Storn

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Huh. I didn't think the mask was particularly hard to see. We just put a pattern on it, I guess the "white" should have been different than the white hair. A bit more yellow in the mask might have shifted it away from being confusing. Oh well...one to chalk up for another day. Here are some pics from Jeff's excellent scifi Aberrant game. First up is Princess Arabella played by Nikki, precog, telepath, my PC's principal and, well, love of his life. Then we have Pan. Pirate captain, brilliant hacker with cyberkinesis. Played by Keikei Next up is Bertrum, played by Kevin. Bertrum was really hard to draw, as he is a shapeshifter. He can turn into anything, a chair, another person, or animal. So what image could encompass that? In frustration, I doodle this for a laugh... And here we have two NPCs. Angus and Star General Jin Tao. Jin Tao is one of Arabella's suitors and a genetic engineered GRIN warrior. Angus was a rejected gene-GRIN warrior who started to follow Pan around when she went to a merc bar to get scuttlebutt on the downlow. I came up with Angus on the fly, even though I wasn't the GM. Hitting on Pan in a loud, booming (badly, horrible) scottish accent. I had the table laughing pretty hard. It was fun. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Yup. Sketches at the table, during the game, tend to be pretty quick affairs. I don't belabor much. I concede that is a pretty, lumpy object in his hand... but the Crimson Knives....which confuses things visually a bit... are an Aspect on the character sheet. It is part of the characters background and "schtick".

Re: Daily Art Findings Here is an Eberron character-- sorta a psychic rogue. And here is Crimson colored. He is from the most recent Spirit of the Century pulp noir game I'm in. Not a fantasy character, but he is ganged up with the psychic rogue. Y'all get an extra. And if you want to see the writeup/ stats of the character, I put it up on my google documents here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df5zsgg3_3c55n53 These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Here is an Eberron character-- sorta a psychic rogue And here is Crimson colored. He is from the most recent Spirit of the Century pulp noir game I'm in. And if you want to see the writeup/ stats of the character, I put it up on my google documents here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df5zsgg3_3c55n53 These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. The beat goes one. A wrap up of the 3 more "victorianpunk" pics. And one WWII character for Death Tribble. Not quite sure of her backstory. But he wanted an anti-vixen for the pic. No skin. No SS buxom domnatrixes. Just an iron cross around the neck. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. LOL. When I re-read my post, I saw the same thing. I shoulda put husky, as in dog, not husky as football linebacker! Oh well. This is why I'm a paint slinger and not a word slinger.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Its fairly big, about 13" tall. Here is one character concept, a husky, viking bard ... and 2 quickie starship sketches for Jeff's Aberrant/ Sci-Fi game. The big horseshoe thing is a stargate builder...which we teleported onto by accident. The thing is bigger than manhattan. Fun stuff. And there is a really rough, elegant top of the tech, and my rough attempt to get at that basic idea of sophisticated elegance, yet still starship-y. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I haven't done any character concepts in a bit. But I'm gearing up to do several. A couple of sketches from my own games are here too. First up, some victorian Rune Punk characters... Now. Crimson, from a new SotC "noir" game that my friend Judd is running... My assassin turned to good guy. On the run from Fu Manchu and the Crimson Knives... (oh yeah, when stealing, steal from the best... thanks Moench and Gulacy!!!) And another character, Sebastian Deitrich, from Jeff's super/future sci-fi game based on his original abberant universe. Sebastian is bred and born to serve his Princess Arabella (another player's PC). She is a precog. He is a teleporter. He is so totally in love with her, its funny... These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I have some 7th Sea type swashbucklers on my Photobucket... but not really pirates/sea dogs. I guess folks just haven't commissioned me on that particular sub genre.

Re: Daily Art Findings Here are three, an archer, a samurai with demonic form and a lich who is a ruler of country and is a bit of a progressive... These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Here are three, an archer, a samurai with demonic form and a lich who is a ruler of country and is a bit of a progressive... These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I wanted to avoid the cliche of a symetrical star. Just have seen that so many times. And I wanted her to be of simple lines. Nothing on her face, forehead. So, while those are neat ideas, they were not what came out of my noggin when I sat down and sketched her out.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Wacom Intuos 2. A few years ago, I did a re-imagining of a longtime stock character over at Hero, Grond, the Hero/Champion's version of the Hulk (although their Ogre filled a similar niche). Death Tribble asked me to do a version of mecha-godzilla crossed with the concept of Grond... and here is what fell out of my noggin.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Death Tribble commissioned this step by step process to be shown on my various threads. To talk about my process, how I do things. The character is "Star" and here is the write up I received from D.T.: "Star: A robust, cosmically-powered energy projector. Her uniform is a sleeveless unitard with a large silver/white star in the center of the chest. With her powers activated, the black takes on the appearance of a starfield and the chest embelm pulses with silvery energy." This is a pretty wide open description. For most commissions, I usually get a bit more info. But D.T. and I have been working together for some time. I think he trusts my vision. So first, I print out the character description, do any research for reference I might need. Star doesn't need any. I head downstairs to the Gimmie Coffee that is across the street... okay... that might be too much detail for y'all . I tend to do my sketches at bars and coffee shops, liking the noise and the chatter to keep me loose. So it is kinda part of my process. I tend to be pretty sketchy and loose at first... and I will draw in blue line (7mm mechanical pencil blue lead) (which I can eliminate in Photoshop if I scan in pencils to color over, and if scanned in black and white from inks, it won't show). I tried to come up with a pose for Star that was a bit different for a "cosmic" character. I wanted nice curves, round forms, even in her hair. Because of energy effects, I'm already thinking colors. I need the star to show up nicely. I sorta channel Starman from a decade ago crossed with Dream Girl from Legion of Super Heroes. This is what snuck up on me (note: you can see other sketches seeping through the thin paper in my sketch book): Then I go over the blue line with pencil. I tighten up a bit more. Spot my blacks. I went for a retro bob hairstyle. Then it is time to ink, I use Winter Harvest Kolinksy brushes to ink (from Weber distribution). They are awesome. I thik I did this with a number 2... not sure, I have about 6 brushes all in about the same size. Note the bad smudging. I had a bit of clean up to do digitally. My window was open and the sketchbook had a page blow shut over my still drying inks. Ah... just another day in the life of an illustrator... Then the inked version gets scanned in. I take it to Painter (as my photoshop is no where to be found and I have a new computer). I work in several layers. While the inks were simple, the coloring takes a bit of time. I lay down flat colors and then go and build highlights, often using the oil brush for that. Lay in shadows with the digital watercolor tool, drying as need be. Both will get smudged using the Blender simple water tool. The stars get added over the ink, the energy effects are airbrushed in. And viola! Add my signature (which changed due to new computer, must download Coventry Garden font.) ...And there you have it. A character concept from start to finish. I hope this was interesting to y'all. cheers.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. yes. and that is what made the character fun to play. Art can be about contrast... drama is art... therefore....

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. At Gencon, got the chance to sit in on Mick Bradley's Vegas After Midnight game. Which was a total hoot! Here is a link to Mick's various VAM offerings: http://harpingmonkey.com/mick/category/vegas-after-midnight/ Anyway, I played Jackie Edo, the buddhist yakuza punk... who I doodled up. And the rest of the cool, oddball cast to follow. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Been away for a bit. Gencon prep started two weeks before Gencon. Then Gencon happened (howdy to y'all who stopped by my table, it was a blast!!!). Then I came back from Gencon with a ton of work on my plate... and came down with the unavoidable sinus infection. But. The body heals eventually and the art starts to flow again. Here are two mish-mash concepts. Samurai with shapeshifter form. And dwarven sherlock holmes via Shadowrun. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. First up: Lil'promo announcement. I will be at GENCON. I will have a table in the art section, selling my artwork. Please stop by and peruse and introduce yourselves. I look forward to meeting old friends and new! And Sons of Kryos, the podcast in my sig, has been nominated for an Ennie. We are in great company. If you have listened to Judd, Jeff and me on SoK (or any of the other nominated podcasts, like my fav: Have Games, Will Travel)... go vote! Now. Back to artwork. The next two are for my old GM, who is running the "Azure" based on part in the artwork I did for Necessary Evil. In NE, they were called the v'sori. He needed an alien martial artist and a special forces type to go along with the drones from NE. So, this is what I came up with: And these two are from a GURPs apocalyptic campaign, with (obviously) mutants in the mix. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. The client asked for buckler, flail and short sword. I came up with the hook myself... sorta outta a long-ago discussion on martial arts weapons and in how some Savate courses, training with umbrella and cane are part of the martial art. I modeled the boots more on 17th century colonial look, as a beaten up tricorner hat was requested by client. Sorta that british boot thang. Get a bit tired of the buccaneer/Conan floppy boot look after awhile. Just my random neurons firin' while working. No real agenda here.

Re: Daily Art Findings Urban Ranger, skip tracer. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Thanks folks for the nice comments on the "slutty & naive" comment I made. Urban Ranger, skip tracer. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Here is some artwork from our recent Reign session, doodles at the table: And some more commissions, been getting a lot of cheesecake commissions lately, odd how things seem to run in series for me sometimes. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Re: Daily Art Findings And here is a fantasy gnome illusionist..