Storn

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I've got a team of superheroes done as a bunch of holiday presents for the patron's gaming group. So here is this girl centric superteam. I am working on some fantasy stuff that I hope to post later this week. Stay tuned. If anyone is interested in 600 dpi versions of the gals (not the steel guy), they are for sale (and reasonably priced) through my Portfolios by LPJ Design. there are a couple of others tossed in to boot. Here is a link: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=97897 These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Query's Art & Stuff Thread Query, this last batch I really admire. I like that you are really pushing yourself in terms of dynamic posing and motion. You are definitely on the right track!

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Been a bit since I've posted anything. Lazy. I've had a couple of these done for a bit, but I just finished the one in the dress today. So these are character concepts for a space naval setting, where we have a representative of each faction. One note, I've been working a lot more with a sorta digital underpainting and then combining that with an "overlay" layer to do a lot of the lighter colors. I've been using multiply layers for years, but just starting to venture into using overlay. I'm pretty happy with the color on these, something kinda "chewy" about 'em. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I've been working on a game, Other Worlds, off and on for about 8 months. I finished the cover a week and half ago, but was waiting for Mark (Humphreys) to give the go-ahead for posting and some guerrilla marketing synergy, linking up with his threads. Other Worlds is a multi-genre role playing game, so I got to do all kinds of stuff. Stuff that I tried to cram into the cover, without making it unreadable. I am going to post up the pencils, so you can see that I did take a flying robot eyeball out in the paint. This kind of movie style poster is NOT easy to pull off. But I think it is one of my best paintings. I'm pretty happy with it (watch, now folks will hate it... I'm rarely happy with my work). The painting is oil on masonite 18 x 24. The art itself comes out to about 16x22. If you are interested in a print (or PLEASE!, the original itself!!), they are on sale here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/storn-cook.html Here be the pencils: Here be the paintin' itself: Like I said, I've been working on this project for some time. I've done quite a few interiors for this project, and most are all pencil. There are a couple of previously done art that was used that are not pencil, but they are the vast minority and I even "stressed" my inks to make it look a bit more pencil-y to fit into the vibe of the whole book. So, I thought I would share a couple. One has to have the "world building" illo in any multi-genre roleplaying game. This is mine. I think the ol' video game Populous was the inspiration for this one. Vikings. Um. 'nuff said. So, I've seen Other Worlds text. And while I haven't poured over the game, it does look pretty neat. For one, it is a percentage system. That is kinda old school, but it does have "Abilities" which are somewhat similar to FATE's Aspects and Skills rolled into one. It looks fast and the conflict system is geared to handle any kind of conflict with the same mechanic. Pretty cool. Also, the layout is done by Fred Hicks. And it is clean, clean, clean. Easy to read. I am such a fan of Hick's work. Here is me plugging some links for Other Worlds. Their facebook presence: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Other-Worlds/162776777151618 Their RPGnet thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?337595-Other-Worlds enjoy!

Re: Looking for a picture/drawing Here is mine!

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Continuing on with the Space Navies uniform commission, here is Tingwok. I was mistaken, there will be 7 of these, not 6. One of the challenges that I will be facing on this one is that all of the figures will be facing "the camera" as per patron request. Keeping that interesting across 7 figs will not be easy. Again, I am really liking the trace paper/black prismacolor for the sketch. There seems to be a density that is lacking in my previous scanned in pencils. Cool beans! Anyway, here is Tingwok. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Been awhile since I've posted anything. I just finished a massive cover with a ton of detail. Took weeks. Hopefully I can show it soon. And I'm in the midst of NDA projects, including card art for L5r. So what I can show has been slim. But I got these! First up, it was my mom's 65th birthday yesterday. I whipped up this quickie acrylic-watercolor of my folks' new puppy, Spenser. Just thought I would share something light and goofy. Next is the first of 7 character concepts to come. Each figure is going to be a representative of space navy. This particular one was based heavily on chinese uniforms, crossed with a bit of the scifi uniforms from shows like Babylon 5 and Firefly. The patron provided the reference for this one and told me to mash them together. It is also a bit different in the way I work. Usually, I start my sketch with loose blue line pencil and then go on top with pencil to tighten up the forms. Once scanned in, I eliminate the blue line in photoshop and then start laying in the value and color digitally. But I recently saw a demo of some character concept art over at Gnomon Workshop and specifically Sang Jun Lee... link here: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/941/ And I was interested in how he used what looked like black coloured pencil over vellum. Well, I couldn't find vellum at the art store locally, but still wanted to play with the technique. I substituted tracing paper instead. I think there is a "warmth" to the line and shading with the coloured pencil. Maybe a density. It isn't vastly different than the normal pencils I scan in (usually on just regular ol' copy paper), but something subtly different that I really like. What do y'all think? These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I've been working on a very large cover for Other Worlds in oil...so that has been eating some time. I've also been working on a fun project, but it is NDA, something kinda different for me. I'll share when I can. I've got some card art coming up and some interiors for publishers... so it's been busy and will be for the next month or so. But I will try to keep on top of the commissions pile here and there. So here are a couple of private commissions, a pair of lasses. Thought i would share. Death Tribble wanted something about colour, but not rainbow outfit. White is the combo of all color spectrums, so this is what I came up with. Next up is a pulp or superheroine sorceress, not sure which, but she wears Victorian clothes, the patron was kind enough to send me a couple of links of reference to ponder over. Have I mention I LOVE when clients and patrons provide reference of the stuff they like? Makes my job SOOOO much easier. Because I know what they are looking for and I don't have to spend time looking for the reference myself! These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Been meaning to put these up for awhile. The book, Totems of the Dead, has been out for a couple of weeks now.... and I really want to give it a plug. It is a really cool sword and sorcery setting using a mythical Americas (North and South). The setting is for Savage Worlds and I've read quite a bit of the player's guide and some of the GM guide. Really cool stuff! Highly recommend!!! Very good art, I'm just one of several, and all of them are excellent! link to the players guide: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=94693&filters=0_0_0_0 link to the gm guide: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=95603&filters=0_0_0_0 And here are some samples of the art I did for the books. I used liquid acrylic and watercolor over loose pencils. First up, Mesa Verde, which I've actually been to. I've got a watercolor of it, done on that spot during my vacation. It was nice to "re-visit" it. The Atlanteans in Totems are kinda melnibonean bad guys, slavers and possessors of higher tech and low numbers. Very S&S. The Vikings in Totems have colonized some of NE north America, called Skraelings, their iron weapons are feared and respected. Who doesn't want to draw valkyries fighting aztec leopard warriors? C'mon!?!? I felt like Joe Kubert (not that I'm comparing his art to mine) on a run of Turok! This has nothing to do with Totems of the Dead. But a cool villain concept. His parent was one of the astronauts on the space shuttle Challenger. That seems like a really neat hero origin. But to twist it... and make it a villain... pretty neat concept.

Re: Fantasy Art Thread Next up calls for a bit of explanation. I did "Swords Defiant" several years ago in Genesis oils. It is one of the few illustrations I have done simply for myself. I had the pose idea in my head and I wanted to do it, so I did. It wasn't for a publisher or commission. However, Tim Gray of Silver Branch Games did eventually want it for his Jaws of the 6 Serpents RPG and so it became the cover... and I ended up running Jaws for a mini campaign of about 9 episodes and a very fun game it was too! I don't think I've posted Swords before, or recently, Tim did point that I did not have it on my Photobucket. Turns out I did, on the very first page of 17, on my Photobucket, understandable how it could be missed. Tim recently asked me to do a cover for the upcoming Serpents' Teeth, a Jaws expansion. We talked about a few different predone things I had kicking around...and one was a sketch i had done for the sequel to that Jaws game. A ninja-ish fantasy woman I had drawn for an NPC (who only appeared for in one episode). Tim and I also talked about it being a nocturne, to contrast nicely with the first cover. Yin-yang, day-night, desert-urban, male-female. So taking that base sketch, re-working the face (we didn't want a mask on her) and working in some urban elements, here is what you end up with. Link to Jaws of the Six Serpents: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=60595&it=1 The initial character concept sketch: The original Jaws of the Six Serpents cover And the follow up expansion cover for Serpents' Teeth:

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. First up, a couple of character concept commissions from long time patron, Death Tribble. (Kinda mouthful sentence there....sheesh.) Anyway, he wanted an evil wonder woman type playing with short, platinum hair against the Amazon princess black locks, skull motifs instead of american flag motifs etc. Then, he asked for a super agent wearing a jet pack using a blaster. And it was his idea of the sorta flight suit orange... a very cool choice in my opinion. Next up calls for a bit of explanation. I did "Swords Defiant" several years ago in Genesis oils. It is one of the few illustrations I have done simply for myself. I had the pose idea in my head and I wanted to do it, so I did. It wasn't for a publisher or commission. However, Tim Gray of Silver Branch Games did eventually want it for his Jaws of the 6 Serpents RPG and so it became the cover... and I ended up running Jaws for a mini campaign of about 9 episodes and a very fun game it was too! I don't think I've posted Swords before, or recently, Tim did point that I did not have it on my Photobucket. Turns out I did, on the very first page of 17, on my Photobucket, understandable how it could be missed. Tim recently asked me to do a cover for the upcoming Serpents' Teeth, a Jaws expansion. We talked about a few different predone things I had kicking around...and one was a sketch i had done for the sequel to that Jaws game. A ninja-ish fantasy woman I had drawn for an NPC (who only appeared for in one episode). Tim and I also talked about it being a nocturne, to contrast nicely with the first cover. Yin-yang, day-night, desert-urban, male-female. So taking that base sketch, re-working the face (we didn't want a mask on her) and working in some urban elements, here is what you end up with. Link to Jaws of the Six Serpents: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=60595&it=1 The initial character concept sketch: The original Jaws of the Six Serpents cover And the follow up expansion cover for Serpents' Teeth:

Re: Fantasy Art Thread Well, photobucket blocked that illo. I thought the little magic, brass thingees on the nipples would suffice. Guess I was wrong. Let's try this instead:

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Well, photobucket blocked that illo. I thought the little magic, brass thingees on the nipples would suffice. Guess I was wrong. Let's try this instead:

Re: Fantasy Art Thread A trio of private commissions. The Smilodon and the Type 5 demon futurized are both carrying over the technique that I did for the "kitty vs. ogre" just above. That of using pencil to shade on top of a minimal ink line. Then scan, color using mostly Painter, but some Photoshop. It takes a bit of time, especially the Type 5 Demon, which has a lot of fiddly detail. But I kinda like the solidity of it. "Riley" was just my usual technique of digital color over pencil. Its not fantasy, but I'm lazy and leaving it in. The Demon was also an experiment in warping textures for the snake skin. Btw, the Demon and Smilodon are both Death Tribble commissions. I like to give the guy credit for giving me so much work... and such fun concepts. I really liked doing the Type 5 Demon with a m60 machine gun (although, it is a tough gun to draw)... the m60 was specifically DT's request. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. A trio of private commissions. The Smilodon and the Type 5 demon futurized are both carrying over the technique that I did for the "kitty vs. ogre" just above. That of using pencil to shade on top of a minimal ink line. Then scan, color using mostly Painter, but some Photoshop. It takes a bit of time, especially the Type 5 Demon, which has a lot of fiddly detail. But I kinda like the solidity of it. "Riley" was just my usual technique of digital color over pencil. The Demon was also an experiment in warping textures for the snake skin. Btw, the Demon and Smilodon are both Death Tribble commissions. I like to give the guy credit for giving me so much work... and such fun concepts. I really liked doing the Type 5 Demon with a m60 machine gun (although, it is a tough gun to draw)... the m60 was specifically DT's request. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Thought I would show a bit of behind-the-scenes on this entry. This is done for the Anonymous challenge over at ArtOrder. You can see other folks entries, as well as a link to the challenge itself here: http://theartorder.com/2011/09/19/anonymous-artorder-challenge/ Basically, we had to ape a cross between an anime and painted style that was used a lot in the Duelmasters CCG. NOT my comfort zone at all. But I did see that there is a lot of line in the original Duelmaster's art, combined with the digital painting stylings we see so much of in video game concept art. Again, NOT my comfort zone at all. I do not do line on digital well at all... so I fell back on what I think gives a more live line, inking by hand. But since I knew that there was to be somewhat of a painting style, after inking and some erasing, I went back in with pencil to do just the hint of value shading... more like visual footnotes to myself while I went in and digitally painted. So... here is the ink/pencil scan... just so you can see where I was before the color hit the piece. I drew them separately, knowing I was going to move them around and get some overlap in PS. I also knew that I was going to have to finish the foot placement of the troll/ogre digitally, because I wasn't quite sure how he was going to get grounded... the "kitty" was easy, because he is leaping away and is airbourne. Reminds me a bit of Quinton Hoover's work, not as lyrical as his stuff, as I make marks the way I make marks (and he is so totally awesome!), but the strong ink line, backed with some lighter interior lines... similar vibe. Then comes the color work, the background was entirely done digitally. It is an interesting "style", but I feel that it falls short of the Challenge, that to ape a particular style. I just don't have enough experience in doing something like that, but it was sure FUN to try!!! These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Fantasy Art Thread Thought I would show a bit of behind-the-scenes on this entry. This is done for the Anonymous challenge over at ArtOrder. You can see other folks entries, as well as a link to the challenge itself here: http://theartorder.com/2011/09/19/anonymous-artorder-challenge/ Basically, we had to ape a cross between an anime and painted style that was used a lot in the Duelmasters CCG. NOT my comfort zone at all. But I did see that there is a lot of line in the original Duelmaster's art, combined with the digital painting stylings we see so much of in video game concept art. Again, NOT my comfort zone at all. I do not do line on digital well at all... so I fell back on what I think gives a more live line, inking by hand. But since I knew that there was to be somewhat of a painting style, after inking and some erasing, I went back in with pencil to do just the hint of value shading... more like visual footnotes to myself while I went in and digitally painted. So... here is the ink/pencil scan... just so you can see where I was before the color hit the piece. I drew them separately, knowing I was going to move them around and get some overlap in PS. I also knew that I was going to have to finish the foot placement of the troll/ogre digitally, because I wasn't quite sure how he was going to get grounded... the "kitty" was easy, because he is leaping away and is airbourne. Reminds me a bit of Quinton Hoover's work, not as lyrical as his stuff, as I make marks the way I make marks (and he is so totally awesome!), but the strong ink line, backed with some lighter interior lines... similar vibe. Then comes the color work, the background was entirely done digitally. It is an interesting "style", but I feel that it falls short of the Challenge, that to ape a particular style. I just don't have enough experience in doing something like that, but it was sure FUN to try!!! These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Fantasy Art Thread I went on a mini-honeymoon in the middle of the week. My wife, Millie, managed to trade some hours with other faculty (she is a professor of nursing) and all of a sudden, we had a few days to string together. We had gone to Puerto Rico, but it was mostly to visit family, Millie and I didn't have much time to ourselves. Anyway, on the last day, under the grayest of skies, perched on a bridge that shook every time a truck went by, which seemed never-ending, I painted this quickie watercolor of the very full Hudson river. We stayed at the Lamplighter B&B in Lake Luzerne, a very nice B&B and this bridge was walking distance from the B&B. This watercolor wasn't really planned, sorta a last minute thing, although I always bring watercolors with me on trips. I even used water from a mud puddle, so a bit of the Lake Luzerne earth is in this sketch. On the way home, the flooding was pretty bad, forced off of Route 88 near Oneonta and had to go around 1 washed out bridge in the small town of Morris. Adventures on our honeymoon. Well, enough of that, onto the art. Thought it would be fun to show y'all EXACTLY where I was via google maps. The "river" coming in from the side is actually from the man-made lake Sacandaga lake, ironically, created to help regulate the Hudson river flood control. And here is what I actually doodled on that bridge... These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I went on a mini-honeymoon in the middle of the week. My wife, Millie, managed to trade some hours with other faculty (she is a professor of nursing) and all of a sudden, we had a few days to string together. We had gone to Puerto Rico, but it was mostly to visit family, Millie and I didn't have much time to ourselves. Anyway, on the last day, under the grayest of skies, perched on a bridge that shook every time a truck went by, which seemed never-ending, I painted this quickie watercolor of the very full Hudson river. We stayed at the Lamplighter B&B in Lake Luzerne, a very nice B&B and this bridge was walking distance from the B&B. This watercolor wasn't really planned, sorta a last minute thing, although I always bring watercolors with me on trips. I even used water from a mud puddle, so a bit of the Lake Luzerne earth is in this sketch. On the way home, the flooding was pretty bad, forced off of Route 88 near Oneonta and had to go around 1 washed out bridge in the small town of Morris. Adventures on our honeymoon. Well, enough of that, onto the art. Thought it would be fun to show y'all EXACTLY where I was via google maps. The "river" coming in from the side is actually from the man-made lake Sacandaga lake, ironically, created to help regulate the Hudson river flood control. And here is what I actually doodled on that bridge... These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic