Storn's Art & Characters thread.

[Acroyear]

Actually, if you set your tools right, you don't get that little white space on a fill. I don't fill, though, I multiply paint.

When the grayscale isn't stinky, Storn's given very good advice there... (I'm hoping I have a poor printing and the art isn't just stinky. Utility in my CKC is a silhouette....that image is useless). But yeah, it can be done. You just have to put out a little more effort and are restrained to the original artist's light source and shading styles which for many of us isn't a bad thing

[Nato]

Hey Storn. I commented a bit on it on the other thread, but I really dig this picture. And the style used to make it. I know it's a sketch, but that's largely part of the charm. The textured pencil strokes on the pant legs and near the fit are my favorite. Just gives it a lot of character.

As far as the character and the overall feel for the drawing, it honestly reminds me of Silvestri's X-Men run and those baddies the Reavers.

I appreciate the color schem myself. It shows some excellent restraint, which is a sign of a seasoned artist in my opinion. Great art is all about firm decision making and you've chosen your palette wisely.

OH, a question for you. I know you like to do your work in color most of the time, even if it's published in black and white. I was computer coloring in just grey before - but then I said "what's the point." I may as well use color. It doesn't take much more time, and it's just as easy to monitor contrast and value. My question is, do you tweak it for black and white publication after you finish the coloring? This is what I've been doing lately. I'll color it completely, but using more layers than I normally would. Then I convert it to greyscale. The separate layers make it much more convenient for me to alter the contrast between to shapes. Just wondering if this is perhaps a similar approach to what you use.

Anyway, thanks for sharing with us. Always a blast to see artwork someone uses in their game.

-Nato

[Nato]

P.S. - I really enjoyed following your boot camp thread on RPGnet. You have a great talent for teaching and critiquing. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll have time to get involved in the next one just for kicks.

[Storn]

Nato, thanks for your comments... Loved your Foxbat tank illo in UVA!

>>My question is, do you tweak it for black and white publication after you finish the coloring?<<<

About 60% of the time, I tweak after I've converted to Grayscale. I'm getting better at knowing what colors will do what when converting. It used to be about 90% of the time. I play just a tad with Brightness/Contrast... and usually a tad is all it takes. I feel that my stuff has been printing ok compared to Chris's. Chris's line work is phenominal, but the grayscale seems to get a bit washed across the board. Chris and I have talked about this. I really try to staying towards the light end of the spectrum... I suggested to him the same thing. This is where working in color helps me. A light yellow, next to a light blue will give me a nice range of Light grays when converted. They will be awfully close, but not identical.

I try to make sure that in the color version there is some white left, it seems to ground the color into a range that will work in gray. I also go from 0-70% Value and then skip to a 100% Value (black). I try to stay away from the 75%-99% Value range...it will all read as a black mass when printed, as opposed to 75%-99% Gray.

I did 5 illos for Millennium City (a low amount due to time constraints on my end) 4 of them where color. I was going to color the 5th, but I scanned in the grayscale work and I was happy with it. So that last one, I did some minor tweaking of Gray application. For what it is worth.

[Storn]

The continuing saga of UNTIL Black Ops is up on the Green Ronin thread of the same name as this one.

Someone mentioned wanting to know when i did that.

[Mavnn]

Thanks Storn!

[Tclynch]

Really enjoying both the writing and the COLOR artwork...

[Brutal]

Allthough im not a huge fan of watercolors (or whatever you call those kind of colors), that was some very nice art.

[death tribble]

I liked the picture.

[Storn]

Well, I wasn't going to finish this doodle. But I wanted to experiment with liquid acrylics on top of clear gesso for an underpainting. Usually I do gesso acrylic seal over pencils before oil paint...but the gesso, while clear, is kinda milky and dilutes the darkest darks. Something that is very useful to have when doing the overpainting.

So, this was to be a character drawing, but as I was building the character, it changed on me considerably... so I ditched this drawing, not overly enamored with it.

but it served as the perfect vehicle to test out my *new* underpainting technique. So I'm posting it here in case anyone finds a use for it. Because the pencil is sealed in, there is lots of little stray lines. While this was just a test, in a true painting, the whole surface would be covered and you would never see stray pencil lines.

[Acroyear]

*grumble grumble*

A couple days ago, I just designed a costume that looks extremely similar to that. The waist almost exactly and the upper body/sleeves pretty close (I had a few more darts in there). I'll scan it, you'd be amazed at how close it is...

Get outta may hayud!

[Nato]

Interesting technique. I had a teacher who worked in similar fashion using rabit skin glue.

So after you've sealed in your pencils with the clear gesso, it looks as if you've applied the paint in a very liquid form, almost like watercolors? I'll have to give that a try.

[Storn]

Nato, it was grey Koh-i-Noor Drawing ink.

But usually, I use FW Arcylic Artist Ink for most of my underpaintings. Usually a sepia or a brown.

I was just experimentin'

[Storn]

...or is that Kobalt Kid? I can't remember the right way. Anyway, this is a private commission from Rob Young for one of his M&M characters. A slightly retro look and a more traditional color technique than the last grayscale experiment.

Hope y'all like.

[Nato]

Hey, pretty cool image there. The character has a nice light-hearted feel to him.