The Idea Box Journal

Thank you to the doctors & nurses on the front line in the fight to save lives 🙏 I’m inspired by your dedication and compassion through this ordeal. 💐❤️

Have you seen the new Corona Beer labels? They’ve been updated to address the huge plummet in sales. 😷 #lifeinthetimeofcorona

Paintings concerned with the Corona virus and its spread into a pandemic.

I’ll hold off on revealing the nature of the non-fiction writing I’m working on just yet, but it does connect together a wide range of favorite subjects. 🧞‍♂️🦋🧬📘 I’ll make the manuscript available when the time comes and welcome interested reader’s thoughts ⏳🤓

Here’s a bright pink rearing horse I painted. It might have nothing to do or everything to do with what’s going on in the world. Stay healthy friends ⚔️❤️🌟

Advice on working at home from a freelance illustrator 🏡

Cycle between listening to music and podcasts. Alternate giving yourself time to think with learning new information👂

Don’t snack. If you’re tempted by treats at least establish a reward system for completing something 👑

Go for a walk or a jog. A bit of exercise is great for your heath as is fresh air. You’ll have plenty of personal space too 🏃‍♂️

Restrict social media and the news. You won’t get anything done if you keep pulling your attention away from your work. At least wait a few hours between updates 😳

Talk with friends on the phone. It’s a great way to have the intimacy of interaction beyond lines of text 👩‍❤️‍👨

Meditate for ten minutes. Envision good health for yourself, your family, friends, your country, and the people of the world 🌎❤️

Vita Temporalis in volume seven of Infected By Art, the 2019 compendium of imaginative realism. 🌟The actual painting hangs in a home in New York City.

There’s no rule book that says artists need to study the human form, though it’s still standard in art school. Although back before art exploded into the conceptual stratosphere last century there more or less was. Personally I’m largely concerned with narratives and making images that portray people (or animals, robots, creatures, and the like) so studying the human form regularly is a good idea. It’s remarkable how something so familiar can at the same time be an utterly humbling experience to capture accurately. While working from photographic reference is standard practice, observing and capturing with my own eyes reminds me, reminds all of us who do it, how much the lens makes things easier by flattening space. Painting from a photo will result in a painting of a photo, which is not the same as painting from life. Next time you walk through an art museum keep an eye out for art created before the proliferation of the camera and after (mid to late1800s). It’s noticeable. While the logistics of working from a live model can invite excuses (it’s too far, it costs money, it’s crowded, etc.) I try to make a habit of it.

If you’re curious about the variations, standard pose times start short around one to two minutes, which lets the artists warm up. These tend to be more dynamic postures, which personally are my favorite. Then they get progressively longer, into five, ten, twenty minutes, and a half hour with the model sitting or lying comfortably.

Visual studies for a story I’m in the process of writing…