Storn Art

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.

Vampire n Teifling vs Dryder

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.

Caliban and Prospero vs Stone/Marble golem sketch

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.

Caliban and Prospero vs Stone Golem

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

Zamma

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.

Ophelie

Next up is a “post-modern” superhero…

And then we have fantasy duo versions of Caliban and Prospero

Caliban

Prospero

Got three to share today.  First up is Vesper, a rogue trader captain commission.  I cannot take credit for her t-shirt logo.  That was created by my good friend and neighbor, Pete, for his band, Ire Clad.  The patron asked for perhaps a skull logo for the t-shirt and Pete had just sent me the latest design for Ire Clad’s t-shirts and I went “ding!”.  So, I have permission to use the Ire Clad logo and name.  And if anyone is so inclined, here are links to their sites:

https://www.facebook.com/ireclad

http://www.reverbnation.com/ireclad

Also, Vesper down there is an experiment.  I just got Manga Studio 5 (love the perspective rules btw!) and I wanted to see if I could draw from scratch, 100% digital, in Manga Studio 5.  I could!  Made a mistake though.  I set the dpi for 600, my favored resolution to work at.  But since the program was new to me, that made my 8″ high paper into about 1″ high.  And I merrily went along, drawing and painting.  When I brought it into Photoshop, my mistake became apparent.  Oooops.   So I had to redraw a lot of it, using both Manga Studio 5 an Photoshop.  The tattoos were done in PS.  So, digital art jockies out there, heed my words and don’t make the same mistake.  Make sure not only to check the dpi, but the size in Manga Studio.

And now, for Vesper:

Vesper, Rogue Trader Captain

Next, I have a patron who is having me do a whole slew of fantasy pics, you’ve seen some of his commissions prior.  He likes having individual shots, and then some kind of group shot.  So expect more from him, I will be doing these through the spring and into summer in between the big movie job.

These two are vampiric Drow hunters.  Sounds like a pretty formidable duo.

Kara, Vampiric Drow Hunter

Miles, Vampiric Drow Hunter

..on what I can share these days.  I’ve got a big project on my table for a movie.  NDAs are in place, so I can only talk about it in limited fashion.  But I’m doing sorta mini-matte paintings for a fantasy movie that the actors are going to be in front of.  It is really cool, hard and fun.

In between approvals and fixes… I will still do my private commissions, but I might not be getting quite as many of them done as before.  But here is one, just done for Death Tribble.

Spellcaster

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.

Wilson Slade II

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!

Clorton

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

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.

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:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jbmannon/the-skies-over-danbury-dungeon-world-adventures

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:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/502760470/do-not-approach-villains-super-powered-by-mandm-rp

Now, that sounds like a bad thing…. but in this case, it wasn’t. Cindy (wife of Millie’s ½ brother, Tony), out of a conversation I had with her a couple of years ago, has a thing for angels. And she got one of the 4 (now 5, but more on that later). She couldn’t believe that Millie and I remember that conversation… and that she actually got one of my angels. She said it was the best present ever. She had tears in her eyes. So sweet. Cindy got the gold angel and just out of happy coincidence time, they had repainted their house with a lot of yellow, so the angel would fit right in with the color scheme. Even the frame matched their wood furniture. Pretty awesome to have that kind of effect on someone

Mary (another aunt) also liked her green angel. Turns out, unbeknownst to me, that green is HER favorite color. So the angel line of gifts, here in Puerto Rico, have been extremely successful.

But the real kicker, and I will get pics up eventually, probably in a few weeks, is that last night, we were sitting around digesting Xmas dinner and a nephew, Arial (sp? Its a He, not a she) arrived with 3 ninos (kids) that he has sorta adopted. After showing some art, and while the grown ups talked, I amused the kids with pencil drawings done for each one of them. The first was the young boy, who liked the Hulk so I did a quickie sketch of the Hulk. The next was a young girl who liked horses. Horses are really tough for me, but I did a horse and rider, the rider being a vague impression of the young girl herself.

My best drawing of the night was for a beautiful young lady who is about to go off to college. I did her portrait. She blushed when I said I was going to do it. And it came out pretty good. I was a bit out of practice in life drawing, so it was nice to dabble and get some practice under my belt. The two youngest never budged from the table as I drew, asking questions, which Millie translated, even while I was doing the oldest portrait. I was impressed by their concentration and patience.

After the kiddos left, Millie’s parents told us a bit about them. Turns out that these kids are very poor, don’t have a solid family situation. And were really pleased with their drawings. They don’t get much like that. Again, warm fuzzies for me! The people in Puerto Rico are so warm and inviting and it makes it so easy to be a blanco-gringo outsider like me to feel comfortable.

Best leChon ever!

Btw, last post I talked about the food at La Platanar and how great it was. It fell short of the best pork i’ve ever eaten. Turns out that Millie’s folks get, like 12 pounds, of a young, roasted pork. This was seasoned so wonderfully and cooked so beautifully… it was a gastronomical heaven. By far, the best pork I’ve ever eaten. We are still eating three days later (as it was procured for Xmas Eve victuals).

Best Morning Yet!

It didn’t start out so wonderful. Millie and I got up at 5 am so we could catch a ride to Ponce while Millie’s Pop took Millie’s sister, Merchie, to work. Both Millie and I were feeling a bit ill to the stomach, not surprising, due to our recent diet of rich puerto rican cuisine. The reason for such an early start was a chance to get tennis lessons with Dimas, the tennis pro at the Hotel Hilton Carribe. Now, I’ve played tennis since I was 8. Self-taught, or Uncle-taught. I had a chance to hit a lot with a woman who taught high school girl tennis. And I worked for 3 years at the Travis Point tennis and golf club in Ann Arbor, Mi. Where I played, worked with and listened to many tennis pros.

But I’ve never had an actual tennis lesson. Til today. Millie’s tennis resume was a wee bit of high school tennis and being taught by what I’ve learned in bits and pieces over the years. We’ve played for about the last 3 years together. She has never had a lesson.

Watching her play, RIGHT now, with a smile from ear to ear. Priceless.

And the upset stomach, well, sun, sweat and adrenaline has taken care of that! I feel great. As soon as Millie gets done with her lesson, I get to play a set with Dinas. I’m feeling pretty wiped from my lesson already, but I will give it my best.

Love to y’all!