More Sketches from Combat!

Earlier, we revealed some of the ground-breaking artwork for our new series Combat, and now we give you the second installment. In case you missed it, here was the brief our editor Nick gave to Peter Dennis

'Early on we identified that the artwork for this COMBAT series needed to build on Osprey’s traditional strengths, while finding new angles to help place the reader ‘in the action’. We hope to capture a real sense of dynamism and urgency in the figure plates, so the author has provided visual examples of authentic combat stances from period manuals, as well as the usual reference materials showing dress, equipment, weaponry, etc. Our inclusion of both front and rear views is intended to give a clearer picture of how equipment and weaponry was worn and carried in combat, as well as what it looked like as individual elements.

Following the focus of the series as a whole, the figure-plate artwork is strongly angled towards how soldiers actually looked in the field, rather than how they appeared on the parade ground or in camp. We were keen to get across the ‘human’ side in this figure art, too — the author explained what age the soldiers would have been, how long they’d been in action and how much sleep they’d have had, so the artist could incorporate these details into the facial expressions and stance.'

And here is some hint at the result...