No Man's Land

Image with Pulp magazine Adventure logo

Earlier this year, for about two months, the Society of Illustrators had an exhibit of Robert Lesser's Pulp Art collection. To this day, it's the one show that really stood out to me while working there. I was amazed by these oil paintings- quickly slapped down by artists like HJ Ward, Norman Saunders, Rafael De Soto, etc. And despite some reviews here and there I've read about the work, I think the craftmanship is remarkable. Sure, they are a bit rushed, but they had to be in order to survive in that line of work. Ever since that show I've been wanting do something along those lines.

Doing a Damsel in Distress/ Femme Fatale on the cover only seemed right. At the same time, to go in with my heavy blacks and leave them with the job of defining shadows in this creepy jungle. Despite the lure of a sexy figure, that trail can't lead to anything good.

Final image without text

Initial thumbs and reference from my sketchbook

Pencil sketches under a layer of inked tracing paper

Linework

Also, don't ask me why, but after inking this, I realized those two bird have appeared in drawings of mine before. I can't help it. I like those two birds.

Speaking of birds, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone has a nice week. I'll be in touch.

The New Gold Rush

Here's a new illustration I did for a recent issue of Penthouse. It was for an interesting article about 20-30 year olds going back up in to the mountains above LA to pan for gold just like the 49ers use to. With the economic crisis we've been in, people are willing to try anything to get some extra money. I, personally, think it's an awesome idea.

Big thanks to Art Director John Faraci

Sketch

Layout

Backpacker | Gone Astray

Here's another illustration I did for Backpacker's Survival Quiz. This issue's theme was the risk of becoming lost in the wild.

Layout

Big thanks again to Jackie McCaffrey for the awesome Art Direction!

Sketchbook

Finishing up a few personal things that I'll post soon. In the mean time you can take a look at a few of my sketchbook pages and how obsessive I am with filling the page. Be it with drawings or pointless rambling.

Homo Ferus | Cracked Sky

Hope all is well with everyone. Especially after the hurricane for those on the east coast. Fortunately, I've been busy with a good amount of freelance work lately. Unfortunately, I can't show any of it to you. Yet. All in good time.

In the mean time, here is the new Homo Ferus. And one of many more to come, I might add. Every time I finish one, I think of three more to draw. Trying to concentrate on the essentials of survival, hunger and food for the first two, I now wanted to approach shelter and exposure to the elements.

I've been considering posting some detail shots everyonce and a while. Maybe I'll do it for this one. We'll see.

Linework

It's got to that point where I've begun to describe the series to other people and even with only three pieces finished, this boy is certainly growing as a character for me. While only those three are done, I have his entire story, perhaps even life, planned out.

Thumbs/Sketches

And yet at the same time, I haven't given him a name. To be honest, I'm somewhat against it. I only refer to him as "Boy" or "The Child." Even in the original photoshop files. He's never had a name and frankly, doesn't even know what a name is. Doesn't matter to him so why should it matter to me.

In addition to that, I don't want to give him the personality that comes with the name. Because of my initial argument, there is still something missing in him that would bring him to that point. The point where he's completely human. There's no developed thought present in that head of his. And that reminder is a bit unnerving.

Backpacker | Arachnid Awareness

Here's a recent illustration I did for the September issue of Backpacker Magazine, which just came out a few days ago. In every issue there's a section call Survival, and in that, a Basecamp Survival Quiz. Each month has its own theme and topic.

Sketch

Jackie McCaffrey, the Associate Art Director over at Backpacker, asked me to run with the idea of Spiders. I had a bunch of fun working on this, of course. A big scary spider? What more could I ask for? The sketch was approved so I went to the final. Same process as usual- I do the linework in ink and then color digitally. Big thanks to Jackie and everyone at Backpacker!

Layout

Maxim | Modern Monsters

Another group of illustrations I did- this time for the August Issue of Maxim. With the Modern Monsters Theme, I had to illustrate celebrities/ reality tv show stars as mythological creatures.

Art Direction by Eric Ku.

Click image for larger illustrations or go to:
http://www.johnnydombrowski.com/illustration/maxim--mondern-monsters/

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