johnnydombrowski:

Pandora (Process)

Johnny Dombrowski

First of all, hello to new followers! I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that people are digging my work. Now on to business…

I’ve been thinking about posting more of my process on here, but with reblogs possible, I never wanted to cram posts with too much writing or images. So I figured I’ll post the final illustration and then a second post with more info about the piece later on. I’ll post whatever stages I have, so you can learn a little more about how I work.

With the urge to experiment more, I’ve started this year playing around with my technique a bit along with working on more concept. First with Chump and now this. I’m not sure what initially caused it, but I got this craving to draw Pandora. While reading through my copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology *pushes up glasses* and I came across an interesting take on her story…

Pandora was created by Zeus, not as a punishment to Prometheus for stealing fire, but as a blessing towards man. Every god in heaven contributed something to perfect her. Aphrodite gave her beauty, Hermes persuasion, Apollo music, etc. And instead of evils, each god also placed a blessing into a jar. Eager with curiosity, Pandora slipped off the cover to look inside, when all of the blessings started to escape. She tried to close the lid as quickly as possible, but was only able to keep hope from escaping. That’s why, whatever evils we come across, we’ll always have a sense of hope in our lives. 

Reading through her story, I didn’t see a box ever mentioned- only the jar. Turns out that box is a mistranslation! The original greek mentions it as a “pithos” or jar. But that was later translated to “pyxis” or box, by Eramus of Rotterdam in the 16th century. THANKS ERAMUS.

With the evils of the box gone, I tried my best to instead capture her curiosity. To try and get that peeking look, I used Alphonse Mucha’s photography as reference. Bending her back down, eye level with the jar, taking a quick look at the wonders waiting inside.

And now that I’ve talked your ears off, I’ll wait to see if you all want more of this. If you’d like to share just the image without all of this rambling, you can go to the original post 

And now whenever someone uses the phrase “It’s like opening Pandora’s Box” you can slap them across the face with a white glove. Even challenging them to a duel, if you’d like. I don’t care. It’s your glove- do what you want with it. It’s in your hands. Or should I say ON your hands! Do you get it? Because it’s a glove? You wear them on your h- ok I’m gonna get going.