Nicholas Cloister continues to show just how cool stock art can be with the latest additions to his stock line. More than worth the price of purchase, this is a line of stock art to keep an eye on for gamers and small publishers alike.

Ok I love buying art I can use in in other projects and this one grabbed my eye right away. I love the odd deep-sea feel to this creature. It could be an ocean monster, some winged astral worm or as the description says a large water mammal.

What do you get? You get 5 image files; 1 jpg for the web and 4 hires jpg, tiff, png and psd files. You also get a really interesting "how it was made" pdf so you can see the evolution of this creature and some notes from the artist. This really sets this piece apart from the rest in my mind. I don't think every bit of stock art here needs it, but certainly the more interesting looking ones like this benefit from it. There is another PDF from the artist on how you can use this in a game.
There are game-generic stats included with bar charts and iconography (snails, humans, dragons, angel/demon) to explain where it is. It looks like it is as smart as a snail, strong as a gorilla, no magic and other helpful bits. This also sets this apart in my mind.

Now I know there are these suggestions, but I had something very, very specific in mind when I saw this piece. To me that is also a good thing. If I see a bit of art and go "I know EXACTLY where to use that!" then I am usually sold.

I will be checking out more from this publisher.