Thought Processor|NYC Series

Hope to see you there! I have a piece up along with a paper doll I designed and put together. The doll was a bit hectic to build but the final outcome was worth it. Like it says in the invitation, the show opens May 21st and the opening party is from 6 to 9. All of the pieces and dolls will be on sale so maybe you'll find something you can't leave without or just go for the... atmosphere. Sure! I'm starting a few more things this week so I'll keep you posted.
-Johnny

Naturally Violent/Violet

Hey everybody, Here's a new Illustration I did for portfolio class. It's on the topic of whether we've inherited violence through out evolution from chimpanzees. After coloring it, I was playing around for a bit and took away the linework and ended up with the second image. I thought it was pretty cool! Named it "Naturally Violet" for the fun of it. It's fun! Wordplay is fun!

Also, I'm noticing that blogspot is washing out the images A LOT, which is usually the problem here. So if you wanna see cleaner versions of them- check them out on my website: http://www.johnnydombrowski.com/illustration/naturally-violentviolet/

Which one do you like better? Let me know what you think!
-Johnny

Ubasute

"...refers to the custom allegedly performed in Japan in the distant past, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die, either by dehydration, starvation, or exposure."
Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia

My latest and last assignment in my portfolio class was to illustrate "The End." What it's the end of? Well, that was for us to decide. Coincidentally, my teacher in human nature mentioned how Inuits and Japanese have folklore concerning the abandonment of elders in the mountains or out on the ice. The idea haunted me and seemed like a perfect topic for the piece.

Also, you might see that I'm trying to play around with a signature. For the longest time I've never dreamed of signing my own work and even now, it's been added later on. In the realm of commercial artwork, it seems preposterous to sign your name. Instead, the most you usually get is credit in the fine print. Certainly better than no credit at all, of course...

Leagues

What started out as a cover for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, went a bit on it's own direction. It's been really interesting and yet, difficult to color my stuff recently. With the detail I put into my linework, it gets to a point where I can't really render anything. It'll only take away from the illustration. It has to get to a point where the color will only add to the scene, and in this case, add another level of intensity to it. At first, my plan was to color it in shades of blue... Ocean=Water=Blue. Seems simple enough.
But as I thought about it, the cool blues didn't fit with the scene at all. This surrounded diver fighting for his life. I always love to lay down a few shades of one color and then experiment with the Hue and Saturation. When I got to the red, it seemed to fit perfectly and gave it even more potency.
In the process of this- after the playing around with an infinite number of color palettes- I was trying to add some soft elements here and there, but they never worked. One, for example, the light shining out of the helmet was a much softer, more blurry element around the diver. Against the sharp flats in the rest of the image, it just didn't seem right.
Anyways, I like how it came out and the flats were just fine for me. Let me know what you think!
-Johnny

35th Humana Festival Poster

Hey everybody, I finally got around to coloring my typewriter image and added text as well. I wouldn't be surprised if it was too late to submit it to the festival but regardless, I like the way it came out.

For Tomer's portfolio class, we had to design a poster for the 35th Humana Festival of New American Plays incorporating the writers imagination and creativity somehow. Below is the original version I submitted which was, unfortunately, very rushed. I may still write an email to the people at the festival at least to show them the updated version. No strings attached.
Like night and day, right? I was pretty upset with the first version since, as you can tell, it's not very good. Oh well, at least I had fun making the second version! Let me know that you guys think! Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon!
-Johnny

Kumaon

In Tomer's class, we were assigned to pick any topic of our choosing and illustrate four images surrounding it. Though at first going crazy with the infinite amount of possible ideas, I finally decided to go with my gut reaction and concentrate on the Man-Eating Tigers in the Kumaon district in India. On top of that, following Jim Corbett, a colonel in the British Indian Army known for killing a bunch of those big cats in the early 1900's. That's one heck of a gut reaction...

Anyway, I've pushed myself to up the ante and do these four on 18 x 24 paper- which is a pretty big feat for me since I tend to caught up in the details. Here's the first or four:linework (ink)
I opted to color it much more simply than other pieces I've done. Since the drawing is good enough on it's own, I didn't want the coloring to make it too busy.
color (digital)
Also, something really cool: I was playing around with color palettes and narrowed it down to two. One being the red/grey palette I chose as the final, and a blue/orange combo. I was switching back and forth between the two when, just for the hell of it, I switched back and forth faster and faster. One thing lead to another and I made the GIF below. It gives it that awesome stereograph, 3D feel to it but the line work isn't actually moving at all. Pri-tty cooooool.

Hope you guys like it. The other three will be posted in the upcoming weeks! Talk to you later...

Humana

Here's an image I did for Tomer's Portfolio class. We had to design a poster for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Though I'm thinking about coloring it, there's a big part of me that loves it just in black and white: