These are strictly ideas, NOT compositions or studies (that's the next step) but I need to narrow them down or else come up with more, or I won't finish in time! These ideas have really different moods and the subject is still a little too fresh for me to be objective!
I'll reveal my favorites at the bottom. Thank you for your patience, your quick impressions and/or votes!
1 a and b are the idea of a policeman in an empty piazza, looking for children who aren't in quarantine. They're either behind him or as shadows ahead. Use empty space and long shadows to emphasize the unnaturalness of empty piazzas.
2 A person in full COVID dress shielding himself from political polemics. This won't be partisan, but about polemic itself.
3 a and b. A person in quarantine reaching out to another person via a computer screen, and maybe succeeding in breaking through.
4 A man in a mask (immediately post quarantine) and all the words he can't say to those around him. A lot of the other people have company because they have family members or don't care if they break the rules.
5 What women do in the bathroom when they are alone!
6 A monk in his cell. This was one of my thumbnails for nightfall.
7 Children behind bars. The bars are COVID statistics, and when the cases go down, the children break free.
8 Someone in quarantine painting a crowd scene to have company.
9 An apartment scene with people or animals in the windows, but one is alone. May literally be a "lone wolf." Or might be an immigrant or old person.
10 A bas relief statue stuck to the side of a building. It can't sleep and is looking at the moon.
11 a and b A homeless man in a church. This is based on something I actually saw. I would have baby Jesus reaching out to him, but I want this to come across independently of religion, as a moment of tenderness for people who now feel more isolated than ever.
!
My favorites are the children behind the bar graph, the statue looking at the moon (I don't know, it's really weird and depends on how quirkily I can draw it!), and the homeless man in the church. I also rather like the piazza one. Some of the others would probably be easier because they are more conceptual, but I'm more in the mood for a feeling than a concept right now.