My writing tools. Home version

Unlike when I’m traveling, I use a wooden box at home. Also metal mechanical pencil and something else that increases the weight a lot. I still try to keep things simple and accessible. And yes, I’m back to fountain pens!

It’s amazing how these small details can impact every drawing or text produced.

Love the process

1. For TikTokusers/mainstream readers (too much text below!): 

Experiments are good! 🤗💫❤️

2. For curious minds:
“I need to produce good things. Moreover, I need to produce only good things. Therefore, I cannot waste time on drawings that are not extraordinary. Problem solved.” The paradox of excellence.

It’s a big mistake to fall into that trap. To achieve an acceptable level of mastery, a learning process that includes trial and error is necessary, inevitably resulting in often low-quality outputs. The game of creativity is what is it, and the first step is to accept and use it to your advantage. Avoiding that step out of fear of producing failures or, even worse, awakening the ego would be fatal. The ego will immediately seize any opportunity, raise its voice, and cause havoc, blaming its host for such horrible drawing here or that mistake there. What a shame! The ego will say this would be tolerable for a beginner but unacceptable for someone with experience.

However, the reality is that these failed experiments are the building blocks of a future palace yet to be constructed. Once this is understood and accepted, expecting a highly probable disaster, it is important to develop a new superpower: learning to enjoy the process. Reaching this level is akin to attaining Nirvana I guess. Then you can start the journey with some peace and tranquility.

This page serves as an example: an experimental composition with little hope of producing something useful. How boring it would be to use proven solutions whose outcomes are known in advance. After all, this notebook is an exploration tool, and you can’t expect to gain much from well-trodden ground. The possibilities that open up at this point are endless. It’s overwhelming, so much so that it becomes paralyzing, but that’s another topic to address separately. I’m running out of space here, and not everything can be covered at once. To conclude, experience tells us that often, wonderful things emerge from experimentation that would never have come about otherwise.

2050. Huge A3+ notes

This 2050 project has many arms, in many directions, and that's fascinating. I often just let me go with the flow of new ideas. In this case I started to take some notes in this A3 paper which ended up like that. It offers a kind of overview much wider than the pages of a notebook. 

Definitely not useful as a pocket notes to take them everywhere (airplanes, cafes for intellectual people, crowded metro, etc).

2050 notes

Only indigo for these figures. Creating new characters is magical. They are in form of a blurred idea in your mind and minutes later they are so real in front of your eyes. Fascinating!

Abstract Games

I recently discovered Tak and I’m absolutely fascinated by it! Its beauty, simplicity, and layers of complexity are truly captivating. I’ve even started crafting my own wooden version.

Back in the 90s, I played competitive chess (regional level). However, during my university years, I discovered GO, which was a refreshing change from the repetitive positions and memory-based openings in chess. Bye bye chess. But GO requires several lifetimes to master, and eventually, I drifted away from both games.

Now, I’m on the lookout for new abstract games. Tak is the only one I’ve found so far. Have I missed any great abstract games designed for online play? It could be a great combination for a game in the category.

Notes on brown paper

Mixed notes. I always like to write on this kind of brown paper. Far for being the best or even acceptable quality, but it creates the perfect contrast. A kind of dressing for the whole notebook aesthetic.

Mixed notes and Kuretake marker pen

That’s the only good marker I found, in orange color. Pigment and archival quality. It’s a little bulky to carry but it’s full waterproof. Not very easy to find. I also use it in turquoise color.

Mixed notes

Mixed notes under the presence of The Poor Poet.

The expert

Draft. There was a time not too long ago when people watched TV (even believed what the news said) and listened to experts. Sir Arthur C. was one of those 20th century experts. He was a known top Egyptologist.
Now, at 140 years old, he is old and worried because his grand theory was never completed after many decades of research. He maintained that the passageways of the great pyramid pointed to certain stars, but in reality there was a small deviation. His theory didn’t work even with thousands of adjustments. 

But one day he had a brilliant idea to fix it. Listen: At night and secretly he went there and placed several stones to tilt the great pyramid at the precise angle. Oh yeah! Now everything works!

Everyone happy. His theory is valid, they give him medals, he gives lectures and the students learn what he writes.

Notes from Tunisia

I almost forgot how heavy that TWSBI was.

I also forgot I should finish writing the notes for each place before leaving that place, and not after as I always do.

Extended Tarot: Le Bateleur

Mystique in tarot has no limits, and if there is a limit this would be the human mind itself. The huge quantity of information everywhere is shown insinuated, an invitation to play and going deeper.

Visit to tax office

Visiting tax office is a patience training, intense mode.
It also makes me think so many questions about human nature and the civilization they have created.

A3+ sheet of sketches (2050)

Notes in large sheet (A3+). I’m too used to my pocket size notebooks (9x14cm) and this is being quite challenging. I saw a huge empty ocean when starting to draw.

2050 proyect’s core is about worldbuilding and notes in different formats is the perfect approach. Fascinating and extremely exciting.

Then later… one day, my trained monkey assistant will compile all these notes and will polish the final result in beautiful drawings, which is a secondary goal.

Collection of memories

How do I manage to find information from years ago? Actually I remember quite well where something was written. This weak method probably won't work for long time so I should find a solution. 

Rosetta 2.0

In order to keep important transgenerational information, stone is a possibility. Or blockchain. Much better: create a popular songs to be installed in brains of NPCs.

Box of notebooks

 The box I made by hand some years ago is almost full. They really look a family.

Strong glasses

Vision Pro. Experimenting with this new style. 

Note taking is a huge field which has many approaches. I'm not sure if this one is the best but I'm having much fun filling pages in this way. It removes the restrictions of boxes and too straight lines. The result is obviously more natural. However the risk to have a poor result in composition and final feeling is higher. I guess it adds essence to the notebook and that can't never be a bad thing.

Dancing fishes

 Japanese fishes flowing free in this page full of random but useful notes. Maybe they are trying to send a message.