The young Russian artist Elena Limkina reveals the inside of her fascinating sketchbook, where each page contains beautiful drawings in ink or watercolor. A wandering into the world of the artist through her creative diary, where she experiments styles and techniques, moving from architectural drawing to animal or floral illustration.
More info: Elena Limkina, Instagram, Behance, Facebook, Shop (h/t: ufunk)
Throughout my life, I have maintained my own MM sketchbooks. Being both an artist, an engineer, and a scientist, having a well documented record of my thoughts was important. And like this artist, my books were very similar to these works.
I would use ink, pencil, and blue pencil in the journals. The light blue pencil was used to outline the shapes, and then I would use an ink pen to illustrate. I preferred to use a light green, or light tan notebook with lines. And for highlighting, I would use a white pencil.
On some notebooks, I would use a light wash of watercolor. This helped me add depth to my sketches.
However, many of my notes also incorporated formula, calculations, part numbers, addresses and the like. So I would often use a red pen, a blue pen, and sometimes other colored pens to highlight specific information.
I would use a yellow highlighter for passwords and access codes. And many of my notebooks used tape to hold in various photos, documents and other items that I wished to include in my journals.
One of the things that I was doing, up until I was incarcerated for my “retirement” was to print out photos on adhesive-backed paper. I would then cut out the paper, and place it nicely and tightly in the journal.
This included photos of new friends that I would make during my trips to China and the KTV establishments, maps, schedules and photos of projects.
Often, people would see me writing in my books and would want to take a look, and they would really love to go page by page through it. I am sure that it was meaningless to them, but they really seemed to like the mixture of sketches and thoughts.
Honestly, it looked a lot like the notebook that the Saint used in the movie of the same name. With sketches, and papers, and photographs.
I always instructed my engineers, designers, and interns to take up the habit of using and engineering notebook and using it in a more or less traditional manner. I also insisted that they do this religiously, as all it takes is one computer melt down to wipe away years of hard work.
The younger “kids” don’t understand as they believe that once in the “could” the data is forever safe. I don’t believe that that is true at all.
But having a journal is more than that. You can write down your dreams and monitor your personal non-physical life. You can include your affirmations. You can internally debate your wishes and dreams in your journal, and you can write down things in one place so that you would never forget about them. Whether it is a recipe, or some notes, you will always know where to find the information.
Most people, in modern society, do not understand the concept of privacy. Especially Americans, I am sad to say. Even though the Bill of Rights authorize “security and privacy in one’s personal papers and documents”, that hasn’t been functionally true for centuries.
I am one to tell you that AS A FACT.
In fact, it was my journals that were used against me when I was “retired”. Ah. Any excuse serves a tyrant.
But privacy is a natural need. We all require time alone. Whether it is to gather our thoughts, take a dump in the toilet, say our affirmations, pray, or masturbate. We, as humans, require privacy. Anyone who cannot recognize that basic need is an evil, selfish, and self-centered busybody.
Run away from them as fast as you can.
My first wife maintained dream journals, and as she gradually lost her mind (she had a mental illness), her journaling became an obsession. She would wake up and spend five hours writing down her dreams. Which was obviously unhealthy.
My brother maintained magick journals for his studies, incantations, and other projects that he worked on. He loved to use these thick, soft leather-bound books with a strap to hold everything tight and in place. While I really used a spiral bound lined notebook that I would buy in packs of ten.
Notebooks offer a person, such as myself, a canvas to illustrate our thoughts and concepts. It was when I was in prison that I cluttered up my notebooks (well, actually, there were just tablets of paper. We were unable to own notebooks in the ADC.) with sketches of the MWI and world-line travel.
Long time readers of MM will be able to imagine the kinds of sketches and drawings that I made regarding souls, consciousness, and travel on the MWI. As well as thoughts on the teleportation device, and the mathematics behind it’s operation.
I would place my personal thoughts and concepts there in my journals. While in prison, I used a kind of pencil known as a “golf pencil” because of its diminutive size, and I sharpened it with sandpaper that I could get from the commissary store. We were also permitted a small pen. I would use that to ink my sketches.
All was very crude, but it served its purpose. Yes, there were others while in prison that maintained a sketchbook where they practiced their art. But most of the people int eh ADC were illiterate. Often what we would call “urban youth”, “trailer park trash”, and “gang members. Folk like myself were a minority.
Of course, most of my sketch books, journals, and writings occurred while I was working as an inventor, designer, engineer, and scientist for the US government, large technical corporations and the like. And when they would let me go (i.e. fire me / downsize me / lay me off) they would demand to retain my journals and notebooks, often claiming that they contained company secrets.
These notebooks shown here are obviously not mine, but they have well been mine. The look, the feel, and the drawings are all similar.
I seriously encourage everyone to have their own journal or notebook. I do not suggest that they rely on electronic media, no matter how seductive it appears, and I have had multiple bad experiences in using these software programs.
Aside from the computer dying and a hard-drive death meant the end of everything that I wrote and collected, but other things happened as well. For instance, I once used an electronic diary. It was nice and worked really well. Then it suddenly stopped working.
As it turned out, the diary was only configured to work for five years, then you had to ask for an upgrade for a small fee of course. So when it stopped working, I called the company and discovered that they went out of business and all of my writings and documents were unable to be recovered.
And don’t get me started on Microsoft. You are typing away, and suddenly MS wants you to register, and pay for yearly updates. And when you don’t pay, you are locked out of your documents. It wouldn’t be all that bad, but last year they demanded $350 from me.
It’s one of the reasons why I switched to Lunix.
And forget about freeware. Or donationware. My experience with them have been hit or miss. You have to have one that is directly configured for your needs. Right now I have three folders (on my Lunix computer) each one containing a separate group of files unique to that particular program. All of which are not available in Lunix format.
Now, of course, there are benefits to using electronic media. For instance, you can lock it with a password. That makes it safe so that only you or the NSA can open it up. Passwords are transparent to the American government. If you don’t believe me, read my story about how I was retired.
But there are some disadvantages to putting things in journals. For one, they take up space. Unless you have a lot of room, and don’t mind hauling them around, it could be a problem. Another thing is many people, notably your spouse and the United States government, have no respect for boundaries, personal space, privacy or secrecy.
If you don’t want anyone to access them, you must either write in code, not write at all, or use symbology that only you understand.
This woman does a nice job in her artistic renderings and I find her work noteworthy. It’s a joy to look at, and takes and carries me away to an other place and other thoughts. I start to muse and dream. All very good things.
What ever your desires are, I urge you all to start sketching and journaling.
Of course, I no longer have my notebooks.
When I was retired, the police seized many of my notebooks as evidence of my devious character. They were subsequently “lost”. The remaining notebooks were acquired by my father, desirous of protecting me, promptly burned them.
Those sketches and notes, that I made while in prison, were often confiscated and misplaced. I never got them back. Of the few that I was working on at the time of my departure from prison, were in my luggage that was misplaced and ended up in the lost-luggage section in Newark, NJ.
I started anew. A “blank slate” as they say. And married a woman who respects my privacy, my confidentiality and my space. If you don’t have that, perhaps you should reconsider your relationships and what kind of life that you have.
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