Storn Art Reboot

[Storn]

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!!!


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[Texas Gunslinger]

Big time admirer of your work! I'm curious, why did you decide to go all digital for the background? I love you line art and it seems like it would have tied the whole piece together better.

Regardless, cool action pic!

[Storn]

Big time admirer of your work! I'm curious, why did you decide to go all digital for the background? I love you line art and it seems like it would have tied the whole piece together better.

Regardless, cool action pic!

Because that was what the style of the art I was trying to ape was doing. I was really out of my comfort zone.

[Storn]

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.








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[Jeff Wilder]

That marilith is awesome ... especially the snake texture you mention. (I'm not a gun guy, but if someone had asked, I would have said the longarm was a combat shotgun, not a full-auto rifle.)

[Storn]

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:

[death tribble]

Nothing says TPK like a Type 5 Demon using a machine gun.

The scales on the tail are wonderful.

[King Snarf]

Ah, marilith tan'nari with automatic weapons- what's not to love?

[Storn]

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? ... 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:

[Storn]

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.

[Flying Cobra]

Hey, Storn-

I was just wondering if the art in LPJ Design's Image Portfolios are fully licensed from you. This seems the kind of product fairly open to scamming/unlicensed resale, so I just wanted you to verify its legitimacy.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_i ... s_id=95959

[Storn]

Hey, Storn-

I was just wondering if the art in LPJ Design's Image Portfolios are fully licensed from you. This seems the kind of product fairly open to scamming/unlicensed resale, so I just wanted you to verify its legitimacy.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_i ... s_id=95959

Yup. Louis is totally above board with those portfolios, we discuss which pics are going in and I give them to him. It is a way for me to make lunch money here and there on artwork that I've already done. I don't make buckets of money doing this gig and if folks can use the art and I can make a little extra.... awesomesauce!

[Storn]

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!



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[death tribble]

Colour is a riff off of the Batman villain Crazy Quilt. I also wanted circles or haloes instead of beams and then that you had one band of the colour of the rainbow visible everywhere with black and brown near the head in a semi orbit.
It came out very well.

[Storn]

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?



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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic