Pencil Flex: Prehistoric
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art
Pencil Flex came back in a big way when Miko picked the theme this week and decided (unilaterally, like a punk) that we’d all be doing Paleo art. I’m pretty sure it’s no secret that I love drawing dinosaurs though, so I had a really good time doing the pieces I had the time for.
I went with just the usual rough pencil sketches and cleaned them up some with Photoshop rendering. Trying to win back some painting sea legs as I find I’m a bit out of practice on that front.
Check out all the pieces over at Pencil Flex.
Photo Ref Friday
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Research
Tags: bull, charge, matador, photo ref friday
Great Moments in Predation
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Research
Tags: bison, predation, wolves
The Sunday Desk
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Photos, Work
Tags: urban animal, work ethic, work station
Building a Closet
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
I noticed a slight deficiency around here in terms of new art, so I thought I’d peel some skin back and show some bones for a little bit. Closetworld is a webcomic written by Matt Yocum that went online a little while back. As pretty standard procedure for all my projects, I make sure thumbnails are approved by the writer and/or editor before I actually begin work on the page. Below are the layouts for the first four pages of Closetworld, and the finished sequentials for comparison. As usual, click to biggify.
Aside from camera placement and shot angle, two other very good uses of thumbnails are the preconception of Shadow Placement and Shorthand of Expression. Figuring out where your shadows go in this miniature version of the page saves you a lot of time and ink. It’s not just shadows really, but blacks in general. If the page reads smoothly as a small sketch, there’s no reason for the finished version to be weak compositionally.
As for shorthanding expression — it can get tedious when you’re already drawing the page and you need to keep checking the script to see if the emotion on your character’s face fits what he’s saying and doing. If you indicate this in your thumbnails ahead of time, you save yourself quite a bit of hassle later on.
Tags: closetworld, composition, john amor, layouts, making comics, matt yocum, thumbnails
- – - Soundcheck + + +
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Photos, Trash
The Best of Tres Komikeros (Part 1)
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Work
In this special edition of Tres Komikeros, we look back at some of our favorite moments and outtakes of the podcast’s earliest episodes from three years ago.
Download the episode here
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Tags: best of, tres komikeros
Face Off
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
Somewhere, Alex Cipriano is cracking a Nicholas Cage joke.
Here, people, is the mock cover to the second issue of Urban Animal. I’ve been drawing it on and off for the past couple of weeks, and today I was blessed with a three-hour window to just slap some color on it.
I had come up with various plays for the layout of this thing — from showing the main character in mid-transformation, to a dinosaur doing an Abbey Road crossing — but I decided to just go with my gut and hint at a key moment within the issue. I was initially conflicted about whether to make the rex snout bloody or not, but the deep red color turned out to be a nice point of interest.
When in doubt, go for the gross out.
Tags: comics, john amor, urban animal
Change to Believe In
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Trash, Work
Download Urban Animal #1.
Download in PDF
Tags: Obama parody, urban animal
Download: Urban Animal #1
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
We’re closing in on a year since I spoke with male strippers Rey and Tom over at Big Ape Design and decided to dig up this decade-old comic and give it proper distribution. Originally titled “Beast Boy Joe” (I know, I know…) this was something I now want to refer to as a quasi-biography. The book is now available for download for three reasons — firstly, as my attempt at participation in this admirable 100 Araw ng Komiks movement local creators are advocating. Second, to stir up some attention and to get people ready for #2 (which was also drawn about a decade ago). And third, because I love stories, and I love you.
This .cbr file features the first full issue of the mini-series, minus the bonus sketches and introductory text. Urban Animal is © John Amor and Fort Bastard Studios.
Download Urban Animal #1.
Download in PDF
Tags: john amor, urban animal
