iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 25/08/2026

No cheating. Post the last image of the sky from your camera roll.

Five gently rusted outdoor light fixtures on a cable, set against a vast cloudless Texas sky

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 01/06/2026

This is a cat check point. Relinquish your most recent cat picture on your phone.

My dearest lovely cat Frankie with one paw on the plastic spoon that I use to dispense treat tubes for her. She is a very dignified tuxedo cat in her 16th year. There is a steely look of demand lurking behind her eyes

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 01/06/2026

I’m not a very good player, but luck, preparation and circumstance worked for me and against them today Anyway here’s my haul if you want to see

A transition screen from the Bungie game Marathon (2026). Pictured are a collection of gold high rarity items, lore items and rare purple loot

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 07/05/2026

Without stating your age post your favorite film released the year you turned 18

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 30/04/2026

It’s my beautiful Frankie’s gotcha day. Sixteen years with this lovely, demanding baby

Frankie the Cat radiant, surrounded by greens

Frankie looking at me, skeptical, arms outstretched.

A big yawn from Frankie Cat, paws outstretched

The most noble cat looking into the future

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 02/04/2026

So I’ve been laid up after foot surgery. I had a bunionectomy and a bone shortened. It’s a pretty dull recovery so far, but I did design and 3d print myself a cane. I design for the absurd

A cane made from a dowel with a 3d printed head that looks like a spiky head of a mace

Detail view of the mace head cane handle featuring my initials on the top surface

The mace head cane handle as it fits in hand. Surprisingly functional as a cane, actually

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 27/03/2026

Oh the graph probably would have been prettier:

A chart of the probabilities of various values of results of flipping a number of coins, counting the number of heads, plus one if they all come up heads

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 23/01/2026

I got a 3d printer for Christmas and I have been printing all sorts of stuff off the millions of free sites But tonight I made my own first model to print for my own purposes and it feels like magic I had broken the plastic handle on my kettle and did all the design to iterate and build a new one

On the left about a third of the of the original plastic handle for the kettle lid. Below are two attempts at getting the size right and the third is at the top attached to the kettle lid, fitting snug as a bug

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 09/12/2025

It also included a ton of other stuff, details in alt-text

I also got:
- some really long narrow envelopes
- kitchen tweezers
- a 4x6 canvas
- some cheap water colors
- one decent half pan of a purple-ish blue (or bule-ish purple) watercolor
- a single stain treating moist towelette
- two pencils
- two cheap pencil sharpeners
- a little brick of “papaya sorbet” colored fimo clay
- six skeins of assorted colors of embroidery thread
- one nice fancy watercolor brush

And

Whatever the fuck that green scrapey thing is

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 03/11/2025

Had a great time hanging out in Marfa, TX this weekend

A long vista down I10 heading east towards west Texas with the sun setting behind us and mountains in the distance

A yard with a collection of old rusted propane tanks in a variety of faded colors and rickety table and chairs in the background. An expanse of blue sky stretches over head

A solitary tree by the roadside on a small island of faded green scrub grass. The blue sky stretches above, uncaring

A bride and groom on horseback, backlit by the setting sun in Marfa,TX. Gentle clouds lace the background and provide a rare touch of texture to the sky

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 05/07/2025

Hobbyist calligrapher here, specializing in blackletter and Spencerian (one of the styles of penmanship that went on to become cursive), but also have a solid, legible handwriting.

Hand bound gridded pages with a gothic capital B on the cover

Interior of the previous bound pages, beginning of a game of The Machine by Adria and Fen Slattery, written with a pointed pen in a roughly Spencerian hand

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 01/05/2025

Six months of daily meditations accomplished. A few ten minute days, mostly twenty minutes a day, and a handful of thirty minute days, usually in two sessions It’s still occasionally a struggle to get the sessions in, it hasn’t neatly integrated into my life, but it feels like it makes a difference

A screenshot from my meditation app, showing 180 consecutive days. A set of stars representing my milestones in the app, 535 total days meditating, 9.5k total minutes, and 46 milestones

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 21/04/2025

It was a good weekend. Details in the alt text!

Photo of a beautiful sunset, crimson red fading up into a deep blue across illuminated clouds over a city skyline

I met a baby bunny! It let me get within inches to get this shot

Lunch at the new Asada on Wealthy. Deviled eggs with a little chip of bacon and a chip of an actual potato chip. Looking large in the background, a burger with smoked brisket, fried onions and BBQ sauce. Delicious

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 12/03/2025

Also a few recent photos of my cat Frankie. It turns out she is an orange cat in a sunbeam

Frankie Cat on a sofa covered in Mexican blankets. Her normally black and white tuxedo markings are showing a deep orange hue underneath a strong sunbeam

Frankie cat on a sofa covered in Mexican blankets. She is grinning and squinting in the bright sunbeam. She seems happy, contented even. Her tuxedo markings feature an off kilter mustache and a big white bib covering her chest

Frankie Cat standing in her plot of cat grass with an expression on her face like I just interrupted her eating something she shouldn’t have. It’s ok Frank, I grew that for you

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 12/03/2025

In case you were wondering, I’m having a lovely afternoon

Photo of a sketchbook in progress perspective sketch of a bar top with a pen and pencil sitting on top, and shadows of the coffee shop’s front window lettering falling across the scene. Not photographed, the chill coffee shop music in the background

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 30/01/2025

The results of a four week drawing class. Mine is the one on the right. There are some things I could still fix and work on, but I’m happy with the work and results!

A drawing of the Cardinal Ximenes from the Charles Bargue on the left and my attempt to copy it on the right

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 22/01/2025

I took some photos of favorite larger pens for reference for you

A black twibi fountain pen against two rulers in inches

A black faber castel fountain pen against two rulers in inches

A clear Tswibi demonstrator fountain pen filled with black ink against two rulers in inches

A scarlet red Lamy fountain pen against two rulers in inches

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 19/01/2025

Right now I’m sitting in a Midwest bar with the big game on. I’m listening to David Lynch’s Masterclass on creativity with noise cancelling headphones. I’m sketching and minding my own business in a corner and it’s lovely.

Sketchbook page with a series of values at the top and some sketches of people around the room

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 17/01/2025

Something like this? I went harpoon instead of arrow since it felt more nautical

A quick sketch of a broken heart riddled with bullet holes and pierced with a harpoon

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 06/12/2024

Inky December Day 5 Notes on the images. The pen wasn’t interesting so I skipped the sample

A swatch of Colorverse Rosette Nebula the day five Colorvent offering. It is another deep red, similar to the Supergiant from day one, but tending more towards purple and burgundy, with less shading properties

Icy Lilac from Diamine Inkvent Day 5 lives up to the name, a sweet purple with silver sparkles. My partner Kelly did this one and I loved the spatter drops so much I didn’t want to add anything at all to it

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 05/12/2024

Inky December Day 3 Notes are on the images So far not my favorite day. I don’t like scented inks even though the Forest Gateau smelled like brandied cherries. It’s not why I use ink though and the smell doesn’t really last

Colorverse Day 4 is Sailing Stones, agrey with a brown base. It’s slightly cloudy shading is nice, but I don’t know that I’d want a full bottle of it

Diamine’s day four color is a very deep purple with a hit of deep red. I like the color well enough, but it’s scented and I really don’t love that. The Gateau is a Lie

Cult Pens gave me a pen cup today! That’s nice! It’ll come in handy with all the pens in that box.

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 05/12/2024

Inky December Day 3 I coulda sworn I posted this yesterday, but here we are…

Gray swatches of the Colorverse Moonlit Veil. It is a cool grey with decent shading characteristics

Noble Fir is a deep green from Diamine has a shocking amount of silver shimmer in it. “Shimmer” is basically glitter. It basically looks like a christmas tree covers in tinsel. My cat would love it.

Today’s offering from the Cult Pens stationary calendar is a Caron D’Ache Gold metallic pen. It’s nice and stands out well against a black card

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 04/12/2024

I also love a Mystery Grab Bag Box of art supplies. I got this one from shop.stlartsupply.com Details in the alt text

Oh, what’s all this in this cluttered box of wonder. Some pens and inks? Yes yes!

Looks like I got two dip nibs, a fine pink sharpie pen, a greed pilot razor point, three blue uniball singos, a tube of golden artist color raw sienna acrylic, a plum Ranger ink pad, a blue and a yellow Liquitex acrylics and a Japanese soft eraser! NICE

WELCOME TO THE CLUTTERDROME

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 03/12/2024

Inky December Day 2 Today we’ve got Wilted Rose from Diamine. Normally I don’t go for pinks or browns, but i like this a lot And Colorverse still just knocking it out of the park. A deep moody blue with great shading qualities And from @cultpens.bsky.social, another ballpoint, but with a ruler

Day 2 of the Diamine Inkvent calendar brings us Wilted Rose, a dark brown with pink hues

Colorverse Colorvent calendar Day 2 features a dark blue with a hint of green evoking the inky night sky

CultPens gives us a solid ballpoint pen with a hexagonal cross section and rulers in different scales on 5/6 sides. The writing sample is more drawing drills

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 03/12/2024

It’s funny, I can feel my heart open up and my face light up when the snow starts to fall

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 03/12/2024

Inky December 1 The colorverse calendar is starting off strong with a bold red with a layer of darker red shading. The Diamine Baltic Breeze is a solid blue edging toward purple with a strong reddish copper shimmer. @cultpens.bsky.social drops a solid @fabercastell.bsky.social ballpoint pen

A collection of swatches from all three advent hauls from day one as detailed in the next slides. A robust red from Colorverse, a blue with a coppery red shimmer from Diamine and a Faber Castell ball point pen along with swatches and doodles with each

Diamine’s Day One is Baltic Blue which is a deep blue with a coppery red shimmer

This is my kinda ink right here. Deep saturated red with an even darker red highlight. I bet it will really pop off the page in a fountain pen

Some solid lines as doodles from this Faber Castell ballpoint. A bit of cross hatching, some cubes and lines drills and some flourishing practice

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 03/12/2024

In other news I’m doing a variety of ink and stationary advent calendars this year. I’ll probably be posting once every five days or so. I got the Diamine Inkvent calendar, the Colorverse Colorvent Calendar and the @cultpens.bsky.social stationary calendar.

Photo of the Diamine Inkvent calendar, the Colorverse Colorvent Calendar and the @cultpens.bsky.social stationary calendar. Various blank sketchbooks and a floral wallpaper lie in the background

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 26/11/2024

I had the distinct pleasure of making holiday cards for Ritual Wines here in Grand Rapids. Really happy with both the prices and results of these

Eleven black postcards that read Ritual Greetings in gold and brass calligraphy. They sit on a cluttered table surrounded by other art and office supplies

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 28/10/2024

I’m 52 and going strong. Video games and tabletop. Come for me, I’m not flinching

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 21/10/2024

Or if you’d rather, as rendered in legos

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 21/10/2024

Because clearly the answer is this a normal human body, on a normal giraffe body

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 21/10/2024

And then someone goes and posts this poorly thought out concept of a giraffe centaur

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Nathan Black, Drifter in the Void @nathanblack.com · 13/07/2023

It never occurred to me that Tolkien might know how to party.

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