Storn

Strike Force is my fav. followed up by Watcher of the Dragon, which unfortunately, my art printed too dark, but is an excellent book of martial artists and my GM has used some of the back story, incorporating into our own campaign. 3rd: Classic Enemies. Which probably got more use from me as a GM and my co-GM than any other support product. It is not my favorite due to the imagination in Strike Force and WotD is so much higher and influenced the way I build my worlds.

I have not seen the Catsuit thread. I looked for it, but could not find it. Are you asking if I did a commission based of another's picture/photo? The general rule of thumb is that you should change the image 60%. So, if there is a photo of a woman wearing a catsuit... and I completely change the pose, but there is a likeness in the face... that is cool. If I trace the pose, keep the clothes and there is a likeness in the face... that ain't cool. If it is DC's Catwoman and her particular costume... that is tricky. REally, it is illegal for me to draw a DC character unless it is for portfolio purposes to show DC themselves. I'm not even allowed to take that comic book page and approach Marvel to demonstrate my abilities.... Now, it happens all the time anyway, because no money is exchanging hands when you show a portfolio to 20 art editors over 5 comic book companies. A blind eye is turned. And certainly there are many artists who do published characters and sell them. (happens at Cons ALL the time, right under the noises of the companies who own the characters). I've even done it myself. But as far as I know, its not legal.

I ran my black ops game last night. If you are interested.....The continuing saga is over on the Green Ronin boards: http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=52623#52623 And here is an updated Gunmetal Silk picture that I did for the game. She is an important NPC for awhile now, as she is the twin of Neil's PC. It was fun re-visiting a published character, that I actually illustrated many years ago.

I like Marvel's Speedball in Busieks first 2 or 3 years of New Warriors. couldn't stand him in his own comic. Anyway; Here is a private commission for a fantasy game. Here is Viktor. Paladin of a sun-god. Flaming sword and shield enchanted to work without a wielder in protection of said Viktor. Works in certain superhero settings.....

Just off of Evergreen (btwn 10 and 11 mile). My house front view faces the golf course, although cannot see it through the trees. Anyway, here is yet another character from Neil's RDU champions game. This is a player character called Ombra ("shadow" in Italian). And is a mimic and impersonator as well as a very tough and defensive mini-"brick". Done with digital "watercolor" over pencils.

Here is a private commission for I believe is a Mutants and Masterminds character... it might be Champions. The character is from the fertile imaginings of Paul Cocker. Forgive me Paul if it isn't M&M and something else. Dragoon. btw, the two figures are one and the same, due to mystic transformation. Although, cynical P.I. and his pet mandragon could tell a few stories I bet...

hey Mike, Spriggan partly inspired me to start my Black Ops campaign. Which is about to significantly change (the players wanted a bit more autonomy... and are going to retire from Black Ops, but keep their fingers in as paranormal mercs.) So... nice write-ups. Thanks!

Re: Speedball's "Storn Cook Original" costume YOu bet Geoff! Lunch is on me! .

Ok, y'all thought Yonder was pretty hokey. Check out this dude. Some mix between Namor's tiger shark, Legion's glowworm guys (ferget name) and your standard brick body.... ... sheesh.

Standard martial arts pose, yawn.

Ok, this guy is a totally weirdo. I must have had my circle template that day. I have no idea why he has a "Y" on his chest. The only thing I could think of to name the scan file was "Yonder". What a dumb code name. Yup, he might be one of those super villains whose sole purpose in life is to just get the snot beat out of him because he is simply an enormous doofus. ...and no... I'm not on crack.

-I call her Energetix. I have no clue why. I have no clue why I doodled her in the first place. Pretty standard energy manipulator pose. I like the short hair though... at least that is kinda different.

Often when I'm playing in the long running Champions game, I have my sketch book and I doodle. I'm actually quite good at paying attention and doodling, so my GM is quite lenient. I scanned a bunch of these in today. Some are from this week, some are from about 8 months ago. I don't have any preset notions when i do these folks, they are generic superhero/villain archtypes. Often, my GM will make characters out of them. These are a pencils sketches...and let me emphasis... these are doodles. I'm actually doing something else while I'm doing these. So don't hammer me over the head over anatomy or perspective... they are just silly sketches. Maybe some of you can get some use outta these for your games.... This first one I called Neutron II. There is a published character called Neutron in the Champions Universe and this one sorta reminds me of him. Maybe its his long lost twin brother or something....

Nato, Speedball pens would certainly have a higher profile name. No, Speedball comes his name the real HARD way. The character was a Heroin Junkie and stumbled on some, bad -a$$ formula that transformed him into the speedster he is today. But it took him quite some time to kick the heroin habit. All the Mavericks have a pretty hard road to redemption that they've been walking, my character was ex-viper assassin.

My current turnaround? Hmmm... I have two commissions in my "to do" list. Probably about 2 weeks at this point (Commissions have to be fit in around publisher's jobs too and I have a decent workload of those as well). As far as how large reference pics? Uh, all I need is 72 dpi... I don't need printable, high resolution pics. Just shrink the stuff down. I think MS Paint can even do that (not sure about that claim, I've been using Photoshop forever now).

Here is a much beloved character in Neil's RDU champions game, Speedball, played by Geoff. Geoff has moved to NYC and doesn't get to play often, but came back to Ann Arbor this weekend for a visit, where we did managed to fit in a great game of the Mavericks. Neil, nice guy that he is, commissioned this pic for Geoff.

Trebuchet, I wasn't blaming you.... It just occured to me that it would be very nice to have that info and not have to do all the math. Then I look at Ultimate Vehicle and see that there is NO mph (or I would have accepted Kilometers as well) given for any movement. I hate to say this, but that is a huge flaw in the book. It is supposed to be a quick aid to any Hero game, right? Now, I do not know about you folks, but the top (or high) speed of the vehicle is OFTEN useful for me to know... not so much for combat... but for travel. How long does it take the mini-sub to cross the English Channel? How long does it take the flying mini-sub to fly across the U.S.? Stuff like this comes up in my games fairly often. As I tend to run international games in Champions and even science fiction like Cyberpunk. If I have to work out if an F-16's mph simply to see if they can make it from Brandenburgh Air Force base to where the supervillian is in time, because the players unexpectly called for back-up in the game, during a time sensitive issue... then the Ultimate Vehicle is not much of an aid and reference as it could be. I will have to look else where for that info. Then the MPH chart in Ultimate Vehicle goes to a measily 50"/6 speed = 224 mph. What?!!?!?!?! Great for determining the speeds of sports cars, but prop planes in WWII go faster than that! Not to mention helicopters, jet planes, the space shuttle, right up into science fiction vehicles. Am I being lazy in not doing the math? Yes. I wanted it done for me. That is what a compendium should do. If I build a vehicle from scratch, then I will certainly do the math.

It would be useful to know how fast it goes in MPH and knots....

Not the most superhero-y art. But maybe someone needs art for a japanese sorceress type. Private commission.

I inadvertently came up with the agent-killer supreme. A trained marine with the mutant power of a silent teleport (invisible sfx, sight and sound... one minute he is there, next second he ain't). Armed him with a HK MPSpd3... submachine gun with a silencer. And armor piercing bullets. The guy was freakin' scary. Not so good vs. big, paranormal villains .. he just didn't dish out high amounts of damage. (but makes for a great distraction dude and there is the ol' jump behind villain, slap demo charge... buh bye!)

Yamo, I was actually at RPGnet first and read your reveiw before coming here. Nice job.

Good one. Gots to mention the Heston as "The Warlord". Norman warriors doing the siege thing.

I read these fast, so I might have missed it.... Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Ok, the martial arts are SO interwoven in this movie, but the costumes and sets, the magic, the scrolls of wisdom, the green sword. Seems like fantasy to me. and Dragon Inn is a great plot that could easily be taken into a fantasy realm. But funny enough, Gregory Peck's passing, the biggest influence a movie ever had on my fantasy campaign... in fact, launched my current campaign of some 7 years.... was a western. Peck played an ex-ship capt and a pacificist in the middle of a feud between ranchers over river water rights. The scene of him going out into the desert with only a sextent was great. I can't remember the title; Big Country? Big River? That movie inspired me to start my Blue Gryphons campaign in a young frontier country, many cattle ranchers, big country, small population. The Gryphons were cross between Texas Rangers (including a traveling Judge/cleric of Tyr) and Queen's musketeers. But the idea of taking Western themes and incorporating into fantasy was very cool. Mostly it was the horse culture, the idea of cattle drives, vast tracts of land being roamed, the small population. And a few tough men and women keeping the law.

And let me state, I don't dislike Greg's drawing. I just can't get an easy handle on the character trying to live up to Greg's drawing. It has nothing to do with Greg's skill or ability. It has everything to do with my "interpertative" skills. And just the way my brain works with its visual problem solving pathways.

Colossus, drawn by Paul Smith, was the most lithe. However, in my opinion, Greg's Ironclad is still smaller. Hips are really narrow and the head is normal size. Even Paul Smith's C was bigger shouldered, bigger hipped than the rest of his X-men. And his head was small for his body (that is how you suggest largeness). Yes, it is a matter of degrees, but I can tell you with a ton of authority, one millimeter difference in a line can change volumes on a picture. but yes, I get your point, I like Smith's Colossus quite a bit (and his Doc Strange run even better). And Ironclad, going to that model would be fine with me. I'll keep that in mind if I ever get a chance to draw him again.