John Amor's Art Journal » john amor

Dystopium Sampler

johnamor — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:32:59 +0000

On the few days-hours-minutes I actually get to just futz around and draw whatever I want, I’ve been consciously making sketches tight enough to later on compile into a sketchbook. I’m a lot busier than I’d like to be these days, but I can’t really complain about that. That said, I wish I could complete the thing faster than I currently am, but that’s just how it shakes out. I was inspired by what Brian Wood did a while back, releasing his sketchbook for free. And it wasn’t like it was just a buncha rough stuff either. Dystopium will be a free downloadable cbr and/or pdf file in the coming months, so those of who you care, stay tuned. In the meantime, here’s a few things that’ll be in it…

I quite doubt it’ll be the most thematically unified thing I’ve ever shared with people, but eh… what’re you gonna do?

Preview: Urban Animal #2

johnamor — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:10:54 +0000

Script and Art by John “The Reverend” Amor

Letters by Rey “Potent Citrus” Siasar

Urban Animal #2 will be available for purchase via cash or massage at the Second Cebu Comics Convention this October 1st.

Pencil Flex: Disney

johnamor — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:32:21 +0000

It was Kat’s turn to pick a theme, and it sure wasn’t hard to tell she’s been itching to draw some Disney themed stuff for a while. I was apprehensive at first, as my style doesn’t exactly lend itself to anything this cartoony, but I ended up having a lot more fun than I thought I would. I had somehow forgotten that the House of Mouse had some of the hottest animated ladiez. Silly me.

Building a Closet

johnamor — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:24:44 +0000

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.

Face Off

johnamor — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:46:16 +0000

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.

Download: Urban Animal #1

johnamor — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:21:13 +0000

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

Pantsphone Chronicles IX

johnamor — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:06:38 +0000

The tools. They are sharp.

Autumn in January

johnamor — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:51:51 +0000

Storytellers

johnamor — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:38:39 +0000

Jad and I recently had our prenup photos done in the sprawling grounds of my college campus. It was a good day to be kids.

These were done by the geniuses over at Bigheads Studios. Pay them a visit if you have a pulse. The rest of it is Facebooked, natch.

The Urban Animal

johnamor — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 07:50:53 +0000

Almost ten years back, when I was still in college, I somehow got it in my head that a snotty little punk with animal powers would make for an amusing read. Because I had been involved with local comic movements that had then just hung up their hats, I needed an outlet to at least keep the juices flowing. BEAST BOY JOE was a semi-autobiographical comic which drew a lot from my days in UP. It was a personal project that I had drawn up to 66 pages for (with script assists by my good friend Eric Menguito), but none of it ever saw print… mainly because it was really something intended just for me… but also because I had no clue who would want to publish it.

Earlier this year, manly men Rey Siasar and Tom Perez from Big Ape Design approached me and asked if I had any material I wanted to develop into actual titles, and I jumped at the chance to resurrect Joe and hopefully finish the story. I’ve been redoing the dialogue since June, on and off, as my other projects remain top priority, but issue number one looks like it may very well be ready for the Cebu Comicon this September 25th. The book will still have the same art from all those years ago, with touch-ups here and there, but with an all-new script, so as to update the jokes and shit.

Simply retitled THE URBAN ANIMAL, my pop-culture mash-up description for it would be The Catcher in the Rye meets The Incredible Hulk. With some Archie thrown in. It’s a 4-issue black-and-white original graphic novel that’s literally just been waiting almost ten years to get published — a fun little romp I can’t wait to violate you people with. Give me money for it.