Storn

More doodles from my Wednesday night game.  Well, Mongoose was done for the Name That Guy contest.... but she is a super agent, so I thought she could go here.  

Btw, I do have another contest going and only 4 entries.  Called What's Her Story.  If you subscribe to my channel and put your idea of what her backstory is in the comments section, I'm picking 2 "winners" and will do a character concept drawing for them, for FREE!  Winners will be picked this Thursday, 10/6.  

 

I saw that!  
 
Hey guys, I've let this thread really stagnate over the last few years.  But I am back to full time art after 8 years of being at a 9-5 energy company doing marketing and forklift duties (wore a lot of hats).  I have been playing supers.  It has been our own system...but I've done a lot of art for our playtest and I thought I would drop some on y'all.  And that is just scratching the surface... I've got a lot more..  But let's see if folks enjoy this before completely saturating the thread.  

Here is where I turn some GM authorship over to the players.  For a couple of reasons.  1) Their buy in will be greater because they hand in it's creation.  2)  You don't have to do all the heavy lifting.  

So, how do you do this?  By asking leading questions.  
 
Turn to a player and say;  "Your PC knows of an unsavory character that hangs around the docks..who is it?  What is their gig?  What is your relationship with them?"  You might get everything from "its my brother" to "its my sworn enemy".  

For the Mayor, turn to a player and say: "You've heard a nasty rumor about the mayor, what is it?  You strongly feel that this is a false accusation.  Why do you feel that way?  Who would benefit by spreading such a rumor?"  Now, even if the PC and the Mayor have never met, there is this connection and the table is off and running and constructing this city right in front of y'all.  

Ask the most magical oriented character; "You've met the head of the magic university.  How did you meet?  What are they like?  Was your meeting a positive or negative one?  What project is the University desperate to get off the ground and why?"  Maybe the player will say; "I was a student and got kicked out for forbidden rituals."   Maybe they will say; "Met hapstance at an Inn outside of town, we had a lovely dinner over shared interests of the arcane and are on our way to becoming fast friends."

To a player who's PC does not know the city, first time here, ask; "Hey, you had a really nice encounter with the City Guard.  You thought they would be hard asses, but one of them was welcoming and open.  Why do you think the guard was so open and genuniely interested in you?  Now, this is a question is much more narrow than the others.  As the GM, I want to build a ready made ally for the newcomer PC.  So, I've pre-empted any kind of negative relationship between the PC and the Guard and turned it into a positive one.  Also, this is a great way to turn a trope or cliche slightly.  

You don't know what the players are going to toss out.  But what they do toss out will be juicy and provide all kinds of hooks.  And I've noticed, players love screwing over their own characters from time to time and this when you get a whole plethora of Disadvantages opportunities as well as adventure hooks.  
 
I have a video about using Leading Questions, expanding a bit on what I suggested here:  
 

Here is where I turn some GM authorship over to the players.  For a couple of reasons.  1) Their buy in will be greater because they hand in it's creation.  2)  You don't have to do all the heavy lifting.  

So, how do you do this?  By asking leading questions.  
 
Turn to a player and say;  "Your PC knows of an unsavory character that hangs around the docks..who is it?  What is their gig?  What is your relationship with them?"  You might get everything from "its my brother" to "its my sworn enemy".  

For the Mayor, turn to a player and say: "You've heard a nasty rumor about the mayor, what is it?  You strongly feel that this is a false accusation.  Why do you feel that way?  Who would benefit by spreading such a rumor?"  Now, even if the PC and the Mayor have never met, there is this connection and the table is off and running and constructing this city right in front of y'all.  

Ask the most magical oriented character; "You've met the head of the magic university.  How did you meet?  What are they like?  Was your meeting a positive or negative one?  What project is the University desperate to get off the ground and why?"  Maybe the player will say; "I was a student and got kicked out for forbidden rituals."   Maybe they will say; "Met hapstance at an Inn outside of town, we had a lovely dinner over shared interests of the arcane and are on our way to becoming fast friends."

To a player who's PC does not know the city, first time here, ask; "Hey, you had a really nice encounter with the City Guard.  You thought they would be hard asses, but one of them was welcoming and open.  Why do you think the guard was so open and genuniely interested in you?  Now, this is a question is much more narrow than the others.  As the GM, I want to build a ready made ally for the newcomer PC.  So, I've pre-empted any kind of negative relationship between the PC and the Guard and turned it into a positive one.  Also, this is a great way to turn a trope or cliche slightly.  

You don't know what the players are going to toss out.  But what they do toss out will be juicy and provide all kinds of hooks.  And I've noticed, players love screwing over their own characters from time to time and this when you get a whole plethora of Disadvantages opportunities as well as adventure hooks.  
 
I have a video about using Leading Questions, expanding a bit on what I suggested here:  
 

Here is where I turn some GM authorship over to the players.  For a couple of reasons.  1) Their buy in will be greater because they hand in it's creation.  2)  You don't have to do all the heavy lifting.  

So, how do you do this?  By asking leading questions.  
 
Turn to a player and say;  "Your PC knows of an unsavory character that hangs around the docks..who is it?  What is their gig?  What is your relationship with them?"  You might get everything from "its my brother" to "its my sworn enemy".  

For the Mayor, turn to a player and say: "You've heard a nasty rumor about the mayor, what is it?  You strongly feel that this is a false accusation.  Why do you feel that way?  Who would benefit by spreading such a rumor?"  Now, even if the PC and the Mayor have never met, there is this connection and the table is off and running and constructing this city right in front of y'all.  

Ask the most magical oriented character; "You've met the head of the magic university.  How did you meet?  What are they like?  Was your meeting a positive or negative one?  What project is the University desperate to get off the ground and why?"  Maybe the player will say; "I was a student and got kicked out for forbidden rituals."   Maybe they will say; "Met hapstance at an Inn outside of town, we had a lovely dinner over shared interests of the arcane and are on our way to becoming fast friends."

To a player who's PC does not know the city, first time here, ask; "Hey, you had a really nice encounter with the City Guard.  You thought they would be hard asses, but one of them was welcoming and open.  Why do you think the guard was so open and genuniely interested in you?  Now, this is a question is much more narrow than the others.  As the GM, I want to build a ready made ally for the newcomer PC.  So, I've pre-empted any kind of negative relationship between the PC and the Guard and turned it into a positive one.  Also, this is a great way to turn a trope or cliche slightly.  

You don't know what the players are going to toss out.  But what they do toss out will be juicy and provide all kinds of hooks.  And I've noticed, players love screwing over their own characters from time to time and this when you get a whole plethora of Disadvantages opportunities as well as adventure hooks.  
 
I have a video about using Leading Questions, expanding a bit on what I suggested here:  
 

Here is where I turn some GM authorship over to the players.  For a couple of reasons.  1) Their buy in will be greater because they hand in it's creation.  2)  You don't have to do all the heavy lifting.  

So, how do you do this?  By asking leading questions.  
 
Turn to a player and say;  "Your PC knows of an unsavory character that hangs around the docks..who is it?  What is their gig?  What is your relationship with them?"  You might get everything from "its my brother" to "its my sworn enemy".  

For the Mayor, turn to a player and say: "You've heard a nasty rumor about the mayor, what is it?  You strongly feel that this is a false accusation.  Why do you feel that way?  Who would benefit by spreading such a rumor?"  Now, even if the PC and the Mayor have never met, there is this connection and the table is off and running and constructing this city right in front of y'all.  

Ask the most magical oriented character; "You've met the head of the magic university.  How did you meet?  What are they like?  Was your meeting a positive or negative one?  What project is the University desperate to get off the ground and why?"  Maybe the player will say; "I was a student and got kicked out for forbidden rituals."   Maybe they will say; "Met hapstance at an Inn outside of town, we had a lovely dinner over shared interests of the arcane and are on our way to becoming fast friends."

To a player who's PC does not know the city, first time here, ask; "Hey, you had a really nice encounter with the City Guard.  You thought they would be hard asses, but one of them was welcoming and open.  Why do you think the guard was so open and genuniely interested in you?  Now, this is a question is much more narrow than the others.  As the GM, I want to build a ready made ally for the newcomer PC.  So, I've pre-empted any kind of negative relationship between the PC and the Guard and turned it into a positive one.  Also, this is a great way to turn a trope or cliche slightly.  

You don't know what the players are going to toss out.  But what they do toss out will be juicy and provide all kinds of hooks.  And I've noticed, players love screwing over their own characters from time to time and this when you get a whole plethora of Disadvantages opportunities as well as adventure hooks.  
 
I have a video about using Leading Questions, expanding a bit on what I suggested here:  
 

More doodles from my Wednesday night game.  Well, Mongoose was done for the Name That Guy contest.... but she is a super agent, so I thought she could go here.  

Btw, I do have another contest going and only 4 entries.  Called What's Her Story.  If you subscribe to my channel and put your idea of what her backstory is in the comments section, I'm picking 2 "winners" and will do a character concept drawing for them, for FREE!  Winners will be picked this Thursday, 10/6.  

 

I saw that!  
 
Hey guys, I've let this thread really stagnate over the last few years.  But I am back to full time art after 8 years of being at a 9-5 energy company doing marketing and forklift duties (wore a lot of hats).  I have been playing supers.  It has been our own system...but I've done a lot of art for our playtest and I thought I would drop some on y'all.  And that is just scratching the surface... I've got a lot more..  But let's see if folks enjoy this before completely saturating the thread.  

I saw that!  
 
Hey guys, I've let this thread really stagnate over the last few years.  But I am back to full time art after 8 years of being at a 9-5 energy company doing marketing and forklift duties (wore a lot of hats).  I have been playing supers.  It has been our own system...but I've done a lot of art for our playtest and I thought I would drop some on y'all.  And that is just scratching the surface... I've got a lot more..  But let's see if folks enjoy this before completely saturating the thread.  

More doodles from my Wednesday night game.  Well, Mongoose was done for the Name That Guy contest.... but she is a super agent, so I thought she could go here.  

Btw, I do have another contest going and only 4 entries.  Called What's Her Story.  If you subscribe to my channel and put your idea of what her backstory is in the comments section, I'm picking 2 "winners" and will do a character concept drawing for them, for FREE!  Winners will be picked this Thursday, 10/6.  

 

More doodles from my Wednesday night game.  Well, Mongoose was done for the Name That Guy contest.... but she is a super agent, so I thought she could go here.  

Btw, I do have another contest going and only 4 entries.  Called What's Her Story.  If you subscribe to my channel and put your idea of what her backstory is in the comments section, I'm picking 2 "winners" and will do a character concept drawing for them, for FREE!  Winners will be picked this Thursday, 10/6.  

 

I saw that!  
 
Hey guys, I've let this thread really stagnate over the last few years.  But I am back to full time art after 8 years of being at a 9-5 energy company doing marketing and forklift duties (wore a lot of hats).  I have been playing supers.  It has been our own system...but I've done a lot of art for our playtest and I thought I would drop some on y'all.  And that is just scratching the surface... I've got a lot more..  But let's see if folks enjoy this before completely saturating the thread.  

I used to partake occasionally in a contest over at Ten Ton Studios. I had a lunch hour free and thought I would do my first Ten Ton Studio challenge in several years. If you are a member of Ten Ton, you get to vote on the winner. This week's challenge is Superboy. The challenge just started and runs to 9am Thursday. Not a lot of time to get stuff in. But it is always fun to see what is produced.
 
Link to Ten Ton Studio Superboy challenge here: http://www.tentonstudios.com/forum/index.php?topic=10773.0
 
I did my entry in pencil, ink and color pencil.

I don't do a ton of vehicles, bases and the like... as I tend to get commissions of *people* (which could mean aliens, mutants, monsters etc).  But I have done them.  Often, if I'm playing in a game I will do a doodle of a space ship or shuttle...  Bases I don't do a lot of, but I have done city scapes for Mutants and Masterminds or Champions in the past.  Both interiors and exteriors.   I just did this one:

 
I did this one that is in a Expanse like sci fi game, but had to be a submarine to explore the oceans of Europa.  This is a really quick doodle.  Not meant to be anything but the basest of concepts.  

 
I did this one when I was 9.  Proving I was doing vehicles way back when.  

 
Here are more finished pieces:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Storn/StornCookRoarSkyTrio.jpg

Here is a private commission I finished a few days ago.  For a D&D game, hence potions and hand axes had to be incorporated somehow into the image.  He wanted a somewhat action shot.  Hope I succeeded.  Might work for a Black Knight kind of super.  
 

My character, Hope, grew up on Mars and has a passing familiarity with spaceships and various vehicles.  I believe Myrk also has piloting as one of his skills.  Neil, the GM, sent out an email describing our approach to the Spire using the STS-014m, built at the martian shipyards and is a space shuttle and VTOL.  So damn… I had to draw that!
 
My sketch was done at lunch yesterday.. the prelim pencils were so quick, but I gotta love Clip Art Studio’s curve and straight line tools, much simpler than photoshops.  This is not a finished piece of work, just a quick, mostly digital doodle.  But it gets the concept across.  Hope affectionately calls the ship, “The Stork”

Back from the ashes of yesterday... 
 
After years of hiatus, I will be in the Champions game (RDU: Red Dragon Universe) run by Neil C. again.  We are putting the band back together, using Roll20, Skype and such, hopefully starting soon.  We've been doing tons of emails back and forth.  
 
I have been inspired to draw the characters, although I only have 3 done.  I have to switch gears slightly to finish some interiors for Golden Age Champions.  
The New Pioneers are a group brought together after a decade long alien invasion of our original game.  My character, Hope,  is actually the daughter of my first RDU character, Vector.  Her red sleeve represent Mars, where she grew up and the blue one represent Earth.  Her powers are strength, mini-brick from her grandfather, Ultraman and light powers from her grandmother, Lady White.  She has some empathic abilities and strong mental defenses from her mom.  I eschewed telekinesis, because I played her dad, Vector, for years.  I've done pretty much everything I ever wanted to do with telekinesis over that time.  
 
The Terran, played by Joe C, is a martial artist, with earth shaping abilities.  Picked by the Gaea like force to heal the world.  We haven't played yet, so I don't know all he can do.  
 
Krys is a being of pure Crystaltech, given sentience during the long alien invasion.  Crystaltech was a HUGE plot point for years in RDU.   Played by Bill S.  He has the ability to mimic almost any energy ability.  
 
The campaign will be trying to rebuild Earth and reconnect it to the Mars colony.  Mankind has been devastated, population is down to 1 billion souls.  I am really looking forward to the next chapter of RDU.  



More to come, perhaps next week.  I still have Myrk, Shocks and The Blue to still do.  And oh yeah, I want to do a pic of our shuttle craft too.  

So, the pic of Medusa as a super hero didn’t quite meet Death Tribble’s request.  I missed the part that she was to be a patriotic super hero.  So I did another version, but I admit, I was pretty subtle with the flag motif on her outfit.  DT wanted it to be pushed a bit more and I came up with the final version for him.  I will present all three for your viewing curiosity.  Showing that sometimes, you have to sneak up on a concept.

Also, I did a crossbowman for yuks.  I had doodled him awhile ago.

Version 1.



Version 2.



Version 3.



Crossbow guy!

I really don't do much superhero art anymore.  Been really working in the fantasy genre more..  
 
My long time patron Death Tribble gave me the challenge of doing Medusa as a super heroine.  Seemed like fun and it was.  I gave her a jaunty pose and smile.  He asked for a long, slinky outfit, but I felt that was kinda in the vein of a villain, so I gave her a skirt, semi-grecian, instead.  Hope he doesn’t mind.  What do y’all think?

Next are a couple of images from Green Ronin’s Cosmic Handbook.  Got to trout out my Kirby homage and my love of sword and planet motifs.  I went with some super vibrant colors on these both, trying for “alien and cosmic” after looking at a lot of what Kirby did back in the day.
 

So, I’ve been a bit more in the public with my art than usual.  The 2nd day of the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival Art Gallery events was a 2 live models posing for all of us artists.  It was funny watching other artists sketch and the “table” talk was a hoot, as was the jockying for a better position to do our sketches <g>
 
The 2 Liz’s from Whiskey Tango Sideshow were awesome!  They brought very cool costumes and props and a lot energy and fun to their posing.  And yes!  I wasn’t making up any costuming, that is what they were actually wearing.  And yes, balancing sword on her head was held for the entire 10 min pose without a wobble.  True pros!
 
Thought I would share some of my sketches done that day.  Every sketch except the sitting pose with the scimitar on the shoulder was 10-20 min poses.  The scimitar on the shoulder was a 40 min pose.
 
3 poses

 
Headmistress Liz

 
Sitting Liz

 
A few weeks ago, I talked about a doing some art at the Johnson Art Museum at Cornell University.  This was a sketch I did then based on the “future civilization” of this massive instillation from China.
 
Future father

Wow.  I have done 150 (and counting) commissions for uber patron Death Tribble.  He asked me to do a vehicle of his Avatar logo (for those who haven't seen it, a ball of brown fur with cartoon eyes with an angry furrowed and flaming brow).  I've been planning this one for a long time, knowing I was going to go a bit beyond that.... so Presenting!  The Mighty Multi Morphin Death Tribble Mobile!!!!

 
Death Tribble Mighty Multi Morphin Moblie.
And oh yeah, I've got a couple of Fading Suns commissions to show too!

More doodles from my Wednesday night game.  Well, Mongoose was done for the Name That Guy contest.... but she is a super agent, so I thought she could go here.  

Btw, I do have another contest going and only 4 entries.  Called What's Her Story.  If you subscribe to my channel and put your idea of what her backstory is in the comments section, I'm picking 2 "winners" and will do a character concept drawing for them, for FREE!  Winners will be picked this Thursday, 10/6.  

 

More doodles from my Wednesday night game.  Well, Mongoose was done for the Name That Guy contest.... but she is a super agent, so I thought she could go here.  

Btw, I do have another contest going and only 4 entries.  Called What's Her Story.  If you subscribe to my channel and put your idea of what her backstory is in the comments section, I'm picking 2 "winners" and will do a character concept drawing for them, for FREE!  Winners will be picked this Thursday, 10/6.  

 

I saw that!  
 
Hey guys, I've let this thread really stagnate over the last few years.  But I am back to full time art after 8 years of being at a 9-5 energy company doing marketing and forklift duties (wore a lot of hats).  I have been playing supers.  It has been our own system...but I've done a lot of art for our playtest and I thought I would drop some on y'all.  And that is just scratching the surface... I've got a lot more..  But let's see if folks enjoy this before completely saturating the thread.  

Let me tell you about my character.... I hope y'all don't dread those words.  At least this time, this character concept comes with a picture!
 
In my Thursday night role playing game, we are just starting out with Unknown Worlds, a Apocalypse Engine game ( like Dungeon World) but the genre is science fiction.  Pete, our GM, had been reading the Expanse books and is now watching the show and it is a big influence on our game.
 
So, set in our solar system, no Faster than Light, no Artificial Gravity.  Earth has a lot of rocks dropped on it by Mars 5 years ago and it is a Mad Max sort of place.  Luna has become the banking Switzerland of the solar system after Earth "fell".  Mars is a techno marvel, terraforming happening at an amazing place, one can walk outside without breathing equipment for short periods.  
 
My character, Tremaine "Trey" Sinclair, is from Europa.  Europa colonies are in the buried oceans under the ice, and are heavily into the bio-sciences, including gene splicing and manipulation.  Trey is Homo Aquaticus, he is amphibian, can breath under water, notice the gills and webbed, large hands in the picture.  He is a pilot (both submarine and starship) and yearned to see the outside world.  Left Europa to explore the "other" oceans (both stars and Earth's own oceans).  He is the pilot of the "Flying Fin" which was a museum on Earth as it was one of the first Europa probe ships (both starship and submersible), recently salvaged from the Atlantic off of Africa, by a Luna corporation with the Trey and the other characters help.  
 
It is a really interesting game as Unknown Worlds really lends itself to easy character creation with totally interesting results.  The world building we are doing is awesome!  I look forward to next week quite a bit!