Storn's art for swipin'!

Storn · Feb 27, 2012

Yup. I'm involved in another Kickstarter project. And folks, I really hope this one gets off the ground, because I really, really want to do the "old school" dungeon module cover for it. I worked up a bit of art for the interior, "The Beast", hopefully to drum up some support for JB Mannon and At The Table games.

Here is the blurb that At The Table provided me:

Within the Devil's Reach is a group of three adventures all set in the backwater town of Devil's Reach. The town was already about as close to hell as you could get but things are getting worse. All three adventures are great intro adventures for the Dungeon World Roleplaying Game. Dungeon World is a light weight game that is focused on delivering an old school, dungeon crawl experience.

Now I haven't had the opportunity to play Dungeon World, but it gets great buzz from Story Games. More importantly to me, my good friend Judd, has really enjoyed running it. From what I can tell, it is D&D old school, but lighter and tightly integrated mechanics with a lot of flavor for each "class" you play. Kinda the best of "old school" combined with "new school" game design. Dungeon World is reasonably priced too, although only available at the moment as a pdf, print is coming out this Gencon.

Here is a link to the kickstarter from At The Table: Within the Devil's Reach - Dungeon World Adventures by Josh Mannon — Kickstarter

Here is a link to Dungeon World itself: Dungeon World :: Home

And here is my teaser art, "The Beast". I haven't inked in some time for a project that is to remain black and white. I ink all the time for my "superhero style", so it was fun to go back to an old friend and ink this up as a piece of black and white artwork.

Storn · Feb 28, 2012

It is odd how sometimes character concepts and commissions seem to run in similar thematics. I remember getting a few years ago, 3 speedster archtypes in a month. While 2 is not quite a trend, they did sorta tumble into my to do queue at the same time.

First up, we have a samurai for Death Tribble that called for a pretty straight forward treatment in the concept description.

Next, we have a character from a Legends of the Five Rings campaign. A monk who started out in the Spider Clan, became disillusioned, and went over to the Phoenix clan. But the white swash is symbolic of Takijiro being of two worlds. (Very similar to my own Tsuntake PC who was of Dragon Clan, but his mom was Unicorn and she died saving a lot of face for the Dragon, so Tsuntake was raised knowing he would go serve Shinjo Shoji of the Unicorn...also a young man of two worlds.)

Lastly, for today, I've got another one done for Inkwell's Monster Project kickstart. This time, I got to do a White Dragon. Dragons are tough. So many artists before me have done Dragons, hard to bring your own stamp on it. I think it is informative to show my mistakes and missteps. The first draft of this was rejected by Inkwell and rightly so...although when I had done it, I was too close to it and thought it was fine. I was rather happy with it. But after it's rejection, I started to see its flaws and a talk with my wife about it really cemented that it, well, sucked... and that I needed to do better. So here is the first sketch:

And here is what a good art director, a good wife, a couple of tossed away sketches, and drawing with chums at a coffee shop can accomplish. In my opinion, so much better. Joe over at Inkwell deserves a lion share of the credit for pointing out a much better wing attach to body arrangement. I also wanted to say that I really enjoy working in light colors sometimes. It is fun to do almost watercolor over pencils digitally.

Let me know what y'all think...

And here is the link to Inkwell's Monster Project kickstart in case anyone missed it before and are interested: Monster Stock Art & Minis by Joe Wetzel — Kickstarter

Lalato · Feb 29, 2012

Definitely like the second Dragon better, though I must admit that I didn't notice the wing attachment on the first right away.

Storn · Mar 9, 2012

Lalato said:
Definitely like the second Dragon better, though I must admit that I didn't notice the wing attachment on the first right away.

Thanks!! It is why we artists have art directors. Good art directors are immensely helpful...even though I sometimes feel a bit pained at their suggestions. Good for me though. Gotta keep growing!!!

Two commissions, but first I wanted to let folks know that 6 supers are up in the latest portfoilo from moi and LPJ designs. So. If you are looking for superheroes (or villains) clipart that is print quality and reasonably priced, look NO further. Well.... look further by clicking on the link provided. This, by the way, is my 15th!!!! portfolio. So thanks to all the patrons who keep my drawing their characters and cranking away.

Here is the link: Image Portfolio Platinum Edition 15: Storn Cook - LPJ Design | RPGNow.com

This commission has been done for awhile and goes with the fantasy group that I've posted earlier. But I simply forgot to stuff it onto my photobucket so I could link it here and show it off. I like this one, I felt that young mage as gunfighter was kinda fun concept to play off.

Next is another for patron unstoppable, Death Tribble and it is request for a cheongsam wearing korean (beautiful) martial artist. This was a fun one to do because I was breaking in a new brush pen from Pentel that I picked up that day. To be honest, the paper was bleeding just slightly and I spent a bit more time doing clean up than I liked. But the brush itself, the Pentel GFKp rocked for doing the inking. I usually ink with winter sable kolinkskys from Weber, dipping it in india ink (or sometimes using dip pens too, depends on my mood). But the GFKp (I have no idea what the initials stand for) is a nice portable inking tool.

And since I was working at one of our Thursday coffee shop work sessions, I bought the Pentel GFKp (not easy to type that) at our brand new awesome art store that happens to be right NEXT door to the coffee shop! How cool is that? Well, y'all out there in internet land probably don't care... but I think it is very cool. Went in for a new kneaded eraser and came out with a very cool new tool. By far the best mechanical brush pen I've used.

Anyway, that was waaay too long discussion about my passion over art supplies. Here is the art and I will shut up. Enjoy!

Storn · Mar 11, 2012

You now can wear ME on YOUR chest!!!

Silver Branch games has taken two of my covers and made them available as t-shirts. They look kinda snazzy, if I can say so myself. I want one.

Check dem out here:

Silver Branch Games

Storn · Mar 19, 2012

Folks, there have been several events in motion behind the scenes at Studio Storn. I am about to embark on a 3 month (or so) project involving a comic book/video game that I am NOT at liberty to discuss. But it is a ton of work. I also have been working on a facebook game, helping with art chores on that. And several covers have made it to my desk.

So. I am raising the price on my private commissions from $45.00 to $60.00.

I have several reasons for doing this.

1) So, while I absolutely LOVE doing private commissions for folks, I need to slow down the rate of which I've been receiving them. A price increase will do that. The demand on me sometimes gets in the way of taking on publisher's paying work.

2) I haven't raised my rates since I've started to doing this (I lowered the prices when I very first started this gig).

3) I feel that I spend more time on each commission than I did when I first started, and there is a higher degree of polish and finish on my commissions and that takes time. While I am fast, a living wage is in danger of being a barely making it wage the more time I spend on these.

If and when my business gets sparse, I might lower my prices. I wholly admit this is an experiment and I expect folks to be a bit bummed about the price raise. So I might have to change my mind.

I really appreciate all the acceptance and support and work I've gotten over the years and I don't do this lightly.

So. Now that is out of the way, let me lay some art on y'all. This is a superhero group of past commissions gathered into one group shot.

Storn · Apr 3, 2012

Things have been really, really busy here at Studio Storn. I just spent a wonderful extended weekend in Ohio and Michigan. My step-grandfather passed at 89 in Dayton and he had a wonderful life and a wonderful family. I love 'em to pieces. So, please, no condolences. So, we passed through my old haunts in Michigan on the way to the memorial. Had a wonderful time with Eric, Rick and Neil, my old gaming buds. Had an awesome time at the memorial seeing family I haven't seen in decades. It was a very happy time!

And oddly, the best service in Ann Arbor ever! Way better than when I actually lived there. Kudos to Zingermans and Red Tractor BBQ. Just the nicest folks working there. Millie, my wife, loved Ann Arbor.

Getting back to the studio has been really busy with my NDA project and wrapping up other projects. So I have not been posting anything. I've got a couple of things to lay on ya.

First. I don't do many logos... but Darren Watts, formerly of Hero Games, asked me to do this one, because I've done Apes for him before. He is starting up a publishing company called Silverback Press. Here is a link to Silverback's facebook page: Silverback Press | Facebook

And here is the logo:

Next up is a private commission I of a character I believe is in a 7th Sea/ Legends of 5 Rings game.... so I went sorta fantasy-ish in that direction.

Lastly. Another LPJ Portfolio of my clip art work has come out. This one is fantasy, some pics are much more fully illustrated than the single figure, no background thing. A preview is available here: Image Portfolio Platinum Edition 17: Storn Cook - LPJ Design | RPGNow.com

So. Yeah. Posting from me is going to slow down a bit, as I won't have tons of new art to show as I work on the new NDA project. Millie's daughter has moved in with us, she will be going to school at Tompkins Cortland Community College for free, where Millie is a professor. And we might have to seek a bigger house. I so love moving.

I know that I have one painting that has been done for a couple of weeks, just waiting on the client to get his ducks in a row, so I can give him some free guerrilla marketing. And I will hopefully get some of the smaller commissions out here and there as we go along. Check back in a few days!

Piratecat · Apr 3, 2012

I'm not sure it's said enough, but this thread is wonderful. Thanks!

Hal G · Apr 7, 2012

Agreed PC, great thread and sorry for your loss, Storn, we have not worked together in years, but you have always been a stand up guy!

Storn · May 17, 2012

*phew* It has been awhile since I've posted anything. I've been doing my art and I've had things to post, but I've been trying to put to bed the first 8 pages of the comic I'm doing for Time Tribe.

Why I am bringing this up, is because Time Tribe has just launched their kickstarter looking for some funding. Here is the link: The Time Tribe - Episodic time travel adventure game by Karen B Wehner — Kickstarter

But just to give you some background, Time Tribe is a video game. I'm doing some artwork for the in-game comic book, where pages will be unlocked as the player proceeds through the game. It is a game aimed at kids and teaching them history as the 4 young kid protagonists have the ability to travel through time to visit various eras. I could tell you more but the link will be a lot more clear and succinct than my poor writing skills.

Luckily, I have other skills. Like drawing. And my clients have given me permission to put up 2 pieces of artwork. Actually, I will be putting up 3, as 2 images are of the same thing... the gift shop. The first sketch I did was not the right angle and when I got a map of the actual mansion where the kids live and explore helped tremendously, so I wanted to show my evolution to the 2nd one. They really needed a ground floor view for the video game in-scene. Unfortunately, I never finished the gift shop as I had to move onto painting some NPCs and get started on the comic pages.

And here is an example of the digital color over pencils style I'm using for the comic pages. This happens to be page 13 (we are doing them out of order because certain pages are needed in-game more dearly than others).

So. There you have it. A taste of what has been consuming much of my time over the last month or so. Hope you are intrigued. If you have kids, really consider backing Time Tribes... I think it is an awesome way to spark some interest in history.