Storn

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.
 

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.
 

 

 

 

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.
 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.
 

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.
 

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
 
 

 

Since I'm running Mutants and Masterminds, but in a predominant Champions universe, I thought I would share some of my doodles as I get them done for my game. I'll post stuff here occasionally.
 
this particular beastie is being written up in MM, but was already featured as a Champions critter. Neil has the file on this one (as do I, but it is so buried in my mac, and it is a creation workshop file and won't be read by my mac) I'm hoping y'all can convince him to post it here.
 
Anyways the art is below. Have fun.
 
{If you are curious about the MM stats, here is the thread to that...page 7}
 
http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1570

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
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

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: 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.
 
This illustration was created as an award for a contest at the Liberty
Hall Writers forums. More information about Liberty Hall is available
here: http://www.libertyhallwriters.org/phpbb/index.php
 

 
As for other threads:
 
http://www.peginc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5263&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
 
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=204165
 
http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=3740&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
ya know, winged folk are just one of those fantasy concepts that can jump over to supers. So I'm cross posting this one.
 

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
ya know, winged folk are just one of those fantasy concepts that can jump over to supers. So I'm cross posting this one.
 

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
Here are a couple more...
 

 

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
Gotta love superhero physics! I've done Sonya here before, but the patron wanted another shot, this time, tanks for the memories!
 

 
btw, Checkmate, thank you... that painting is one of my personal favs.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
Gotta love superhero physics! I've done Sonya here before, but the patron wanted another shot, this time, tanks for the memories!
 

 
btw, Checkmate, thank you... that painting is one of my personal favs.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
Gotta love superhero physics! I've done Sonya here before, but the patron wanted another shot, this time, tanks for the memories!
 

 
btw, Checkmate, thank you... that painting is one of my personal favs.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
Gotta love superhero physics! I've done Sonya here before, but the patron wanted another shot, this time, tanks for the memories!
 

 
btw, Checkmate, thank you... that painting is one of my personal favs.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 

 
 
Y'know folks, I don't mind a critique. I think RP's critique was dead on. I was confused about what I was looking at... compound bows are confusing visually, I looked at a lot of pics... and I don't know what all those doo-hickeys do... or that the shaft is on the outside of the bow when pulled... what the hand position is.
 
So I don't mind being taught. Illustration is so much about giving the impression of being "real"... maybe real in a superheroic context... but its own reality. The more an artist knows, the more they can bring to bear on creating that coherent, inclusive reality in the pic.
 
So. It is totally cool with me if folks try to help me do that.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
En, I did respond to your link/article.
 
Folks, I'm sorry about the absence. I had two covers to put to bed, one of extremely tight deadline. The other I thought I had done, didn't like what I did and I'm in the process of repainting it because the deadline is a lot softer.
 
Then, this last weekend, I was layed out for two days with a headcold. I just didn't feel like doing diddly.
 
But I'm back in the studio, working away. Here are two commissions below the mag cover painting.
 

 

 

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
Another from the universe of Snowfire, Entrapment and Cap Cardiac (some of the recent pics)... here is Stretch.
 

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
 
En, I did respond to your link/article.
 
Folks, I'm sorry about the absence. I had two covers to put to bed, one of extremely tight deadline. The other I thought I had done, didn't like what I did and I'm in the process of repainting it because the deadline is a lot softer.
 
Then, this last weekend, I was layed out for two days with a headcold. I just didn't feel like doing diddly.
 
But I'm back in the studio, working away. Here are two commissions below the mag cover painting.