Herophile Fantasy art

[Markdoc]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

You play Sengoku Markdoc? Do you ever visit our GRG forums to talk about it? I've been trying to get more activity on the boards, but it sort of comes in spurts.

 

Regarding the pic, VERY NICE! That wouldn't happen to be the new models DAZ released would they because that looks way better than their samples.

 

Heh, no I don't play Sengoku, though I did interact with Mark and the gang. There's always been some confusion since I had a Hero system game set in the Sengoku era. I called it "Sengoku" - since there wasn't a game of that name out at the time. Now I'm stuck with it

 

As to the models, no, it's a home made conglomeration made to the plan I used for the player's base in the old campaign - I didn't realise Daz actually had a japanese castle.

 

Now I'll have to go look!

 

cheers, Mark

[RPMiller]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Very cool. On all accounts.

 

Yup. They just came out with it about a week or two ago. It is currently sitting in my wishlist in fact. There are three components to it. The main building, surrounding walls, and the gate.

[RPMiller]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Here is a link to the full story: http://poserpros.daz3d.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57923

 

BTW, this isn't mine.

 

["V"]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Hope nobody minds me adding another of my Daz Studio pieces:

 

[Barwickian]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Thread, arise!

 

A character illo for the Chrysanthemum War game I'm putting together. Since it's set in the early Sengoku period, this woman's using the older style of sword fastening - tucking the katana into the belt and keeping it edge uppermost was a style developed in the later Sengoku period.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

It's the little thread that WOULD NOT DIE!

 

[Escafarc]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

This thread sound so Rule 34:D

[Markdoc]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

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Since the thread came back to life, here's a picture from last weekend's game: my PC and an NPC taking on two "demonic dire apes". Seriously!

 

cheers, Mark

[Christopher]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

This thread sound so Rule 34:D

I was expecting a thread about "in game" applications of this Rule.

But Rule 34 makes little sense without internet.

 

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Since the thread came back to life, here's a picture from last weekend's game: my PC and an NPC taking on two "demonic dire apes". Seriously!

 

cheers, Mark

Nice picture.

 

Sounds like some D&D game and the GM slapped the "Infernal" Template on soem dire apes. You can do that since 3.0 Monster Manual 1. It even increas their intelligence to 3 (the sentient beign minimum) so they could take PC classes to use equipment. Actually a quite nice combination, when you think about it....

[Markdoc]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Sounds like some D&D game and the GM slapped the "Infernal" Template on soem dire apes. You can do that since 3.0 Monster Manual 1. It even increas their intelligence to 3 (the sentient beign minimum) so they could take PC classes to use equipment. Actually a quite nice combination' date=' when you think about it....[/quote']

 

Yup. We've apparently discovered an attempt to set up a covert temple of Demogorgon (why, we don't know yet) so there's a whole reptile/monkey theme going on. We've fought a number of these apes, who are actually quite tough opponents: two of them came close to killing Ramor (the guy in blue in the picture) who's our toughest fighter, in the last session. It was actually a long desperate fight: the reptilian priests of Demogorgon have apparently been breeding and equipping these infernal apes as shocktroopers: in this fight they stood behind them, casting healing spells to keep keep the apes going. My character put a stop to that by hopping over the head of the apes to do a little priest-killin', but that left Ramor to deal with the apes - he got surrounded and almost killed by two of them while the other went on to deal some hurt to the rest of the party. You can see me returning to rescue Ramor in the picture

 

We won the fight in the end, but most of the group is pretty battered ... and in a bit over a week, we have our next session, where we get to see what's behind the big door! Given that the priests and their ape breeding project fought to the death to protect it, (plus the fact that it was behind a whole battery of magic traps) I'm guessing something demonic. My character's a paladin with an especial hate-on for fiends, so he's champin' at the bit to charge in there

 

cheers, Mark

[Christopher]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Yup. We've apparently discovered an attempt to set up a covert temple of Demogorgon (why, we don't know yet) so there's a whole reptile/monkey theme going on. We've fought a number of these apes, who are actually quite tough opponents: two of them came close to killing Ramor (the guy in blue in the picture) who's our toughest fighter, in the last session. It was actually a long desperate fight: the reptilian priests of Demogorgon have apparently been breeding and equipping these infernal apes as shocktroopers: in this fight they stood behind them, casting healing spells to keep keep the apes going. My character put a stop to that by hopping over the head of the apes to do a little priest-killin', but that left Ramor to deal with the apes - he got surrounded and almost killed by two of them while the other went on to deal some hurt to the rest of the party. You can see me returning to rescue Ramor in the picture

 

We won the fight in the end, but most of the group is pretty battered ... and in a bit over a week, we have our next session, where we get to see what's behind the big door! Given that the priests and their ape breeding project fought to the death to protect it, (plus the fact that it was behind a whole battery of magic traps) I'm guessing something demonic. My character's a paladin with an especial hate-on for fiends, so he's champin' at the bit to charge in there

 

cheers, Mark

Just taking the Infernal Dire Ape from the book, they get soem Damage reduction (5), elemental resistance (10), spell resistance, a "Smite good" and an overall Challenge Rating of 4. And if you make a bigger dire-ape (more creature Hit Dice) or add a class they could easily be a problem for even higher levels (the templates bonuses top out at 12 HD).

[Markdoc]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Just taking the Infernal Dire Ape from the book' date=' they get soem Damage reduction (5), elemental resistance (10), spell resistance, a "Smite good" and an overall Challenge Rating of 4. And if you make a bigger dire-ape (more creature Hit Dice) or add a class they could easily be a problem for even higher levels (the templates bonuses top out at 12 HD).[/quote']

 

Well, they definitely have "smite good" - they used it on me! They have class levels as well: in Ranger, I think, which gives them humans as a favoured enemy. All, in all, a good and challenging build!

 

cheers, Mark

 

Edit: and since we've been talking about this, and it's an art thread, here's a quickie closeup of my paladin PC, doing his usual shtick.

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[Barwickian]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Two very nice pics, Mark. Especially like the lighting on the paladin's skin. Is the fire postworked, or did you find a decent model?

[Barwickian]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

This is Melisande, Nina's elf in our currently-on-hiatus Fantasy Hero game. The pose on this is rather stiff; I should rework it sometime.

[Markdoc]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Two very nice pics' date=' Mark. Especially like the lighting on the paladin's skin. Is the fire postworked, or did you find a decent model?[/quote']

 

All post. For distant fire, or simple shapes, it's easy enough to get good rendered flames. But after years of trying to get decent fire in Bryce/Poser, I decided for closeups, it was easier to simply paint it in afterwards. I'm taking that approach more and more, actually - in many cases, rather than trying to render the details "just so", I'm using the render to get the basic outlines in place and now, I am learning to paint over the render to get specific details. The dire apes in the combat picture for example are just the good ol' Daz troll overpainted to make them look "gorilla-like", because the gorilla model I had (the freebie LE gorilla) actually looked kind of sucky.

 

cheers, Mark

[Christopher]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

I know it isn't exactly fantasy, but Mark's work did get me to download DAZ and the Free Stuff. Here is my try to make a Green Lantern homage, the "Green Light Girl" (I think about renaming her Emerald Girl):

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[Barwickian]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

That's pretty good, Christopher.

[Christopher]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

That's pretty good' date=' Christopher.[/quote']

Thanks. It tried something else. "Technique of hardlight shoe to the face":

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[Storn]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

I have been working on this oil painting off and on for quite some time...having started it in the middle of the Time Tribes project, then having to rush a couple of other jobs in front of it and lastly, having appendicitis and going into the hospital suddenly. I am fine and recovering. Just played light tennis saturday night. I can resume swimming in the lake this coming Saturday. So, no worries. But it did enforce a serious art break.

 

Past viewers might recognize this party as private commissions I did earlier in the year.

 

 

And lastly, I've got an Elven archer (or aka Noldor in Prophesy of Pendor).

[Storn]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Josh Mannon, the guy behind Within the Devil's Reach, is starting up another kickstarter. This time it is another 3 linked adventures connecting into Within the Devil's Reach storyline. Called Skies over Danbury. Although, from what I understand, you could do these adventures separately too. Both adventure books are for the game system Dungeon World.

 

If the kickstart succeeds, I will be doing the art for Skies over Danbury. So. I really hope that it does. I enjoyed doing the art for Within the Devil's Reach quite a bit. To give a little visual indication to both Josh and y'all of where I wanted to go cover wise, I worked up a preliminary sketch, very preliminary, and gave it a bit of a underpainting treatment.

 

I present it here to whet your appetites and to show a rare behind-the-scenes stage of what goes into a painting. Hope you like and I hope you will check out Josh's kickstarter link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jbmannon/the-skies-over-danbury-dungeon-world-adventures

 

Here is the underpainting for Skies over Danbury:

 

 

p.s. I haven't played Dungeon World yet, but after flipping through my swag copy of Within the Devil's Reach, I SURE DO want to. And it seems very cool how Within the Devil's Reach has questions of the players to set up parameters for the adventures to be forthcoming.

[Ndreare]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

And lastly, I've got an Elven archer (or aka Noldor in Prophesy of Pendor).

 

This one is great. I can easily see Gabe making her character based off of this image.

[Storn]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

This one is great. I can easily see Gabe making her character based off of this image.

 

Aww... music to my eyes!

 

My sister recently cleaned out my parents barn (just so you think I'm not heartless, I helped too). The barn had become a holding place for all kinds of treasures...and my sister held a huge garage sale to help with her books for college. One of these "treasures" is a bit of art I did, sometime between 10-12. I'm not sure how old I was. I remember doing this piece of art. It was during classes. I'm thinking 8th grade, but it might have been some other time too. So. Without further ado, here is a piece of art from the beginning of my career. The really EARLY part of my career. Hope y'all get a chuckle. I certainly did seeing it again.

 

Somehow, the concept of this early piece strikes me as an awesome concept for Primetime Adventures if I was playing with Aaron Sorkin, JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon. Dunno why.

 

 

And to see perhaps, some of my path... I recently got a chance to do three female characters from the same Exalted game.

 

 

 

[Storn]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Another in a series of Exalted females for Paul L. This one is a bit more horrific in its description as being during or just after bloody battle. And oh yeah, this is the first piece of digital art done with my combo birthday/Xmas present... a brand new, 22 inch, Cintiq!!!!! Oh, by all the angels of art, what a difference from a wacom tablet!!! I am one happy, jumping with joy, boy.

 

Note: It isn't completely digital, I did scan in fairly tight pencils done on vellum. All the color was done digitally.

 

 

Next is the first of three Angels that I'm doing for Xmas presents for Millie's family. I did a couple of angeds last time I was in Puerto Rico, on the spot, with cheap travel watercolors. We are heading for Puero Rico for my first PR Xmas, something I'm quite looking forward to!

 

Now, I'm taking my time and doing these in acrylic... a medium I haven't used in quite some time, but wanting to give it a go again. Inspired to go that route from a couple of coffee table talks with local friends n artists like Jeff Szuc and Steve Ellis!

 

It is interesting to be tackling Christian iconology... I am not a christian (very wayward jew, btw)... yet being an american, immersed in a Wasp environment, married into a Catholic one, it feels different to be painting angels as opposed to, oh, I don't know, valkyries or medusas from other religions. Like it is weird to be "right next door" to a subject matter, but apart from it too. It ain't like hundreds of famous artists haven't done angels or anything... sheesh. Yet, I feel somewhat blasphemous for tackling a subject I don't believe in..... I don't believe in medusas or valkyries... for the record.

 

As I was doing this, I was struck how similar doing an angel is and doing many a female superheroine. Maybe it is just my habits are so practiced they are now hard wired into my muscle memory.

 

Anyway, time to shut up and put up the artwork....

 

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Re the childhood piece, love the Disc Jockey! I'll have to make a character like that by that name for something.

[Storn]

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

 

Prints, Portfolios, Princesses and Poignards!

 

Okay, maybe not a poignard, but I needed a 4th "p" for my alliteration. The dude does have a rapier!

 

So, a couple of folks asked about prints of a couple of recent pics... you can find several pieces of art available for prints in all kinds of sizes and formats here:

 

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/storn-cook.html

 

Let me know if there are pics I've posted up that you would like to see as prints and I will put them up too!

 

Next, I have a new clipart portfolio up through LPJ Designs, featuring recent fantasy pics. Check that out here:

 

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/108714/Image-Portfolio-Platinum-Edition-23%3A-Storn-Cook?filters=0_0_0_0

 

And now! More Art (yah!)

 

First up, the next in the Xmas Angel series... here is my Cerulean Angel.

 

Next, is another in the Exalted series for Paul L. Although it is Exalted, working from Paul's descriptions, I am interpreting a more restrained visual look than the usual Exalted gonzo/anime/over the top stylings I've seen from other sources.

 

And lastly, a fencing Spaniard for Death Tribble...

 

Keep the comments coming, love to hear what folks think!

 

Til next time...