Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am an Artist and HEMA practitioner, living in Feldkirch and Graz (Austria).

Since my childhood painting has always been part of my life. It was one of my favorite things to do, worked also as an escape from a quite hard reality and lead to a kind of an obsession. I painted almost on everything like school tables, my school books, even walls in Kindergarden and elementary school. The love for painting continued during my whole school career. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to study what my heart wanted but what seemed to be reasonable.

In 2008 my life changed dramatically due to a chronic pain disease where my old life completely fell apart. After my diagnosis, I painted almost every day and what first was an escape soon developed into much more. I attended different art courses and taught myself basics and techniques to get better. I even got the chance to attend some exhibitions at Feldkirch and got my very first commissions there. I would say, I am a self-taught artist in a never ending development process.

HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) is part of my life since 2016 and soon turned out to be my biggest passion (apart from painting). I fell in love with the martial art, also got interested in the historical sources and gained more interest into other fields concerning HEMA and history.

In 2018 I started with digital painting and the combination of my two passions HEMA and Artwork. Since then I am painting HEMA and history related themes in different styles, digital artwork, pencil drawings, paintings on canvas and even artwork with historical techniques and tempera. Last year I created a nice HEMA calendar in collaboration with another artist and offer other special products like for example funny medieval rabbit pocket squares. 🙂

Working in both the digital and analog world of art supports my learning process to become a better artist, as both worlds have their specific advantages and disadvantages. Some people might prefer to focus on only one field but for me the switching is important to keep my creative inner source flexible and open minded.

What is your favourite period of history to illustrate?

For historical drawings, I am mainly interested into the Middle ages and the Renaissance. One of my favorite styles is the Art of Gothic Illumination. The complexity of the used materials, the arduous manufacturing process and how historical artists managed to create those beautiful, detailed and long lasting masterpieces like the Morgan bible is extremely fascinating.

I also like to paint modern HEMA motives or combinations of historical and contemporary times.

I saw your Morgan bible work which is excellent. Are you trying to use traditional materials in your work?

Yes, for historical themes on canvas or plates, I prefer to use traditional materials and techniques. I was doing research about art in the Middle ages and tempera painting was very common then. Tempera is an ancient medium, having been in constant use in most of the world’s cultures until the Renaissance, when oil colours gained more significance.

Tempera colours are very intense and lively and have a great light reflection. Moreover, I am more interested in painting a historical illustration with historical techniques and colours than using modern material. This means every colour has to be made absolutely fresh before painting and sometimes again during the process as it is drying very fast, which means a lot of additional work.

The technique also takes more time than any other I have used before (as tempera has to be layered, dries within seconds, does not make smooth colour transitions and if one stroke is done – it cannot just be corrected like on an oil or acrylic painting). Overall, since I am painting with tempera I have much more respect for the old masters, I mean I cannot imagine how Botticelli painted his “Birth of Venus” with tempera, this is just insane.

The ink however I do not make myself, not yet, but I use one with ingredients that come close to the recipes from the historical sources. Generally speaking, there are not that many historical sources about medieval art and not many masters have written a lot about how to paint and what materials to use, but I am reading everything I can get. Some sources are texts by Cennino Cennini and Theophilus Presbyter, as well as De Arte Illuminandi by an unknown Italian artist from the 14^th century.

How did the sword and buckler rabbits come about?

When studying medieval manuscripts, one cannot ignore the funny miniatures with snakes, dogs, strange hybrids and the cute rabbits with weapons, sometimes in hilarious combinations and positions. I like the rabbits the most, because they are a weird combination of cuteness and brutality, but mainly I think they are just very cute.

There are some famous sword and bucker rabbit illustrations in manuscripts but I am also doing my own versions of them and like to make Easter or Christmas greetings, pocket squares, shirt designs or other products with the medieval bunnies. I think, I just have a thing for these sweet little killer rabbits.

What are you working on next?

Currently I am working on another Morgan bible illustration with tempera on a wooden canvas. Moreover I am working on a publication project called “Ultima Custodia”.

What is “Ultima Custodia” about?

Ultima Custodia is a publication project by Michael Lammer and myself supported by the Sword and Buckler Group of my HEMA club INDES Graz.

We are creating a modern translation and extensive interpretation of the Royal Armouries Ms I.33 Towerfechtbuch. This book from around 1300 is an illustrated medieval treatise on fighting with sword and buckler.

Apart from translating and working on the content with Michael, I create all the illustrations for this project. These are meant to provide help in understanding the fencing actions we describe as well as to form an appealing graphical framework for a beautiful book.

Unfortunately, scans of the original pages of the manuscript are not free to use in a commercial product. To raise funds for these license fees we have gained supporters via our Kickstarter campaign and we are very grateful for their trust and interest in Ultima Custodia.

You can find more information here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ultimacustodia/ultima-custodia

Where is the best place people can commission a piece or buy prints?

I offer shirts, clothes and merchandise products for HEMA on Spreadshirt and Amazon; I have recently started to put art prints on FineArtAmerica.
Sometimes I produce special products with my designs or photos like HEMA calendars, pocket squares, dresses, scarves or masks. These and all links to my shops are on my website or my Facebook page. People can also get an overview of my work there and contact me if they are interested in a commission or a product.

I always feel very honoured if people are interested in my work. It means a lot to me.

Homepage:       www.bladenswords.com

Facebook:        https://www.facebook.com/BladenSwords

Instagram:      bladenswords_hema

I have recently refallen back down a tabletop wargamming hole and was recently introduced to Simon Hall – creator of MeG amongst other things. While not quite on topic, I think this is an interesting interview….

Can you tell us a little about yourself and wargaming?

My dad was in the RAF and interested in WW2 so from an early age I was into planes, ships and tanks.  I started building Airfix kits when I was 8 – I think my first one was a Panther. Several of us ended up playing battles with Napoleonic plastics and marbles – small ones for musket fire and big dobbers for cannons! 

At 11 I found my first wargame in a magazine and I was hooked. I found pretty much everything I could to read on the hobby and history from then on – raiding the school and town libraries every week. I wargamed through the ages starting with Napoleonics and WW2 and then on to Ancients, ECW and Colonials. From 1995 I played competitions and won the DBM world title 3 times from 5 attempts.

In the early 2000s I was a co-author of Field of Glory with Osprey/Slitherine, and then created my own rules in 2016.   I ‘retired’ from mainstream work and moved to near Cape Town to focus on wargaming and music (my other big passion).

What is your favourite period to fight or research?

I don’t really have one.  I like several for different reasons. And they have different challenges.

Ancients is a period I have loved a lot.  Researching it requires both piecing together of fragments and applying your imagination to try to visualise what may have been happening.  Much has been written by the victors of course, so some caution is required.  The Roman empire and the Greeks make great reading.  I have always had a soft spot for Japanese history.

Napoleonics is a favourite because to me it as the balance of infantry, cavalry and artillery about even.  It also has the story of one of the greatest innovators and generals of all time in Napoleon.  I used to do a business lecture about him being the original investor of the ‘business unit’ with his Corps and Marshal system.

WW2 has never left me after my early days. Now there are a lot of first-hand accounts published we can look at the war from new perspectives. Several of the personal accounts of senior commanders are great reading – e.g. Bradley’s ‘A Soldier’s Story’ or  Roy Urquhart’s personal account of Arnhem. 

Anything in your research surprise you?

Pretty much every time I move from what I might term “skim research” to in-depth I get surprises.  Writing rules across periods I do a mix of both.  I am finding it already with our new 2 Simons Show where Dr Simon Elliott and I focus on, and refight, a famous battle. Magnesia is a case in point where as we thought more about the accounts we have access to, we have developed more theories as to why Antiochus III would deploy in such and unusual manner.  Wargaming alternatives can then be a n excellent way to test things – such as how he would have fared with a more traditional approach to the battle.

For each set of rules going forward I am using one featured event to show them in action and add depth.  For WW2, I have been researching the defence of Rauray to the West of Caen on July 1^st 1944 by the 1^st Tyneside Scottish when attacked by 9^th and 12^th SS.  For Napeolonics I am using Quatre Bras. 

When creating rules where do you start?

The two Fs: fun and feel.  For me these are the two focal points.  They are games and need to play in an enjoyable way so we all want to play them repeatedly, hence fun. At the end of the day this is a social hobby in groups and encouraging such enjoyable face-to-face play is more important than ever in the modern world of tech games.   That the armies and game feel right is of equal importance, so that you get a sense of commanding an army and its natural character shines through.  So, if my rules tick fun and feel I am happy. 

MeG has been complemented a lot on both fronts which makes all the hard work worthwhile.  It has been fantastic to see a collaborative effort create over 650 realistic army lists for the period, and to make this available free online.  The new Pacto version brings the fun to a whole new group of people, as you don’t need a stock of large ancient armies to play.  We have also been using it here to play a 6 nation campaign and it is proving great fun.

Do you think playing battles from history help us understand them better?

For sure, as long as the rules used have a realistic feel to them – otherwise you have a serious risk of wrong conclusions. 

For example, I have played Waterloo 7 times now with 4 different rule sets. The refights tell you a lot about the battles and the roles of the main commanders.  Refighting the battle with fine weather and the Prussians failing to arrive puts enormous pressure on Wellington.  A sweeping attack around Hougomont, rather than getting over embroiled there, also causes major problems. But of course, in the FoG of war such things are not so apparent on the battlefield of the day perhaps.  Certainly, from the refights I have done, you can tell Napoleon was not present at his best that day.

Cannae is a great refight.  A right tussle between the Romans breaking a centre before being enveloped. Magnesia I replayed 3 times with different plans.  I think it explained to me why Antiochus III did what he did – and indeed it nearly worked.

What’s next for MeG?

Well for MeG itself it is primarily now for us all to enjoy it and grow the community. The input of 100s of players has largely optimized the game in its new form. It is now going from being a niche publication, known to only a few, to a mainstream one seen by many at shows and stores around the world. 

I hope we can encourage many people to come to events. My plan is to run “fun” events next to the “serious” competition,  so those who want to have an easy weekend learning the game or refighting a battle can join in.  MeG has the big plus that it can be played lightly for fun or fairly intensely – trying to get every move and the order of every move right.  I am hoping to build a large community of people who enjoy both of these, with gatherings that encourage both group of players.

We are growing the figure range with about a new box every month for several years. PSC has the rights now to do Lurkio, Corvus Belli and Xyston metals as plastic Ultracast figures.  So, watch out for many new Pacto armies starting with Corvus Belli Imperial Romans and Gauls.

More widely, the CCC system within MeG works for any period with the right adaptations.  In the coming 18 months you will see Divisions of Steel (WW2), Gloire de Guerre (Napoleonics), Renatio et Gloriam (Renaissance) and Battle for the Solar System (a sci-fi/colonial hybrid 1-1 skirmish variant).  The big vision is that once you understand CCC you can switch periods with relative ease – something I like doing a lot, but it is difficult if you have every different rulesets.  Watch this space ….  the journey has just begun.