Storn

Cancer Benefit for Danielle snapshots My wife, Millie, is a professor of nursing at Tompkins Cortland Community College and her fellow teacher, Danielle, has been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She is a single mom of 4 and is an adjunct professor (no health insurance). So, we've been involved for the last couple of months helping to put together a benefit for Danielle. It was this last Sunday and it was amazing. Lots of people showed. Lots of gift baskets were raffled off. So. I did this painting to be raffled off. The couple who ended up winning it were thrilled. Saying it was to go above their fireplace and replace their picture of Jesus Christ. That was awfully nice to hear. That my artwork was going in lieu of Lord and Savior. They were so happy, it was a gift to me. Angel of Cancer Research About 3 weeks ago, Millie and I shaved our heads in support of Danielle. We had a mini-fundraising at TC3, where other students shaved their heads and folks paid a couple of bucks to touch Millie's head. On Sunday, I re-shaved Millie's head for the Benefit (I wanted to do mine too, but we ran out of time and had to get there!). Our neighbor, Denise, does these amazing face paintings and asked if she could paint Millie's head. Viola! Got the pic!!! Millie's Face painting at Danielle's Cancer Benefit I also had a table right next to Denise doing sketches for kids at the Benefit. It was fun. I'm only sorry that I thought of taking photos of my sketches at the tail end. It was really interesting. I did a lot of animals.... 3 owls, 1 buck, 1 wolf, 1 king cobra among others. Frozen characters were also the big request, I did 3 Annas and 2 Elsas and 1 Olaf. I haven't seen the movie yet, thankfully, my iphone could bring up reference on all of these things. So I got a couple of sketches from the Benefit to share. Not the clearest snapshots, I played with them a bit digitally trying to punch the contrast in Photoshop:

HUGE art dump! Folks, I've had such a horrendous time with my failing computer. I won't go into it, except I'm still down a video card (which I love having dual monitors, having reference on one screen while working on my Cintiq), but the rest of the machine is up and running with new motherboard, new processor, a bit more RAM, new power supply etc. But I've been plugging away at doing art, sometimes pilfering my wife's laptop and using my ancient wacom while the main puter is all in pieces. So, got a ton of images for you. First up, I was honored and lucky to get a chance to do the cover for "Wield!", John Wick's RPG on being powerful, mystical, highly intelligent and cunning artifacts and trying to get that lame brain barbarian who carries you to do the things you want him to do. Or that pathetically weak, sorcerer king to give you something for all that strength you lend him. Check out John Wick's Kickstarter video... On that youtube site are links to the pdf of the game itself. Seems really cool. So. Without more rambling, here is the cover! Hope you like! Next up, I have several commissions for Death Tribble I've been meaning to get up for some time, but computer woes, deadlines and sheer inertia have prevented my from getting these up til now. Here is a bobby with some kind of shadow powers... Next. Death Tribble wanted a straight up Kendo master, no apparent super gadgets or anything... Next, we have a huminoid crocodile. DT picked up on what I thought was pretty subtle Egyptian motifs immediately. Can't get nuthin past that guy... Next, a modern-ized Roman Legionnaire. I got this one today, having put it off for deadlines for the video card game, Clash of Dragons. I am not sure when I can show CoD artwork, still checking in with the client on that one. But this was one I really was looking forward to doing.

HUGE art dump! Folks, I've had such a horrendous time with my failing computer. I won't go into it, except I'm still down a video card (which I love having dual monitors, having reference on one screen while working on my Cintiq), but the rest of the machine is up and running with new motherboard, new processor, a bit more RAM, new power supply etc. But I've been plugging away at doing art, sometimes pilfering my wife's laptop and using my ancient wacom while the main puter is all in pieces. So, got a ton of images for you. First up, I was honored and lucky to get a chance to do the cover for "Wield!", John Wick's RPG on being powerful, mystical, highly intelligent and cunning artifacts and trying to get that lame brain barbarian who carries you to do the things you want him to do. Or that pathetically weak, sorcerer king to give you something for all that strength you lend him. Check out John Wick's Kickstarter video... On that youtube site are links to the pdf of the game itself. Seems really cool. So. Without more rambling, here is the cover! Hope you like! Next up, I have several commissions for Death Tribble I've been meaning to get up for some time, but computer woes, deadlines and sheer inertia have prevented my from getting these up til now. Here is a bobby with some kind of shadow powers... Next. Death Tribble wanted a straight up Kendo master, no apparent super gadgets or anything... Next, we have a huminoid crocodile. DT picked up on what I thought was pretty subtle Egyptian motifs immediately. Can't get nuthin past that guy... Next, a modern-ized Roman Legionnaire. I got this one today, having put it off for deadlines for the video card game, Clash of Dragons. I am not sure when I can show CoD artwork, still checking in with the client on that one. But this was one I really was looking forward to doing.

A couple of post ago, I mentioned not wanting to release the more "cover" oriented private commissions as clip art. Well, LPJ Design and I worked out a price point that, yup! We ARE releasing some artwork as Single Portfolio pieces. Yes, these are more expensive, but compared to a cover, which I charge from $400.00 to $1000.00 depending on complexity, these are a STEAL! So, if you are a publisher who needs some fantasy adventure artwork, please consider my offerings: Check out the Single Portfolios, 1 and 2, here: http://lpjdesign.rpgnow.com/product/121045/Image-Portfolio-Singles-001-Storn-Cook http://lpjdesign.rpgnow.com/product/121046/Image-Portfolio-Singles-002-Storn-Cook I'm about to enter into a contract with a ton of work that needs to be done in a month. So my posting will probably be a bit spotty, if non existent. I don't think I will be able to put up the artwork I will be working on for awhile. But it is fantasy art for "digital" card game. But to leave you with a bit of artwork, here is another Ten Ton Studio challenge. This week, it is Captain Marvel! I did this sketch on vellum with pencil and black color pencil... mostly the color pencil. I kinda like the waxiness on the smooth vellum. Here is the link to Ten Ton Studios. Voting begins tomorrow on it. http://www.tentonstudios.com/forum/index.php?topic=9973.0 And here is the artwork in case you don't want to go over to Ten Ton. Shazam! It's Captain Marvel!

Gauss Rail Gun Big Gee change him to a french patriotic gravity hero and viola: Legrange USanvil American Anvil Magnetic Belter

Painting on a different canvas I painted on Saturday. That is not particularly unusual for me. What was unusual was that it was on my friend Pete’s face. I’ve done a couple of wounds for my wife, when she does roleplaying scenarios for nursing students. My wife is a professor of nursing and recently, she “played” a patient who had fallen and had a huge gash on her leg, bleeding. The students have to access and figure out what to do. It is startlingly real for 1st semester students and they get all kinds of flustered. So. I’ve had some experience doing blood trails, wounds and puss with cheap make up. But Pete, who is a drummer in the heavy-metal Ire Clad, was doing a gig at the Haunt, here in Ithaca, on Saturday as a zombie. Pigment is pigment, hopefully, I could pull this off. So, here is my very first horror make up job. This is all brushed on. No cool airbrushes like on Face Off. Pete did the clothes with a belt sander for the distressing and watered acrylic through a spray bottle for the blood. I think his clothes came out better than the make up. But it was a ton of fun to do. Here be a link to Ire Clad’s own facebook page with more pics. https://www.facebook.com/ireclad And here are my pics! Also, unrelated, I needed to do a warm up the other day, so I decided to do the Ten Ton Studio’s sketch challenge. Which is DC comics’ Mad Dog. Come on by the Mad Dog sketch challenge thread and check ‘em out. You can vote on them too. So, if you like one sketch in particular, please vote, you do not have to belong to Ten Ton Studios to do so. Voting starts tomorrow (Wednesday).

The Devil is in the Details. Well, in this case, Devil is coming out of the arch way. Here is a commission done for my awesome patron, Paul C. This one was a lot of fun to do, especially while watching my beloved Packers beat the Ravens yesterday. (I have two monitors, so I can watch stuff while I work). But I did the finishes this morning, early afternoon. I had the layout in my head before starting the painting. I pencilled both the demon and Dana there on separate paper, scanned them in, created the cathedral and statuary in Manga Studio 5, combined it all in Photoshop and then did a semi-sorta digital underpainting. I have not released a lot of the Paul C commissions as LPJ Design Portfolios because the time that goes into them, I don’t want to release them at the price point those portfolios go for. So. If anyone needs some 2nd use printing rights for covers or what have you, these paintings will go for a lot less than 1st use artwork. And I will make some extra monies that is more reasonably compensation.

The Devil is in the Details. Well, in this case, Devil is coming out of the arch way. Here is a commission done for my awesome patron, Paul C. This one was a lot of fun to do, especially while watching my beloved Packers beat the Ravens yesterday. (I have two monitors, so I can watch stuff while I work). But I did the finishes this morning, early afternoon. I had the layout in my head before starting the painting. I pencilled both the demon and Dana there on separate paper, scanned them in, created the cathedral and statuary in Manga Studio 5, combined it all in Photoshop and then did a semi-sorta digital underpainting. I have not released a lot of the Paul C commissions as LPJ Design Portfolios because the time that goes into them, I don’t want to release them at the price point those portfolios go for. So. If anyone needs some 2nd use printing rights for covers or what have you, these paintings will go for a lot less than 1st use artwork. And I will make some extra monies that is more reasonably compensation.

Here is some work I did awhile ago, but got permission to post. It is for a virtual card game for facebook, and the working title is Phaeton. I don't know how far along it is, or quite how it is played. But the core concept is based around some kind of school for teen supers, ala X-mansion. My friend Steve Ellis was lead artist and art director on this one, and it was both fun and tough to work with the constraints and character concepts he had set up. Tough in that we have very different ways of working, especially when it comes to inking. So, I was trying to come close to his inking style. But that was fun too, because it pushed and prodded me to really think about how I do things and I learned a lot. So here are a smattering of images that I done for the game.

Heh. Yup, totally going for the Raiders vibe with that pic, was part of the description from the patron. Maybe I made it too obvious? I purchased today at the Standard Art Supply in Ithaca, NY, a new white pencil. It is a big, huge, thick white pencil that I hope doesn't break like my prismacolor white pencils always do INSIDE the pencil part. A tip breaking is fine, I can resharpen, but I hate when a color pencil breaks multiple times inside the wood and the lead starts falling out. Grrr. So this was a quickie little sketch that I did at a coffee shop. I liked it, so I scanned it in and posted it for funnsies... not finished artwork by any stretch. The new pencil, by the way, is for Lyra, called, appropriately, "Color-Giants" and made in Germany. While I had a pencil sharpener, it is too fat for it and I didn't have my usual pen knife, so a bit awkward and clumsy for detail work...but I liked the feel for it. Hope when sharpened by a knife, get a bit more of a point to work with. At the moment, it is bit more like a crayon. But I like the solidity and feel of the pencil. The tip might break, but the lead won't break inside the wood due to any kind of normal wear and tear.

Paul C is one interesting patron. He has me do the usual single figure commissions for his fantasy game. But then he turns it up a notch and gives me these scenes to do with the previously done characters. And I get to do ACTION! I like doing action. A lot. These are a lot of work, but boy, both of these were SOO much fun to do. Getting to do monsters, neat locales and heroes in motion. You know you are having fun when working late at night and your wife calls you to watch something and you can't tear yourself away. I hope that comes across . Don't get me wrong, I like introspective scenes, single figures, landscapes...heck, I like doing pretty much all art. When I haven't done black and white brush/ink work in awhile, it is really nice to come back to that medium... or if I've been doing a lot of digital, it is nice to pick up an actual paint brush. Both of these are digital, but the Black Dragon one was done over a very loose thumbnail, because I liked it a lot better than the pencils I was working on (more energy) from that thumbnail. Which I promptly abandoned about 1/3rd of the way through. Conversely, Marilith was done from pretty tight pencils on bristol. Both times I did sorta digital underpaintings with a tone layed down, punching the blacks up a bit and then going in with white to pick out highlights. I'll shut up now and show the art.

Well, my site caught hacked again, after I wiped out everything. Then I rebuilt some of it, so it got infected yet again. So, I went to Securi, spent the money and had them clean the site and together, a bit more security (hopefully) was put into place. Meanwhile, I've been getting artwork done. Here are a few pieces! Here are one from Paul L., his last of his oddball religious illos he had me do. And the Decathelete (my title) for Death Tribble as a new take on the "weaponmaster" archtype on super-hero/villain. Working a lot with toned paper on these, doing both pencil to darken, and white acrylic for highlights. Then working with multiply, normal and color overlay levels in Photoshop and Manga Studio. I'm kinda digging it.

Got another foursome for ya. 3 from Paul L. and these are bit strange.... I love 'em. I've got one more to do soon for Paul T., but it is a bit more involved. It is so fun to do strange. And the karate Elvis is for Death Tribble.

I wanted to post this earlier, but I've been rebuilding my website after it gathered a horrendous virus. I just completed a bunch of fantasy commissions and they are compiled into one of LPJ Design's Storn Cook Portfolios, number 25 to be exact! So, if you are looking for good resolutions of my artwork for clip art, look no further! Link here: Storn Cook Portfolio # 25 Here are couple of samples from Portfolio #25 (and you can see all of the art of any of the portfolios before purchase, no blind buys, over at RPGnow). Kind of a strange selection because I was asked for THREE sitting poses. I rarely get asked to do single figure commissions with specifically sitting situations. Fun! Also, check out my new banner art for my website, you can see it up top on my web/art/blog/site. And put here for showing off sake:

Long Hiatus I've been very busy this summer, some of it not art related, some of it was. Went on a very nice vacation to Salem, Oregon with my wife to visit her daughter. Had a wonderful time. Came back to Grassroots here in Ithaca (Trumansburg), NY, 4 days of bands from around the globe. Just 4 miles from our house. Unfortunately, Millie, my wife, got some kind of allergic reaction to something and we ended up waiting in a lot of medical waiting rooms. She is fine now. We are not quite sure what triggered it. And I've been working on doing "plates" (re: backgrounds) for a movie... off and on. Which was really fun and difficult. Lots of new terminology to learn, lots of hard mental thinking trying to marry the actors in front of the green screen to the creators vision of what the background was supposed to be. Really neat job. I hope to share some of that soon. Right now, I have 3 Legend of the 5 rings card art on my table and I'm pleased with how they are coming out. I'm doing 2 traditionally (combo of acrylic underpaint, oil finishes) and 1 digitally. But all three start out as pencil drawings. Commissions really took a back seat while doing the movie job. But I've gotten a couple done recently for Death Tribble, both anthromorphics. One, of course, is a bit of a pun... courtesy of DT. I do love a bad pun! Presenting Hippochondria. Zebra was kinda interesting, because the description pushed him towards "Brick" archetype instead of the speedster like archetype. I love going against type. Check 'em out!

First off, lets get the marketing/business thing out of the way first. Its been some time, but I just released another clipart Portfolio from LPJ Designs, the 24th! And this is a big one, 8 pics of art!!! I really appreciate all the commissions that I get, to continue to be able to provide this reasonable priced art for indie and small publishers. So thank you all who give me your character concepts to bring to visual life. The link to the the portfolio is here: http://lpjdesign.rpgnow.com/product/113898/Image-Portfolio-Platinum-Edition-24%3A-Storn-Cook and remember, you can preview the entire portfolio (or any of them) before buying, so you know exactly what you are getting. Next up, Paul C. has me take concepts I've already illustrated, from his games, and put them into actual scenes. It is a ton of fun and Paul's descriptions are excellent and I think I've really gotten better at painting from the practice. First up, Vampire and Tiefling vs. Dryder. This is my first all-acrylic pic I've painted in quite some time. I use acrylic often as an under painting, but after talking to fellow artists, Jeff Szuc and Steve Ellis, I decided to use clear matte medium as my glazing medium, instead of water. I tend to like to sneak up on color with glazes and tints. With water, I always got this kinda blotchy glazes and tints and wasn't happy with it. With matte medium, I got a nice even distribution and it handled like oil paint. Score!!! And I decided to not really go for a cover format, allowing myself to use all the space, especially at the top for action. Commissions are my experiment time. And this next one was a real experiment for me. I did the WHOLE thing digital. Now, I tend to do somewhat tight pencils for paintings. Here are the pencils for VnT vs D above. V n T vs D sketch Then I went in on that and did a fairly tight underpainting. But here is my digital sketch, which, was made possible by my cintiq and Manga Studio 5 made the perspective stuff really quick. So, really sketchy and loose. Paul asked for a stone golem, which I slipped sideways in concept to a stone marble golem. This painting is "designed" to be a cover, even though there is no actual product for it to be on. But after the Dryder painting, I didn't want to get lazy in thinking about that. And here is the finish. I really like Manga Studio 5 more and more. I used it for about 70% of this digital piece, bouncing to Painter and Photoshop for specific functions. Manga Studio's pencil and oil tools are few, but I really dig their them. And the blending tool is as good as Painters, which I love...and far superior to Photoshop's. So. There you have it. A peek behind some recent experiments. And by the way, these are both available as prints at: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/storn-cook.html?tab=artwork&deleteartworkid=3825803&page= Also, if there are any publishers who want 1st print rights at a reasonable rate for either (or both), drop me a line at storn.cook@gmail.com. These won't ever be in a clipart portfolio, as too much time went into them as well as the specificity of their narrative.

huh. I can only see the first page of this thread.

Got three femme fatales for ya! The first is another Death Tribble special, I called her Jewel, we didn’t really come up with a codename besides that. Jewel Next we have two ladies who are for an author’s upcoming fantasy novel. I don’t know much about it, just got a request to doodle up his creations based on his descriptions. When he gets his work up and out, I will certainly share it with y’all. Reeka Zaama

So, the series of modern vampires and their prey and hunters I've been doing are for a collection of characters for a novel by Paul Leone. Here is Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Vatican-Vampire-Hunters-ebook/dp/B00BRIENTS And here is the link to his website with cool notes and background stuff: http://paul-leone.com/miscellany/ And here is another one of the above mentioned characters, fresh off the Storn Art table. Next up is a "post-modern" superhero... And then we have fantasy duo versions of Caliban and Prospero

Re: Herophile Fantasy art Oh, I took to the Cintiq like duck to water. It was so easy after using a wacom tablet for years. To look right down on what I was drawing is SO huge. I can now actually draw and ink, which I couldn't do before, I could only paint in lines that scanned in. I think my inking by hand is still a bit more vibrant than the digital inking, but it is pretty close. And I think my pencil work is still considerably better than drawing on the Cintiq, but for certain things it is awesome (like blocking in large areas). Here are a couple of fantasy pics. Trying to get a tad more movement and action into these character concept shots. It isn't always appropriate, due to the tone or personality of the character... but I try to remember to do action occasionally instead of just a pose where possible. Let y'all be the judges... enjoy! I've done Wilson down there twice before. He has been upgraded with mystical armor, as per the patron's request. And to make this guy's 2 handed warhammer a bit on the large side. I aim to please. Should I have pushed it even further? To, say, some anime or online MMO stylings of large hammers? I still shirk towards the realm of "somewhat believable . Again, y'all be the judges!

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Here are a couple of fantasy pics. Trying to get a tad more movement and action into these character concept shots. It isn't always appropriate, due to the tone or personality of the character... but I try to remember to do action occasionally instead of just a pose where possible. Let y'all be the judges... enjoy! I've done Wilson down there twice before. He has been upgraded with mystical armor, as per the patron's request. And to make this guy's 2 handed warhammer a bit on the large side. I aim to please. Should I have pushed it even further? To, say, some anime or online MMO stylings of large hammers? I still shirk towards the realm of "somewhat believable . Again, y'all be the judges!

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. First up, a couple more of the Vampire Hunters club. I will have more details, as in a link, when that becomes available from the client. Joe. Vampire Hunter Sister Howley. Vampire Hunter Then here are two more from Death Tribble. A shooter and a Virgin airlines air stewardess with super powers. The model used for the Virgin airlines gal is the same model that DT ask me to use for one of our very first collaborations, Brittania. Shooter. Virgin Air Stewardess super heroine

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Robert, of the Do Not Approach-- Mutants and Masterminds villain gallery kickstart, wrote me with a correction. The link in the previous post was to an older kickstart, here is the link to the correct one: http://kck.st/TlXrpB. I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience. Here is a fresh off the tablet commission, the first of 7, involving vampire hunters and their prey.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I never saw the bride of Armin Zola. Not that my idea is anything particularly new or creative. But I do like the sleekness of the armor combined with the woman's head in her chest.

Re: Herophile Fantasy art Back from 2 weeks in Puerto Rico! Back to the studio! Back to the drawing board! While I haven't posted much art of late, I have been busy doing art and now I can share some of it with you. First up, another oddball concept from Death Tribble. This time I was the one who pushed for doing the head inside the chest...originally, it was supposed to be a helmet with water/fluid suspending the disembodied head. I wanted to push the concept just a tad further and this is what I came up with... Additionally, it is the first time I've done digital inks in a long time, and the first time on my wacom Cintiq. I was pretty fast and more importantly, happy with the result. Much, much easier than inking on a wacom tablet. Next up is another private commission... Warrior with mystic sword.. the patron went into some detail on how the sword was all jaggedy and energized. Next are two images from the first kickstarter I'm discussing today. These are from "The Skies of Danbury"... a follow up to the "Within the Devil's Reach" adventure. This is for the game, Dungeon World. The cover, followed up by an interior. You can find the already-funded Skies of Danbury kickstart here: And for superhero lovers, this is an image for a Mutants and Masterminds Villains pack. Link to that is here and this worthy project is NOT funded yet, so it could use your help: note: This was also digitally inked.