The cover reveal for my new novel Ghost Warrior was one of my most popular Facebook posts ever. As much as I’d like to think it was all down to the excitement of my new Aeldari novel, I suspect much of the popularity was down to the stunning cover art from Anna Lakisova. Maybe it was just down to the fact there’s a cat in the picture, because y’know… Facebook.

Anna was kind enough to answer a few questions about her work.

Can you tell me a bit about your work as a freelance illustrator, and how you came to be working for Games Workshop / Black Library?

I started to work as a freelance artist after moving to France in 2014. Before that I worked as senior artist in a little video game company in Ukraine. A few years later I was contacted by Darius Hinks at Black Library, who proposed that I do some art for Games Workshop, and I was very happy to accept.

Did you have prior knowledge of Warhammer, Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 or was it all new? Are you or have you been a gamer?

To be honest I did not know much about the Warhammer worlds before, but I had a visual knowledge about it, because I follow many great artists who did fantastic pieces for GW.

The colour palette and background for Ghost Warrior are so atmospheric, and perfect for a story about the Ynnari. What sort of direction did you receive from Black Library, and how much did you get to create yourself? Were there any particular challenges painting the cover of Ghost Warrior?

There is always some challenge. I chose the color palette based on painted miniatures of Yvraine, her Gyrinx and Visarch. And I decided a blue cold background would be good to attract all attention on the characters.

But I had a little challenge with Elder’s architecture, because there’s not much references for craftworlds. So I need to imagine it by my self, and it was perfect to me, because it was very close to my art style: the smooth, streamlined shapes, I find it very similar to art nouveau. And of course I got a great and very helpful art direction from Black Library’s art commissioner Rachel Harrison.

Your website has a range of artworks from character studies to full battle scenes – do you have a favourite style or subject?

As you can see from my portfolio I’m a fan of fantasy/fantastic art. I love storytelling illustrations, with expressive and dramatic light. So that’s why it’s fun to work on illustrations for GW.

Can you share one of your favourite pieces you have created, and tell me a bit about it?

I don’t really have any favorite art from my portfolio, because like many artists, I’m very demanding of myself.

But I like the “I am Grr…Bane” illustration . It was done for the Comicon Art Challenge. The theme of the challenge was to combine the superpower of two different comic heroes/villains to create a new superhero. So I chose to merge Bane and Groot. It was different from what I used to do, but very interesting.

“I Am Grr… Bane” by Anna Lakisova

You can see more of Anna’s art over at www.anna-lakisova.com, and if you’d like a print of the artwork for Ghost Warrior, it is now available to purchase over at Warhammer Art (I’m hoping to get one of the aluminium prints for my office).

Thanks again to Anna for taking the time to answer my questions (and for producing such an amazing cover for Ghost Warrior). I hope people will judge this book by its cover.

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