Category: Musings

We’ve all had those days whether you’re a writer, a composer, or an artist. You sit down. You got work to do. And nothing comes.

The muse has left the building and you’re badly trying to summon her back.

Well, my friend, fret not. What you need is a list.

This list will work for you whether you’re trying to compose that song that will make you famous or you’re working on the Great American Novel.

How to use this list

Here’s the trick. Actually take a pen and paper and write down the answers.

Every lyric you have, every word you write, every painting you paint, it all comes from your head. When you are uninspired, the problem revolves around the lack of communication between your brain and your medium. Your hands are the in between and once you start getting ideas to go to your hands, your inspiration will come right back.

Sound crazy? Actually, it’s not. It’s a mental block.

Try it. It’s a brain trick I’ve learned over the years. I guarantee it will work.

1.  Who is the love of your life?
2.  Who is the one that got away?
3.  Who hurt you the most?
4.  Who did you hurt the most?
5.  What did you want to be when you grew up?
6.  Who was your idol as a kid?
7.  Who was your idol as a teen?
8.  Who was your first crush?
9.  Who was your first kiss?
10.  Where were you when you had your first kiss?
11.  What was the most painful argument you’ve ever been in?
12.  Did it resolve?
13.  If it resolved, how? If not, why not?
14.  Who is the person who has passed on that you miss the most?
15.  What would you tell them if you’re allowed one more day with them?
16.  Where would you take them?
17.  Why is that place so meaningful to you?
18.  Whether or not you’re married, describe your dream wedding?
19.  Who will you want to be there?
20.  Who do you not want to be there?
21.  What happens to us after we die?
22.  Why is your best friend your best friend?
23.  What is something your best friend knows that nobody else knows?
24.  If you have unlimited money, describe your dream vacation
25.  If you have unlimited money, describe your dream home

Did you notice something about this list? It’s not a simple yes or no list. I made your brain wake up.

Now, you’re ready to write, paint, or compose the next big hit!

And sometimes our modeling sessions are planned.

Allie and Roxy have both been with me since the beginning. They’re both very different models.

The funny thing is, neither of them started off as models. It just happened that way.

I’m in fact the only person they model for. We’re friends that turned into models.

Both love modeling

Despite what some people tell you, women love to feel beautiful. It’s a great feeling. Just like a man likes to feel manly. If he’s not strong, there are other ways to be manly. Like building a successful business for instance. Or writing the Great American Novel. What could be manlier than writing a novel under the influence of copious amounts of Scotch and tobacco that generations later still gets assigned in college?

There are moments when we’re in a zone. Where the modeling sessions turn out perfect. Where I can get three or four worthy paintings from one session.

It’s a great feeling indeed. We both know it. We both can feel it. It would be the equivalent of when a band executes a song in the studio and they know that that’s the one.

Allie warmed up to modeling faster. When Roxy did, she really did. But she didn’t warm up as fast as Allie did.

Almost all my paintings though are of Allie because Roxy’s hard to get a hold of. I don’t take it personally. That’s just how she is. If you knew her personally, you’ll understand.

Allie’s very dependable. And predictable. She’d probably make a kick ass accountant.

Sometimes I have an inspiration

Sometimes before the modeling session, I’ll have an idea where we want to go. Like the upcoming one with Allie, we already planned witches. She’ll have evil faces and evil gestures prepared.

I’ve got my evil witches and their evil familiars series started already. I just finished the second painting. But I need two more.

The imp was the easiest one to do. So many ways to draw an imp. For this one, the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz were my inspiration. I remember seeing those as a kid and they scared the hell out of me.

What a thing to be scared of! Evil flying monkeys? Yeah, they scared me big time.

For the second painting, I did the evil witch and her nightmare familiar. I painted her with red hair. She looks more creepy than beautiful, which is great! It’s good to mix things up. I’ve done straight beautiful for too long.

Quick background – the evil witch with a nightmare familiar is the worst in combat. They attack you in your dreams. Not directly.

Special moments

The very last time I saw Roxy, she was really getting into her poses. I got some spectacular sketches from that session that I’ll turn into paintings later.

It was a special moment. There I was with pencil in hand and she was in front of me, fully nude except for her jewelry. Roxy loves her jewelry.

It felt so right. Every pose she did looked cute.

She has a huge smile with each one. She may have even laughed a little.

It’s hard to get Roxy to laugh. It’s hard enough to get her to smile. Roxy’s a totally different kind of girl. More serious, straight up.

When I said Allie would be a good accountant, I didn’t mean the boring ass accountant stereotype who never leaves the house and just crunches numbers. I’m talking more about responsibility, dependability, and memory, who will every once in awhile let loose big time. Allie has all in boatloads.

Roxy though is so different. There’s a sadness to her, which I secretly find intriguing. I hope she’s not reading this and mad at me. But I promised I’d never use her full name anyways. It’s not like there’s only one Roxy in America who’s a brunette with long hair and a killer body.

I do miss that girl big time. She sent me a text last week that she misses me. But no word when we’re going to get together next.

That’s her to a T. Uncertainty ought to be her middle name.

That may be why I treasure time with her so much. I see her so rarely.

I don’t show my sketches

My sketchbook is mostly notes. I never learned to shade correctly. My shading almost looks childish.

When I actually paint, I keep the sketch by my side when I’m painting so I can see where to put the shadowing. I also note where and how the muscles move. And where I can see traces of bones and tendons through the skin.

My painting is better than my sketching. My outlines however look pretty good. I’ll share those. But you don’t get to see my shading techniques until they’re translated into paint.

When painting pinups, the magic happens in the initial sketch. Once you get good at sketching, everything else just falls in place.

In the old days, artists took anatomy classes and dissected bodies. I won’t go that far. However, I strongly recommend that you know bodies very well.

I’m a damn good masseuse and also was a pretty good wrestler back in the day. Between massage and wrestling, I know what a body can and can’t do. I also know every muscle of the body, every tendon, every major bone.

I know both healing points and pain points. Before mixed martial arts were actually called MMA, I wrestled NHB, which is no-holds-barred wrestling and would attempt to move my opponent’s body in ways that hurt enough for them to tap.

Why this matters

Alright, maybe you don’t want to get into wrestling. That’s totally fine. Not your thing.

Then get into massage. Know a body inside and out. Know how to heal a body.

Masseuses also know pain points.  They know what hurts and how to alleviate some of that pain.  If you think you can apply this to your artwork, well my friend, you’d be 100% correct!

I’m almost blind. I’d much rather touch than look for obvious reasons. I see nothing without my glasses. You and I could be five feet away from each other and without my glasses, you’re blurry. I literally cannot tell you what you eye color is.

Of course anatomy classes work too. That’s why artists of the old days did them.

Live models

I strongly suggest live models. Yes, I wear glasses and yes, with my glasses, I can almost see as well as you can. My eyes are mostly correctable. Correctable enough for me to legally drive. And no, I’ve never caused an accident and I’ve literally driven over half a million miles.  I have the reflexes of a cat.

I use two live models – Allie and Roxy. Both are dear friends of mine. For personal reasons, I don’t paint anonymous models. I feel like I have to be emotionally connected to my work for my work to be meaningful.

You don’t have to feel like this. Maybe I’m a weirdo. But that’s how I think. I’m emotionally connected to my work. I can’t put emotional investment in something that is anonymous, so my models either have to be close friends or lovers. That’s a hard rule for me.

Regardless, live models are great. You get to see how a woman sits, how a woman moves, how a woman stands, how a woman walks. You get to see all the muscles move exactly how they can move. And, you get to see the shadowing.

Shadowing is so important when drawing. It gives your drawing depth. And a lot of realism.

For painting pinups

You’re looking for beauty. Paint only the beautiful.

What is beautiful? You tell me. We all have different tastes. There are no right answers, and I can guarantee that if you find a model beautiful, someone else will as well.

But yes, drawing is where it’s at. When I first started painting, I listened to experienced artists. I listened to mistakes and regrets.

You know what stood out to me? I remember explicitly hearing some guy say that he wishes in the beginning he spent two hours drawing for every one hour painting. You know why? Because drawing is where it’s at, especially when painting pinups.

Should you be friends?

Honestly? I think it helps.  When sketching either Allie or Roxy, there’s often magic in the sessions.  We joke and laugh and smile a lot.  Makes the sessions easy.

More importantly, we’re all loose.  Pinup art is supposed to be loose.  It’s not supposed to be uptight.

If you’re doing pinups, you’re not painting two bananas, an apple, and a bunch of grapes in a fruit bowl.  You need to make the painting look alive and that means your model should be relaxed.  And more importantly, comfortable with you.

Does she have water? Has she eaten? Is the room too cold?

Paint only the good poses

I’ve taken two semesters of photography in high school and one in college.  Unfortunately, a lot of photographers are dorks.  These guys get a woman naked and don’t know what to do with her.

It shows in their photography.  Whereas, here you got a woman with a beautiful body and the pose is downright awful.  “What are you doing?”

Same thing with painting.  This is yet another reason I think you should be at least friends with your model.  You have an emotional connection.

“Hips out to the right. Just a little more.  Now back straighter.  There you go, baby! You’re gonna knock ’em dead!”

And remember – positive reinforcement.  Don’t be a jerk or else they won’t want to work with you again, even if you’re friends.  (And you may not be friends for much longer).

I start with a sketch

In this one, Allie posed. I sketched her. I sketch everything from the lines to the shadows. I’ll replicate the shadows in the sketch when I paint the paintings.

I don’t use any fancy pencils. I just use this pencil called America’s Pencil and it’s an HB2. That’s it, nothing fancy.

This is also why I prefer using hot press watercolor paper. It’s personal preference, but for me, the sketch is the most important part of the process.

Painting is the easy part

I love painting. It’s the most relaxing thing I do. But, it’s also quite easy once you get the hang of it.

Yeah, exactly what that old timer said – spend twice as much time practicing drawing/sketching than painting. You’ll get the hang of painting much sooner than the drawing/sketching.

It’s especially true when painting pinups. When painting pinups, if the drawing is bad, the painting is bad. Period.

I make sure I nail the drawing first before I ink. I prefer inking with a very fine ink pen. My personal preference – Sakura Micron 005. You don’t have to use the same tools as we’re all entitled to our preferences. But that’s just what I use.

So if you’re a new artist, get really good at drawing. Everything else will fall into place. Don’t worry. You’ll get the colors and the painting picked up really fast. That’s the easy part!

Have you ever asked anyone why they bought art? I don’t mean in a negative way, like “why the hell would you buy that?” I mean, ask them sincerely why they purchased that particular piece of art.

You’ll be surprised at the responses you’ll get from art buyers.

You pretty much have two types of buyers. Some buyers buy completely on a whim. Then the second group actually went looking for the art.

From those two types of buyers, you have overlapping subcategories. I say overlapping subcategories since they don’t necessarily fit into the two primary groups.

Investors

I wish I remember which member of Motley Crue invested in art. I remember the days when a google search actually brought relevant data. Nowadays, you search for an answer to your question and you get a bunch of bullshit.

Anyways, I remember reading about one of the members of Motley Crue who would buy hundreds of thousands of dollars of art every year. And then proceed to have art auctions. And actually make a lot of money!

Yes, you can buy art as an investment. Of course, keep the pieces you’re in love with. But part with the rest.

An up and coming artist may slaughter the stock market. Whereas a good stock investor will make 10% or more a year, art can go up infinitely.

I recorded two songs with David Lichtenstein. His father Roy had a painting sell for $56 million, another sell for $95 million, and another sell for $165 million. Imagine if you owned any of those paintings! So far, seven of his paintings have sold for over $10 million.

Lovers

Ah, one of my favorite words. I’m a hopeless romantic. I think all good artists are.

Some folks just love collecting art. They fall in love with a piece of art. Then they buy it.

These people often have so much art that they have to end up taking a piece down in order to put the new piece up. There’s literally no room on their walls.

I love meeting people like this. They’re passionate about not only art, but also life. You could see the smiles in their eyes. They’re fun to talk to, fun to be around. If I could pick one type of person to hang with, it would undeniably be them.

What motivates them? I have no idea. I wish I had that much enthusiasm! These are my favorite people in the world.

Trend setters

This may have a negative connotation but it really shouldn’t. Some folks love to predict trends. Others set them.

Artists create art. However, if there’s nobody showing it off, then the art will eventually disappear and the artist will be forgotten.

Trend setters find a style they love. Then they push it out to the world.

This is yet another reason not to hate your competition. Imagine, you and someone with a style similar to yours getting both picked up by the same trend setter. You not only both make money, you both make the news. The trend setter helps you both succeed. Then, you’ll see other artists try to emulate you both, only further enhancing your artistic portfolio since a collector will often look for influences.

Businesses

I’ll never get picked up by a business. They’re not my market. Yes, you guessed why. I don’t have anything that’s necessarily safe for work. Unless you work in the Playboy Mansion.

I don’t like “business art” anyways. It’s more often than not sterile. It looks like business art.

In these parts, business art tends to be politically correct. “What’s the latest virtue signal? We need to display that!” That art more resembles a bad parody of itself than real art.

Disney though has some pretty good art up. Yes, I know it’s cool nowadays to hate on Disney. But whenever I see their art they got up, I have to compliment the artists. I say this because I wish other companies would recognize the importance of real art, not the sterile shit that most have hanging up.

Commissions

From the Renaissance to the 19th century, artists depended on commissions. Rich people commissioned artists. That’s just what they did.

Rich people back then were cultured. They often spoke tons of languages and could play musical instruments. They knew, and loved art. So much different than today’s rich people, especially the Silicon Valley stereotype.

The Medici’s funded the Renaissance. Tchaikovsky had Madame van Meck. Goya had Charles IV. I’ve seen the infamous picture of that royal family in real life. Oh, and Tchaikovsky was the very first person to play in Carnegie Hall.

Classy people commission art. They’re some of my favorite people as well. It’s one thing to take a family photograph. You really want to have style? Have your family painted.

Friends and family

And lastly, you have people who know the artist personally and have strong relations with them. They’re the easiest to sell to since they know firsthand the motivations of the artist.

I won’t go into details here as I’d be stating the obvious. You know the artist. You may have even commissioned the work yourself.

I am a Romantic. No, not the cheesy 20th century definition. I fucking hate how they took something awesome like Romanticism and turned it into something pretty fucking stupid.

I am a Romantic, 19th century definition. If you have no idea what I’m referring to, read the Wikipedia page on Romanticism.

Romanticism was an art movement. Musically, it died when World War I began, but was dying before WWI began. But then again, WWI began before WWI began. If you’re a historian, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Opium was the drug of choice for Romantics

Well, alcohol too. So opium and alcohol were the drugs of choice for the Romantics. However, Alcohol Tales has no historical context. It’s also meaningless. “A bunch of drunks telling stories? How fucking boring. I’d rather read the news”.

Opium also gave its users creative abilities. At a cost, of course. Like the Devil, you can have the item you desire. It will just cost you something later on.

Thus, Opium Tales makes sense. It has historical context. You know they’ll be unique. And you know at the very least, they’ll be interesting.

This won’t be the only medium you’ll see them

You’re reading a blog. However, this won’t be the only place you’ll see Opium Tales. You’ll also see them in my music. You’ll even see them somewhere else.

For that, I won’t go further as I’m currently in negotiations for some money.

Tootles.

Love,
Roman

By the way, I’m also a painter. Check out some of my works..

Dammit. I open up one of my old tales and it’s called A Pirate’s Tale. Written before Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series came out, one of the main characters was named Jack.

So no. Not going to keep that name for obvious reasons. Everyone will think I copied them. Complete, and quite unlucky coincidence.

Of course, I’ll now have to change the name.

As for the Disney movies, the first one was excellent. None of the sequels held up to the first. I know it’s hard to do. It’s like so many bands that have an excellent first album cannot live up to it. Same deal.

The Godfather was one of the best movies ever made. The Godfather II was slightly better. That’s extremely rare.

So, not going to harp on the PotC franchise. They have my condolences.

However, I still need a name

So, before I even begin, I need to come up with a new name for this pirate. Give me a little bit of time to ponder it.

I’ll also consult history.

Anyways, I got a lot on my plate. Once I get some of this shit resolved, I’ll work on that name, and get A Pirate’s Tale uploaded here.

For now, tootles.