The Work Journal of Artist John Amor

Horny Chicks

Here’s a page from JUDAH.  Immortal undead.  Fallen angels.  Shady dealings.  And of course, boobies.

Judah

Some approved pages from Will Prince’s quasi-religious fantasy tale JUDAH.  I’m currently working on the rest of this and basically trying to wise up as best I can in terms of composition and lighting to suit the subject matter.  Hope you guys dig these.

Seeing Red

Just thought I’d post the first three pages from SOVENA RED #1 written by the mansexy Rod Hannah.  The guy’s been a joy to work with, so here’s hoping these sequentials do his story justice.  I’m trying to inject a little bit more Immonen and Ottley into my stuff, so if that carries across in the line work then YEEHAW, if not well… YEEEHAW!!!

Ngyarp.

OVERTHROW!

Justin said it was cool to post some pages here, so I figured I’d do that and avoid having to talk too much.  Been hitting the sack at four in the morning lately.  Brain is mush.  Need Spider’s jumpstart pills and intelligence enhancers.  And maybe some hot wings.

Me brain are anymore not smart.

Enjoy.

Thor Sequentials (Part 1)

I didn’t bother writing a plot for this, since it’s pretty much going to be an action sequence anyway. Sorta. Not much going on in this first half, but I wanted to stretch some camera-placement muscles. I was listening to comic podcasts a lot while I was making these, and I forget who said it — either Hitch or Quitely —  but someone said it’s a good idea to do one difficult or new thing with every new page. It can be a camera angle, a blur effect, a shading style, a background element, whatever. As long as you try one thing new each time. S’great advice.

That’s it from me for now. As always, comments and criticisms are wildly welcome. (Oh but also, I added a Twitter feed on the right sidebar, waaaay under all the standard links and stuff. Check it out and add me up if you’re on there. Laters.)

Nextwave Sequentials (Part 2)

[digg=http://digg.com/comics_animation/Next_Wave_vs_Cthulhu]Finally got around to finishing the second half of the set. In case you missed the first set, here are pages one, two, and three. These were all done on paper slightly larger than actual print size. Roughly 7.5 x 11.5 inches, give or take a cm. Here’s the plot if anyone wants to use it:

Page 4
——

Panel 1
Tabby starts to rant about why she should be team leader on account of how many X-teams she’s been in. Cap just gives her a “Psshh” expression. Aaron is still checking out Elsa.

Panel 2
Tabby yells at Monica, “And excuse me! ‘CAPTAIN MARVEL’?!? Aren’t the Avengers pissed you named yourself after a downed comrade? Hellooooooo…”

Panel 3
Close up of Mon: “Well, we’re cool now…”

Panel 4
Shot of Mon in bed with Starfox. Awwwwkwaaaaard…

Panel 5
Nearly identical to panel 3, but she has a kind of sheepish expression.

“We’re cool.”

Page 5
——

Panel 1
Monica’s POV. Tabby and Cap are just staring at her. Half pissed, half unimpressed. no dialogue in this panel, so win it with the facial expressions. Maybe Tabby’s got a huge bubble goin’, but her eyes are hella bored.

Panel 2
Same POV, but now Cap shrugs and says he thinks he should be team leader. Ignoring him, Aaron and Monica have turned their attention to Elsa, who’s looking at a screen and is gesturing for everyong to check out what she’s seeing.

Panel 3
They all crowd around the monitor. POV is from the monitor itself. Think Maguire JLA cover, but tighter and lower. They all look as if they’re in awe, except for Cap who’s a bit pissed that he’s not being listened to, but he’s also intrigued at what the team’s looking at.

Page 6
——

Panel 1 (Splash)
Exterior shot of the Shockwave Rider. We are trailing behind it as it flies toward a gigantic Cthulhu-esque creature.

“So uhhh… you still wanna lead the team?”

end

This page, I admit is a little in-jokey. Just FYI, Starfox was one of the Avengers against Monica using the codename Captain Marvel. Heck, he didn’t even want her on the team. I decided not to do what I planned in the thumbnails for panel 4 because Starfox without his uniform on, well… he looks like Wolverine. And I knew the panel couldn’t be very big, so I couldn’t really draw him differently enough to make him read as not Wolverine. So I opted to just show their uniforms on the floor. Doesn’t leave too much to the imagination, and the letterer can have his fun.

Did panel 2 differently so I could show people approaching Elsa rather than just feet walking toward her from behind. Third panel is my first attempt at something a la JLA demigod Kevin Maguire. See roughs.

Anyone who’s been following me on Twitter (JohnAmor) knows how much fun I had drawing Cthulhu. I did studies and all that junk. Whoodathunk I’d enjoy it that much? I had to change the camera’s position though because he just didn’t feel threatening enough when seen from above. Rule: Cthulhu does not ever look up at something. He just doesn’t do it. I wanted to do an up-shot instead, but that woulda made the squad’s ship too tiny.

So that’s the end of that. Sending these off to some editors and fellow artists for some feedback, then I’ll check on some awesome people I’m lucky enough to be doing collaborations with. Why they agreed, I still don’t know. Kicking the idea of doing Thor sequentials around in my head.

Nextwave Sequentials (Part 1)

Saw Iron Man a few days ago. And as weird as it was to see him strike that ballerina pose everytime he got ready to take off, the film is fucking brilliant. It delivers on so many levels, some of which I wasn’t even expecting, that I literally left the theatre an Iron Man fan. I honestly wasn’t one when I walked in, but Downey’s one of my faves, so yeah. Now I’m psyched for Fraction’s run. Good watch, good watch.

And as promised, I’m now posting the Nextwave pages I said I was working on as samples. Cebulski says to keep sending him updates on whatever I’m working on, so fair enough and sure enough, here I am. I came up with a six-page plot to use. I’m afraid to use the word script, since this is more of a sequence of events than an actual story or whatnot. Though, ironically, it serves the purpose of showing off storytelling skills. Heh-hah. I happen to think that conveying conversations interestingly is one of my strengths, and I honestly enjoy those more than slugfests. I’m weird. So hey look…

Page 1
——

Panel 1 (Big Panel)

It’s about high noon. The Shockwave Rider skims across ocean surface at high speed. In the distance, we see an oil rig. Just as a point of interest in the background. It won’t have anything to do with the plot. Note, the ship is more or less flying toward us.

Panel 2
Interior establishing shot of the ship. Monica and Aaron are piloting the ship, heavy concentration apparent in Monica’s face. Aaron’s just being Aaron. Elsa, Tabby, and Cap are just chillin’ in the background.

Monica: “Look alive, people.”

Page 2
——

Panel 1
Shot of Monica putting the ship on autopilot as she gets up from her seat. Leave a lot of space open for her monologue as she is briefing the team at the same time.

Panel 2
Aaron quips like the asshole he is.

Panel 3
Aaron is looking back at the team from his seat (slowly getting off his seat as well), explaining the nuances of the mission further and questioning monica’s leadership. Aaron explains the mission a bit more and just how serious the threat is. Based on what he adds to the brief, it sounds like this could be their last mission ever… and it scares the shit out of Cap and Tabby.

Panel 4
In the background, we see Cap and Tabby having church giggles; while in the foreground, Monica’s got an “Excuse me?!?” expression, but still calm and in control.

Page 3
——

Panel 1
Big shot of Elsa in a hero pose, Aaron is just coming into the panel (from the cockpit) and making like he’s endorsing her as the deserving team leader— which he thinks makes sense coz most of the dangers they face are monsters.

Panel 2
Shot of Aaron whispering something flirtatious to Elsa.
Something along the lines of “I have very many useful robot parts…” from issue 2.

Panel 3
Elsa pretty much telling Aaron to fuck off.
Also, Cap is agreeing with what Aaron just said, but…

Panel 4
Elsa tells Cap to fuck off too.

And these are the thumbnails I did before I jumped into the pages. They were done on 2×3 inch post-its, as that’s kindasorta the same proportion as a standard comicbook page. Obviously, they’re pretty rough. In all honesty, these are some of the cleanest thumbnails I’ve ever done. My roughest ones are usually decipherable only by me. Heee. I usually do the panel borders in ink, so that they don’t smudge over and lose definition as time passes. The interiors are always in pencils, because I rely on the blocked shapes within rather than the details, so whether it smudges or not, it’s all good.

And now pages 1-3 (Click thumbnails for larger views)

And here’s a list of differences between the thumbnails and the finished pencils as well as the reasons behind ‘em:

Page 1, panel 2: I decided not to show Monica’s hands on the console anymore, because I wanted to establish that Aaron was the one driving. Him being a robot and all, it only makes sense that he has that chore, yeah? Just like Bishop did. Lance Henriksen. Not the X-man.

Page 2, panel 2: Opted to do a simple profile shot of Aaron as he speaks so that it feels like after panel one, the camera doesn’t change position but just zooms in to him, as he’s sitting right to the left of where Monica is getting up from.

Page 2, panel 3: Kept The Captain seated so that our view of Monica doesn’t get obstructed. I also moved everyone more to the right to create more space on the left for what Aaron is saying.

Page 3, panel 1: I decided not to put Elsa in a hero pose, coz it just didn’t make a lot of sense that she would strike one. In a ship. So I just changed it to a semi-hero pose in which she’s, like, checking her gear and stuff. To me, it still looks like she’s posing, but nothing too flashy. I also minimized our view of the Captain, coz I wanted him to sort of disappear, so that when he butts in again in panel 3, it feels more surprising.

Page 3, panel 3: Pulled a tighter shot on Elsa so that it doesn’t look too similar to how she’s positioned in panel 1.

That’s that for the first half of this sequential set. I hate the fact that I’m going so slow on these, but work’s been a bitch lately. Gotta pay the bills after all. Also, when I do begin page 4-6, I should also prep for that little caricature project I plan to show Ellis. Ssshhh…