Recent News and Articles:
-
I already wrote a bit about how great ballpoint pens, and especially the ISO-standardized refills, are for drawing. Since then, I have been doing a lot of ballpoint sketching and started to look for other exciting pens to use. I enjoy my LAMY fountain pens a lot (especially the metal AL-Star and Lx series) but…
-
Hey everyone! I just got back these minutes from a short Q&A “talk” I did some time ago for a Polish Japanese language school, Kotonoha, on topics of Japan, languages, communications, creativity, etc.
-
I have not been doing any serious art supplies shopping for some time now. Most of the tools I use on the day to day basis last me a long time – I use fountain pens for writing and drawing and lead holders for sketching. I can paint many watercolor illustrations for a whole book…
-
Finally, the time came to test and review one of the devices that made me interested in dedicated writing solutions in the first place – the Freewrite Traveler! A few years ago, the original device made by Astrohaus – the Hemmingwrite (later renamed to Freewrite, Smart Typewriter) piqued my interest. It launched as a Kickstarter…
-
This is all very nice, but what if someone would like to try making art with all these fancy ballpoint pen refills without buying an expensive Italian-made pen or spending hours in an office supplies store trying to look for the least-rattly one? There is one more interesting hack-like solution to this – using a…
-
In one of the first articles of this series – exploring various weird and retro writing devices – I mentioned the Pomera DM30 as may go to distraction-free mobile word processor. Even though this device is not exactly retro – it was made as recently as 2018 – it is unique and worth further delving…
-
A few years ago, when we still lived in the center of Tokyo, I made a few cool art supplies stores the goals of my walks. Once or twice a week, I would stroll to Ginza or Nihonbashi and visit stores there or along the Sumida river to the Kakimori. I would just browse, test…
-
Recently I started leading a double life — a double-sketchbook life. In one book, I’m a neat, detail, and reference-obsessed architecture illustrator, but when the evening comes and my family sleeps, I open my leather-bound book on which pages all kinds of monstrous and wonderful art can happen. For the past few years, I have…
-
In my wanderings through machines that can be used as dedicated, retro-distraction-free writing devices, I had already gone into a few quite forgotten places. I’m fascinated by machines that I was not able to try because, in their hay day, I was just a kid with for whom his AMIGA 500 was everything. This time,…
-
Hi Matt! I saw a post where you talk about AI, but what do you think we should do as artists? I’ve so lost my motivation and drive to keep on… I’m lost. With the permission of the person who e-mailed me with this question, I’m uploading my answer for all of you to read.…
Archive by publication date:
- March 2026 (1)
- February 2026 (1)
- December 2025 (2)
- November 2025 (1)
- October 2025 (1)
- June 2024 (1)
- February 2024 (1)
- October 2023 (1)
- August 2023 (1)
- July 2023 (1)
- May 2023 (1)
- April 2023 (2)
- March 2023 (2)
- February 2023 (2)
- December 2022 (2)
- September 2022 (1)
- August 2022 (2)
- June 2022 (3)
- May 2022 (1)
- March 2022 (2)
- January 2022 (2)
- October 2021 (2)
- May 2021 (2)
- April 2021 (2)
- March 2021 (1)
- February 2021 (2)
- December 2020 (2)
- September 2020 (1)
- August 2020 (1)
- May 2020 (1)
- April 2020 (3)
- March 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (1)
- December 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (1)
- March 2019 (1)
- January 2019 (1)
- December 2018 (1)
- November 2018 (1)
- October 2018 (2)
- September 2018 (1)
- August 2018 (1)
Archive by category:
- Art tools (10)
- Lifestyle (10)
- Retro tech (17)
- Storymaking (2)
- Thoughts on art (24)
- Updates (5)
Archive by tags:
ambition (2) art (28) art block (7) ballpoint (3) block (5) cravtivity (3) digital (3) distraction (10) distraction-free (5) DIY (3) drawing (8) drive (3) eco (3) fountain pen (3) free (4) fun (4) ideas (3) ink (3) interview (3) japan (12) keyboard (3) making (6) mental health (3) miyazaki (3) motivation (10) museum (2) old (7) painting (3) pda (4) pen (4) pencil (3) pomera (6) printing (4) processor (4) reading (4) retro (13) sketching (3) struggle (3) tech (5) text (2) thinking (16) Tokyo (6) tools (23) word (3) writing (22)
Mateusz Urbanowicz 