2020 Online Salon
Options for Managing Treatment-Resistant Depression

Project Details
- Entrant Name: Todd Buck
- Membership Type: Professional Submission
- Other Contributors: Todd Buck
- Address: Lombard, Illinois USA
- Client: Jobson Medical Information LLC
- Copyright: 2019 Todd Buck
- Medium/software used: Mixed: acrylic, pencil, Photoshop, ZBrush
- Final presentation format: journal cover
- Primary Audience: pharmacists
Project Description
This illustration, used for the cover of U. S. Pharmacist magazine, is to highlight a patient self-administering intranasal esketamine for managing treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Esketamine therapy is a recent FDA approved treatment for patients with moderate to severe depression who have failed traditional strategies for managing TRD. I used a drippy painted background and dark blue/green/grey palette to set the mood. The gold esketamine molecular structures coming to the rescue were created in ZBrush. The glowing spots in the brain represent firing neurons or sparks of activity induced by the treatment. Compositionally, the active area was intentionally staged to the right because some text goes over the area on the left (back of woman’s head over dark hair).