Glenn Rane

Glenn Rane, known as "Raneman," is an illustrator and art director who spent about 19 years at Blizzard Entertainment and its former parent Vivendi. He painted some of World of Warcraft's best-known official art, including the box cover of The Burning Crusade and key art for Wrath of the Lich King and Battle for Azeroth, and later led art on Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal. He was also one of the Sons of the Storm, the group of Blizzard artists behind much of the company's concept and promotional art.

Career

Outside Blizzard's own games, Rane has also painted art for other titles, including the MMO Dark Age of Camelot and the box cover of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. Wowhead's 2021 report on his departure put his combined time with Vivendi and Blizzard at about 19 years, and listed his roles there as concept artist, creative art director, principal artist on World of Warcraft, and art lead on Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal.

His personal site and ArtStation profile describe a body of work that covers all of Blizzard's franchises: magazine and book covers, game boxes, web banners, logos, concept art, merchandise, loading screens and convention art. He was the "Fifth Son" of the Sons of the Storm, a collective of Blizzard illustrators whose members, as listed for BlizzCon 2011 signings, included Samwise Didier, Chris Metzen, René Koiter, Travis Thammer, Peter Lee, Mark Gibbons and Wei Wang.

Work on World of Warcraft

Rane's paintings were often the public face of a World of Warcraft release. Warcraft Wiki credits him with:

He also painted many cards for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, including cards from its Molten Core raid deck, and covers for issues 4 and 5 of the Curse of the Worgen comic. On Hearthstone, Wowhead noted his hero portraits among his best-known work.

Rane's art has little direct presence in the 1.12 game itself, since his major World of Warcraft paintings began with the first expansion. Through the TCG's raid decks, though, he did illustrate content from original raids such as Molten Core.

Later career

In May 2021 Rane left Blizzard to co-found Lightforge Games, a remote studio started by former Blizzard and Epic Games developers, where he became art director. CGMagazine reported that he had most recently been a lead artist on World of Warcraft and Diablo Immortal. Lightforge raised outside funding for its debut game, a role-playing game called Project ORCS, but in May 2024 Game Developer reported that the studio had laid off most of its staff and paused the project after failing to secure further funding. According to Warcraft Wiki, the studio closed in May 2025 and Rane now works as a freelance artist.

In 2025 he painted the key art for the Midnight expansion, which Warcraft Wiki describes as his first illustration for the game since 2018.

Sources

• Glenn Rane, Warcraft Wiki
• Art Lead Glenn Rane Leaves Blizzard Entertainment to Co-Found Lightforge Games, Wowhead (2021)
• Blizzard Lead Artist Glenn Rane Leaves Studio, CGMagazine (2021)
• Lightforge Games laying off "majority" of development team, Game Developer (2024)
• BlizzCon 2011: Sons of the Storm signing schedule, Blizzplanet
• Glenn Rane, ArtStation
• Glenn Rane, official site