25% Taking in inspiration

One of the books I've read by working artists talking about how to have a sustainable creative process said 25% of an artist's time should be spent taking in things that can be used as inspiration.  Today turned out to be one of those days.  It started out well with a great workout at the gym where I took a dozen shots of some crows being spooky in a tree in the fog, and me feeling all pumped up about a whole day dedicated to painting.

Then I came home, did my stretches for the first time since Thanksgiving, checked out the studio for air quality, and tried the recipe for a pomegranate smoothie.  After drinking the smoothie, I started feeling woozy.  Long story short, I was soon felled by a severe allergy attack with at least 3 possible causes.  *sigh*  Productive work today:  watching some more of the online class on inking, reading some dragon drawing materials and contemplating the crow photos.  The one above is the only one that caught any of the crows in flight.

While the iPhone camera failed to capture the spooky fog, it did well enough at giving me a good dark image on a light background which is what I need to make a good screen.  I have shots of a couple of other leafless trees and have spent part of the day contemplating how to combine these into an interesting collage.  Or use them as screens in vivid colors with birds.   Tomorrow, I swear, I will paint dragonflies.