The Idea Box Journal

Here are a few assignment highlights from the talented students of my summer Digital Drawing and Painting class at RISD 😃🌟

While the tech-oriented hordes rave about AI as a shortcut to creativity, those who’ve committed to the challenges of communicating through their own hands, eyes, and hearts are struggling. The struggle is with meaning, purpose, and autonomy.

Do artists have to submit to Big Tech to stay relevant? Does the artist’s journey matter in a world dominated by screens and simulations? Furthermore, how do we all maintain our own well being when the shape of the human form is continually being manipulated by new gadgets, new media, and the ever-growing attention economy?

New painting 🌟

Awake & Aware
Oil and digital, 18×12″

The answers to the biggest questions about life and our place in the universe are available to each of us. All it takes is the initiative to seek out information from enough reliable sources that the beautiful truth becomes self-evident. When we explore with a vigilant mind and an open heart, we can claim our sovereignty as truly awake and aware human beings 🧡

Highlights from reunion weekend 🥂 Had a wonderful time catching up with classmates I hadn’t seen in 25 years and reconnecting with Providence.

When I discovered the Memorial Day sale aws going on I realized I had to get on these and make sure they’re ready to go 👏👏👏👏

So if you’re a fan of the Raven Cycle, or are close with someone who loves the books, all the prints of the cover art are now available 🌟💛🌟💛🌟

It’s funny how sometimes a clever solution to one problem creates a whole new challenge for the next problem…

For the sequel to The Guns of Ivrea, I knew The Witch of Torinia (2016) had to keep with the silhouetted composition. But the question was which themes and how to integrate them in a manner that felt aesthetically consistent?

I decided to combine the central witch, embodying the epic battles she would cause, framed by the lands she sought to control. Here’s a collection of sketches from my process. I got my girlfriend at the time to model in dozens of menacing poses. Ultimately it turned out pretty well. I was particularly happy with the color palette and the detailed depth in the sprawling battle scene ⚔️🌟

Can Robots Create Art?

What we call Art is meaningful to us because it revolves around the human experience. Everyone has tastes and everyone has opinions, but Art is a part of culture in way that is more significant than personal preferences. Which means that as we see a rise in AI and robots producing what looks like “art” we are going to be challenged with understanding the difference.

Individuals may like the images they see or read or the music they hear, but fundamentally what’s being produced isn’t operating in the dimension that matters to human beings. Art is soul to soul contact. When AI and robots are sentient enough to wrestle with their unique existence, the work they produce will have meaning because it will speak to them; in their language. The value and significance of Art comes from the meaningfulness of the shared experience.

Until that days comes, we may admire the novelty of AI mashing together component details stolen from art across the internet or robot arms spinning paint on a canvas. But it’s all just another game of tech bros trying to impress, bolstered by morally bankrupt capitalists swarming for money.

We benefit from knowing that the history and the future of Art on Earth comes through the heart of the disciplined and dedicated communicators of the human experience; made by human beings, for human beings.

My first class of spring semester teaching Digital Drawing & Painting starts tonight! 😃

Looking forward to meeting the students and introducing them to their first assignment 🌟🌟🌟

New painting 🌟
Corybantic Rabbit
Oil & digital

I’d been working this one for a little while. The rabbit didn’t take long, it was finding the quality that made it more than a rabbit painting that took more effort. I felt like the piece needed to land on a tip of the needle balance between a portrait of an animal and a sense of interior struggle for it to have something worth communicating.

I adapted my Fox and Octosmith shirt artwork into stickers, now available at Booksmith 😊