SUPER self indulgence

[Storn]

I'm on a super hero kick of late. This one I got to do in color. Saved my inks in photoshop and then layed them over again once it was painted. Sorta like an animation cell. Crispy!

This is for my own Feng Shui house rules for super heroes. I will put the doc up on my site in a few weeks. I'm waiting for DSL, and then I'll update my whole website. If anyone is really interested, I can e-mail them a .pdf.

[Misguided]

Hey, that one is NICE!

[Eric Lofgren]

So, when do you start doin' comix?

Very, very good work Storn.

Eric
www.ericlofgren.com

Ps. All this selfish indulgence stuff has got me all fired up. I'm gonna have to finish a couple of pieces and start postin'. Unfortunately, all my pro stuff is nda.

[Jon H]

Crispy is definitely the word. Very clean piece of work with a lot of punch. KAPOW! Looking forward to seeing you in comics, which can't be far off.

Also looking forward to seeing lots of artists work posted up here. I think it would be a really sweet regular feature, and we can all keep upto speed with the competition!

[Storn]

Thanks y'all. Eric, you made me laugh with your super hero voice.

I always wanted to do comics. But I sorta moved sideways into the game industry. I got my first freelancing gig just after accepting Columbus College of ARt & Design's offer to finish my bachelors.

Two things happened to pull me away from comics, during its early 90s heyday.

1) I wanted to keep the ball rolling, didn't want to lose clients, so I freelanced throughout my 3 &1/2 years of CCAD. I was so amazingly busy that I rarely did comics, except in a comic class taught by Darryl Banks (penciller of greenlatern, CCAD alum).

2) I discovered oil paint. I fell in love with painting, even though I truly sucked at it.

So, I would do comics, but two critieria have to be met.
1) someone pays me enough to do it. and the kicker....
2) I get to paint comics. I don't want an inker, or colorist touching it. I love painting, I think the comics and my love can be combined. But it will take an extraordinary project for that to happen.

Lastly, doing RPG/CCG art, your genre and theme vary so much. I love doing the gamut. Fantasy to sci-fi to supers to westerns to whatever...

But recently, I have been hankering to play around with those panels, that control over time and pace. That is what I miss about comics. So, if the right project came along, I would be happy to do a book.

[Caduceus]

I like your work. It certainly is very "superhero" without having that sameness that often appears in that type of stuff. I also like how your coloring doesn't have that "computer" look to it. I really got tired of 99% of the comics out there having near identical coloring techniques.

[Matt Drake]

I wish I could afford to have you work for me. This is great.

There was this one artist a while back who said all our stuff was cool, and complimented me along with a bunch of other guys. My response was that I am not that great - if I was as good as I want to be, you would all open a vein in despair.

When I see the stuff that Lofgren, Storn and Jonny Hodgson kick out, I want to open a vein. Lucky I've got other irons in the fire - I sure as Hell wouldn't make it if I had to live on my art. Not with guys like this in the market.

Storn, you are full-time, right? I mean, you don't have a day job, do you?

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[Storn]

I've been full-time for about 4 years. Until recently, I did have a part-time job at a tennis shop on Sundays & Mondays evenings. When I moved, it was too far of a commute for a part-time.

But that part-time tennis job almost doesn't count. All I did was sign out courts and answer phones. They wanted someone, direct quote; "who could amuse themselves". So I did many of my sketches, b&ws, and small portable jobs there. It was like getting paid twice. But I haven't needed the income from the part-time for about a year.

And I love tennis. I was at Travis Pointe for 3 and 1/2 years. This last Sunday was the Sunday night that I didn't go into work or was on vacation. I'll miss working there.

[Noel Murphy]

I just want to say that when I had time to play rpgs many years ago the main one was Champions (it's not Hero...it's Champions) and it's an honour to (almost) meet someone who has done art for it. The art has always inspired me (apart from the first edition which as a whole seems pretty laughable). Super Buddies (on my site, I haven't got a postable version handy http://www.noelmurphy.supanet.com/clowninc/super_buddies.htm ) is a scene from a Champions campaign. I'm the one on the right!
I'm still looking for something to do as a graphic novel, by the way.

[Storn]

Originally posted by StephenGrady
I like your work. It certainly is very "superhero" without having that sameness that often appears in that type of stuff. I also like how your coloring doesn't have that "computer" look to it. I really got tired of 99% of the comics out there having near identical coloring techniques.

Stephen, I forgot to reply to this comment.

I appreciate you saying that. There is a bit of computer trickery in this illo... but not much. I inked the original, scanned it. Saved the ink. Then I painted on the original with Genesis paints (similar to oil), then scanned it again. Then I overlayed the inks on top of the painted layer. This crisped up the lines again.

Unfortunately, this technique would suck for doing comic coloring. It took me 1/2 a day to paint one figure. I can't imagine trying to do an entire comic page (actually, I can imagine, I've done it...takes forever!) in oil.

I agree with the statement that there is a samness to the computer coloring at the moment. There was some really, really nice stuff being done by Wildstorm over Travis Charest pencils on WildC.A.T.s... but I haven't seen much of that muted color technique since.

>>I just want to say that when I had time to play rpgs many years ago the main one was Champions (it's not Hero...it's Champions) and it's an honour to (almost) meet someone who has done art for it. The art has always inspired me (apart from the first edition which as a whole seems pretty laughable). Super Buddies (on my site, I haven't got a postable version handy http://www.noelmurphy.supanet.com/c...per_buddies.htm ) is a scene from a Champions campaign. I'm the one on the right!
<<<

Thanks Noel. It is a pleasure (and a bit disconcerning) to meet a fan of Champions. Disconcerning, because my early stuff is just so awful compared to what I do now. So I kinda cringe when someone brings up Normals Unbound...even though I loved doing that book at the time... and to this day it remains one of the more useful Champions products to my own gaming.

I like "Guarding General" and "Super Buddies" on your site. My one suggestion is try and mute the colors of your background (a bit of gray) on "GG". Ray-tracing tends to lend itself to candy colors. Something I struggle all the time with in my own traditional painting. I just want to paint everything in intense bright hues!

Back to work for me, I've got a private comission that I'm almost done with. I'll post it up here when it is finished. Most likely in a couple of hours.

[Noel Murphy]

:D thanks for the tip, got any more?

[Storn]

as far as more tips go... probably... I think sometimes that I'm a frustrated art teacher posing as a professional artist. <g>.

Keep posting stuff. Let me know how hardnosed of a critique you want. I can give you the full CCAD critique...or I can give you an encouraging critique...I"m capable of both.