Hardboiled

Better quality version on my website: http://johnnydombrowski.com/illustration/hardboiled/

Hardboiled fiction- mostly concerning crime- is a literary style that tends to have an "unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex." Shooting a man face to face was just another day on the job. I've been reading who knows how much of Raymond Chandler and he's quickly becoming my favorite author. On top of that, I've been watching a bunch of movies like The Maltese Falcon and, maybe one of my favorite movies, In A Lonely Place. All of that detective fiction and film noir, definitely helped spark the piece.

Since I had so much fun drawing smoke in some other illustrations, I wanted to rework it as an aesthetic instead of working as a big part of the storytelling. And one thing they did do, was smoke. That's all those movies were made out of, anyway. Shadows and smoke.
Taking a little break from my Homo Ferus ideas, I wanted to illustrated a moment that could be considered either raunchy or violent. And most importantly, him not caring either way. Characters like Marlowe could be beaten within an inch of their lives and yet still manage at being a smart ass. Whether they can get themselves out of trouble is another story.

I may be posting some detail shots soon. Depends. Also, I've been thinking about blogging on more than just new artwork. It's a blog, after all. Why not use it to its full potential? Hope all is well.
-Johnny.

SOI 53 Annual

Some good news popped up recently- thought I'd share it with everyone. I found out this week that I had two pieces accepted into the Society of Illustrator's 53rd Annual Exhibit and Book! Really exciting. The two pieces that got in were Homo Ferus and Passerby- my two most recent. -Johnny

I'm really slow with adding new posts but I am working on stuff! More work coming hopefully soon. Halloween= watching scary movies and drawing all weekend.

Homo Ferus | Desperation

As always-for a better quality image- view the piece of my website:
http://johnnydombrowski.com/illustration/homo-ferus--desperation/

I'm back from the dead! Here's a piece I just finished tonight. It'll hopefully be the first of a series following feral children. Children who grow up in the wild or in complete isolation from any form of social contact with other humans. Homo Ferus was a term coined by Carl Von Linné (I believe, correct me if I'm wrong) which places the feral child in a stage between animal and man. Not quite either. What makes us man? Is Nurture really that much more important than Nature? It seems like it, yeah. There have been cases of children being locked in a single room for years at a time to the more legendary examples of kids actually being raised by wolves. These children would tend to walk on all fours and even bark and act like dogs.
During the sketch stage, I wanted the first image to put the child alone fighting against the elements, and in this case, hunger. With no options or knowledge for another way out, he resorts to desperate grabbing of fish in a nearby river. I stayed pretty faithful to the sketch with the hair being the one exception. As the idea developed, I wanted the boy's face covered up in this, and most likely, in every illustration from the series. Since we relate to someone the easiest through their eyes or face, I wanted to take that safety net away from the viewer and portray him as, in a way, just another beast in the wild. That's when Ian Laser Higginbotham, a friend and fellow artist, mentioned the idea of having his hair soaking wet and dripping over his face. Perfect! After the ink drawing was done, I colored it digitally in photoshop as usual.I'll keep in touch- more where this came from. Let me know what you think! Talk to you later.
-Johnny

Stage Fright

Ink, Acrylic, Chalk

What started out as a simple piece about theft, turned me into that experimental artist living inside of me. It may not be much visually but for me the thought is there.

Since narrative is such a strong focus in illustration- the part of me that wants to make it incredibly abstract is usually taken out of the picture. In fact, it only really shows up when I'm working in my sketchbook. If you look back and some of my personal work like Hugo or Son, you can see what I mean.

I had originally planned for this piece to be about the fear or anxiety before committing a crime. I'm a bit fascinated about criminal psychology. For example, how certain criminals can rob the same place or store over and over again. I guess we are creatures of habit. Even when it comes to somethings as extreme as stealing or holding someone and gun point.

Southwest

For a better quality image of this, check it out on my website: Southwest

Hey everybody, here's a new illustration I just recently finished. Hope you like it! There wasn't much of a concept behind it. It may even be cliche but I don't care. I had fun. Time flies when you're having fun! Also, below are the color studies I played around with before I started to paint the line-work. Most of the time, I usually jump in head first and fool around with colors- like I did for If and When- but for this I wanted the color palette to be really simple. I figured I would test it out in photoshop first. You know, dip my toes in, if we're going to keep up the water analogy. And hey! The picture has water in it! Coincidence?! Yeah, it was.
I'm heading back to Connecticut for the weekend to see the family and hang out with my sisters which ought to be fun too. Fun flies when you're having fun! Okay. Up next I'm going to start a series I'm working on with a few friends. So more info on that when it starts to manifest itself. Talk to you guys later.
-Johnny

If and When

If and When
Inks and Acrylic

Hey everybody, sorry for the lack of posts. Hopefully that will be stopping soon. Here's a new illustration I finished recently. I'm trying to move away from Digital at least a little bit, but most importantly, I'm trying to loosen up. I always tend to be very precious with my work. While some care in that area is good, too much can really hold you back.

The times when I honestly and/or totally wreck a piece and just go crazy with it, tend to be the moments I really have fun creating work and end up with some of my favorite pieces.

Stop being so precious.

Be more daring.

There's always been this craving to buy a motorcycle in the back of my head. Especially when I was a kid. One thing that really struck me was a comment someone in my family made. It's not a question of if you'll get into an accident, but rather when. It's seems like that cliche one-liner at the end of every History Channel natural disaster TV show, but it stuck with me for some reason. The last place you want to get in an accident is on a bike. I wanted to play around with my approach so I thought it would be a dynamic image to play around with. Hope you like it! I'll try to keep posting work- be finished illustrations, sketchbook stuff or otherwise. I'll keep you posted.
-Johnny