent all of my pocket money collecting and painting Warhammer models and most of my saturdays hanging out in Games Workshop, which means I’m predisposed to LOVE epic fantasy artwork, like Frank Fazetta, Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo.

I’m also a sucker for 19th Century illustrators like Arthur Rackham and Aubrey Beardsley. My opinions on Nicolas’ work are therefore entirely subjective and I’m likely to gush a fair amount.

Nicolas’ work combines both of the influences mentioned above – masterfully intricate detail of traditional engraving techniques and balls-out bizarre fantasy characters – into a breathtaking body of work. Unusually for an illustrator he works in scratchboard, a medium usually associated with hobbyist artists, but the images he creates are far from amateurish. His extraordinary draughtsmanship has been lent to a wide variety of fantastical subjects, including personal interpretations of Where The Wild Things Are, reimaginings of scenes from Harry Potter novels and background artwork for video games like Diablo – all of which are transportive in their sheer scale and precision. He’s also done a lot of work for the Games Workshop, which obviously earns him my everlasting fandom. VERY cool indeed.

Above

Nicolas Delort: The Cliff

Above

Nicolas Delort: End of the Road

Above

Nicolas Delort: The Book of Tyrael

Above

Nicolas Delort: The Book of Tyrael

Above

Nicolas Delort: The Book of Tyrael

Above

Nicolas Delort: Penelope, Queen of Ithaca

Above

Nicolas Delort: The Waking That Kills

Above

Nicolas Delort: Wicked!

Above

Nicolas Delort: Where The Wild Things Are

Share Article

About the Author

James Cartwright

James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.