WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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3 comments
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-30_concept-art-for-a-fictive-video-game-save-point_net.jpg)
_Save Point − A concept-art demo from the digital painting class I taught, sources and [high resolution on Pepper&Carrot Misc gallery](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/artworks/misc.html)_
I gave courses for [Activdesign](https://activdesign.eu/), a French CG school teaching design, video-game and web-dev. It's **a school using Free/Libre software, that's so cool!**. That's also why I accepted to teach for them.
The course started in January and was split into 10 sessions of 1h30 each, happening every thursday in the last part of the morning.
Over the ten courses I gave; I explained the role of imagination and picturing things, thumbnailing, references hunting and licenses, drawing, volumes, perspective, and then courses on rendering and shading. It was also mainly a workshop, so a period of time used by the students to practice.
I taught remotely from my desk at home with my mic and webcam. Because even if the school is located in France, it was too far away from my home to go weekly over there. To give you and idea, it's easily located at more than a 6h train distance.
The school used their own [Jitsi](https://meet.jit.si/) server for the visio, and Jitsi rooms were integrated around a larger central hub managed by [Mattermost](https://mattermost.com/). Thanks to a cool setup proposed by the school, I was able to launch a Jitsi meeting directly from Mattermost chat with a button. Everything was smooth, I was impressed how easy it was for teachers and students to use that. Bravo. The Jitsi room was always ready 5 minutes before the course. I had a webcam view on the classroom, but it was also possible for the students to attends from their home (or anywhere with Internet).
I recorded the sessions with [OBS](https://obsproject.com/fr/) also for offering a possibility to get a replay in case someone miss a course. The school gave me a sFTP access to upload the courses. I'm sure I'll have requests here on the blog to ask me to share these files or upload the replays: but I don't want that. I don't want the raw recordings of the session I made to go public even if ActivDesign gave me authorisation to do it. It's mainly because it's very long (15h! 2.7GiB) and it's in French.
That's why my plan is to try soon to adapt my ten courses into shorter videos for my channel. I painted for these courses many examples from scratches, and it was with this plan in mind so I can then get materials I can reuse under the license of my choice for my own future videos. These weekly deadlines to prepare my courses/demo-files/examples were great motivators to have finally a longer course format done.
A big thanks again to the students for enduring my ~~long monologues~~ courses 😆 and Activdesign for the invitation!
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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30 comments
Achievement unlocked: we found with the Pepper&Carrot community [Fa BD Comic](https://fabdcomics.com/), the publisher of **the worst derivations** of Pepper&Carrot made so far.
Unfortunately, the product's are published under my name and also in the name of artists who sent fan-arts of Pepper&Carrot... That's why I write this article to describe a bit this scam and desktop publishing carnage happening right now on Amazon and **inform the audience of Pepper&Carrot to not buy them**.
Brace yourself, cause we are going in the territory of the zero absolute of quality, graphic designs horrors, colorimetry nightmares and bad layout.
## The three books:
A big thanks to [Craig Maloney](https://octodon.social/@craigmaloney) who bought the three books so we could evaluate their quality. He also made all the photos you'll find here and wrote reviews on Amazon under the books to warn other potential customers about the poor quality.
### 1. Heritage
**Link on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Heritage-David-Revoy/dp/B0BS1ZHM9T/
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-26_1-heritage_screenshot.jpg)
**Description:** This is a December 2022 paper print of [my webcomic single episode "L'heritage en couleur"](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article117/l-heritage-en-couleur) published in May 2012 and under the license [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-26_1-heritage.jpg)
_click to enlarge_
**Caption:**
**\(1\):** while the cover is ok, the print totally ruins the story itself: the concept of the comic is a representation with colors of the feeling of the main character, and the publisher **decided to print the full story in black and white**. It makes the full story unreadable and meaningless. Try to [read the original](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article117/l-heritage-en-couleur) and then make yourself an opinion about what the comic worth in black and white. Apparantly, it's good enough for publishing like that for FA Bd Comics publishing...
**\(2\):** The attribution is here but the publisher "FA BD comics" don't write their role. And wait, a Caramail email adress? I thought they disapeared 20 years ago. I dislike the way my credit and name on the cover and product page looks as if I endorsed and collaborated into this publishing. It's not a explicit 'endorsement infringement', but I feel ashame to get my name on this.
**\(3\):** The publisher forgot a page in the story : one before the final, that totally breaks even more the story. And to fill the end of the book, random part downloaded from the [making of](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article118/making-of-l-heritage-en-couleur) are dumped like that without any warning just after the end of the story.
[More photos here](https://pixelfed.social/p/craigmaloney/542810635179169968).
### 2. Pepper & Carrot Novels
**Link on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Carrot-Novels-David-Revoy/dp/B09ZZVJLDT/
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-26_2-novel_screenshot.jpg)
**Description:** This is a May 2022 paper print compilation of a mix of [Pepper&Carrot Fan-art](https://www.peppercarrot.com/xx/fan-art/artworks.html) containing speech-bubbles and [Comic Fan-art of Pepper&Carrot](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/fan-art/fan-comics.html).
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-26_2-novels.jpg)
_click to enlarge_
**Caption:**
**\(1\):** My name is on the top of the cover, and no artworks of me are on this book. This is very problematic, because even if I really appreciate [the study fan-art of Pepper sent by Coyau](https://www.peppercarrot.com/xx/viewer/fan-art-src__2015-02-22_Pepper_portrait_by_Coyau.html) in 2015 because it was among the first fan-art I receive on Pepper&Carrot, I don't think Coyau expected to get it used as a cover artwork.
**\(2\):** Even if all the fan-art are correctly attributed to their author the publisher misread an important information on Pepper&Carrot: the author of the fan-art can license their artwork with the license they want. And without mentioning it, they are all copyrighted. It's written clearly [on the "License" box](https://www.peppercarrot.com/xx/viewer/fan-art-src__2015-08-04_Carrot-photo_by-Mei-Yeom.html) on each fan-art on the website. "This picture is fan-art made by \. It is reposted on the fan-art gallery of Pepper&Carrot with permission. Do not reuse this picture for your project unless you obtain author's permissions". The publisher on the credit of their book assume "based on the same character with the same license". It's false and abusive. Also, notice that the email of the publisher changes on this credits, and the 'work of fiction line' from Heritage is here too... Speedy careless copypasta workflow detected.
**\(3\):** The fan-art are printed in black and white. You won't get a label to know who within the list of authors drew what page, and there is no layout. The artwork is just pasted on the page with big empty space even when the font is too small. Note how the contrast is also poor. Well, it isn't respectful of the artworks at all.
[More photos here](https://pixelfed.social/p/craigmaloney/542440411940152430).
### 3. Pepper & Carrot Mini
**Link on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Carrot-Mini-Nicolas-Artance/dp/B0BHMPMM14/
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-26_3-mini_screenshot.jpg)
**Description:** This is a October 2010 publishing on paper of the [Pepper&Carrot Mini](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/fan-art/fan-comics__Pepper-and-Carrot-Mini_by_Nartance.html) comic serie by Nicolas Artance. Nicolas Artance is a core contributor and moderator on Pepper&Carrot community, and really plays a big role on the French version of the main series. He publish his series under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International and also share the full sources ([link](https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/derivations/peppercarrot_mini)).
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-26_3-pepper-mini.jpg)
_click to enlarge_
**Caption:**
**\(1\):** The cover is not from Pepper&Carrot Mini, it wasn't made by Nicolas Artance or by my art, but it is [a fan-art by Tessou](https://www.peppercarrot.com/xx/viewer/fan-art-src__2015-09-03_Pepper-and-Carrot_by_Tessou.html). So a copyright problem here since the art by Tessou is not published under the license of Pepper&Carrot. The cover also contains three names, and it is hard to know who does what or who endorses what. On Amazon product, we are co-author with Nicolas... What a mess.
**\(2\):** Same lie as the previous book about the license of the fan-art, and a big typo to the name of Nicolas (Nocolas). Apparently this publisher has zero proofreader, and just don't care.
**\(3\):** The quality, the layout... Everything is printed into black and white and low contrast. The comic strips also in landscape are "adapted to width" to the page. Some fonts are barely readable.
[More photos here](https://pixelfed.social/p/craigmaloney/542805959463757068)
## What's next?
First, **you can help**: if you have an Amazon account you can just click on the "Helpful" button on the reviews of Craig on each book [1](https://www.amazon.com/Heritage-David-Revoy/dp/B0BS1ZHM9T/), [2](https://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Carrot-Novels-David-Revoy/dp/B09ZZVJLDT/) and [3](https://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Carrot-Mini-Nicolas-Artance/dp/B0BHMPMM14/). It's not much, but it will probably helps possible buyer to pass their way to see the 1 star review with a high ranking.
I clearly don't have the charity to think this publisher is just suffering of gross incompetences and just try to help printing Free/Libre cultural work. They never contacted me, they never contributed to any of the Pepper&Carrot ecosystem as far as I know, and they just made the lowest quality product with low effort on a market place with now control on quality.
It's overpriced and watching this level of disrespect for my art and for the book industry is clearly what affects my mood. I don't think this derivation is helping at all. Please FA Bd Comic or Amazon: if you read this, just remove the products as soon as possible.
On my side, I'll try to contact both of them to remove the books. They all contains too much problems to be online, including copyright issues. I'll write any later update I have under here. Waiting for that, **please do not buy those books!**
😤
**Updates**
- **A. 2023-03-28, 01:20am:** I took the time to make [an official report](https://www.davidrevoy.com/data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-28_screenshot_012930_net.jpg) for copyright infringement on Amazon. I'll inform you where this report will lead.
- **B. 2023-03-28, 01:00pm:** I got my answer: "We have been unable to verify that you are the rights owner or their agent." ([full automatic letter](https://www.davidrevoy.com/data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-28_amazon-rejection-letter_124920.png)). Ok, I give up on this...
---
_License additional info: The text of this article is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. However, images of this article are protected: do not reuse them: they contain fan-art, copyrights and trademarks._
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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2 comments
Here is a new illustration to announce I'll be the 8 and 9 April in Mons, Belgium, for signing sessions at the festival [Trolls & Légendes](https://trollsetlegendes.be/). Looking forward to meeting many of you!
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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4 comments
[info]
Disclaimer: None of the panel you'll see here are 'final'. I'm still in the process.
Also, "spoiler alert" obviously..
[/info]
Hey, I'm doing a pause today to share with you where I am in process of the production of Episode 38 and also look back in the mirror of what happened so far since summer 2022, [the last time](https://www.peppercarrot.com/xx/webcomic/ep37_The-Tears-of-the-Phoenix.html) I published an episode of Pepper&Carrot. I'll try to explain all the process of what happened for me to take so much time on this one.
You'll find that the big bottle-neck was mainly at the step of the scenario.
# Preproduction
## Scenario:
My original plan for episode 38 was the second chapter of a trilogy − The Phoenix Arc − that I wrote last year. On the paper, it was ready in spring 2022. Unfortunately, after I published the first part of this trilogy, I realised the second part I wrote was problematic because too dark and depressive. I wasn't connecting with it anymore.
Because it was hard for me to detect what was wrong about my script, I decided to send it to professional scenarists around me. One helped me to identify the issue: the story was a bit too dark without a valid motivation, and my arc turned to be about how the Phoenix turns from a moron into someone respectable, and Pepper wasn't the central character anymore of the story. Pepper was in this arc a Mary Sue that influenced with her inherent goodness a bad creature to be a good one. It wasn't that problematic in itself, but it was static for Pepper, and... who care about the Phoenix? I probably wrote that to flee the responsibility of changing something to Pepper.
I then started a laborious work to rewrote the story. With a fear of not connecting it anymore and become bored about it only a couple of week-later. Many scripts were wrote; some that turned into long boring dialogs with Shichimi and Torreya in a shelter offered by Queen Coriander, some other more goofy with a Pepper changing all "Wanted" poster in Hereva... manually. Always same feeling: I got bored after two weeks about them.
I then started to post single panel of a new story from scratch; "posting while I was connecting and motivated". That's how you got a mini series of illustration with a dragon and a blond magician in October. I then decided to stop to worry and focus on my painting technique and maintain my tools: I was convinced that good ideas will come back at a point. That's how you got the ["In the midst of experimentation"](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article938/in-the-midst-of-experimentation) blog post where I announced "I have no idea when the next episode 38 of Pepper&Carrot will be released".
I then took care of triaging my brushes and worked on my technique in November and December. I learnt so many new things and got many new skill. I was in a sort of "closed for works" state. Thanks to extra incomes coming from new publishers of Pepper&Carrot, I wasn't into an emergency financial situation and I could afford taking this time.
With time, I finally found back motivation to write a new story. The story is simply put about Pepper quitting everything. This is a theme I feel in me and around me: the desire to leave everything and start "new". So I thought it could be cathartic to write about that in a story.
Once I had that deep problem identified, it was possible to work on a solution. It came on a golden plate during my holidays in end December, a time always here to remind me my roots: "Lorsque tu ne sais pas où tu vas, souviens-toi d'où tu viens." a proverb I can translate with "When you don't know where you are going, remember where you came from.". So, I worked on that.
In my case, it was a multidimensional solution. On a technnical level: it meant "cinematic", "shot", "painting" and "Blender". And on a scenario level for Pepper, it meant Fantasy, witches, monsters, and ... Pepper going back to her family. Once I had all this piece in my bag, it was easier to write a scenario My feelings were now more in sync with this new story and I think the problems and solutions I'll storytell with this fable are sincere. Hopefully, readers will relate to it.
## Storyboard:
The storyboard followed really quickly within the same week, I made a photo about it when I shared in end January, I extended it to 8 pages later to get a better introduction.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-01_scenario-and-storyboard.jpg)
## Landscape concept-art
The story happens into an abandoned part of Hereva, the world of Pepper&Carrot, that I code named "The Forgottens". Ancient civilisation ruins plunged in the dark, haunted with magic and creatures. The playground of many groups of mercenary adventurers trying to progress on these area to reclaim the area, and/or find treasure. It's not explicit in the 8 pages of episode 38, but I hope the architecture and ambiant will convey all of that without needing to get a character or a narrator telling this.
Here is a concept art of "The Forgottens", a part with a network of bridges that pushes adventurer into a linear path, and without escape on the side.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-02-19_sketch-concept-art_episode-38_the-forgottens.jpg)
And here 3D blender screenshot. For this episode I'm using Blender a lot; it helps me at setting camera view angle and I also learn a lot about controlling the "Field of View" (fov) when I storyboard. A key to get a sort of cinematic look, is to mimic the perspective of a camera.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-08_work-in-progress_3d_helper-background_02.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-08_work-in-progress_3d_helper-background_03.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-08_work-in-progress_3d_helper-background_01.jpg)
## Character concept-art
Pepper joins a group of mercenary adventurers. And she must look like a healer, but still look like Pepper. When I received the Cinema team of [LentCine at home for a documentary interview](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/109756269977788404), I was right in the middle of designing this.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-01-26_lentcine_at-home.jpeg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-01-25_first-concept-art-of-pepper-the-healer.jpg)
I finally went for something a bit more pragmatic; I has to be compatible with all actions Pepper does on this episode:
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-02-18_concept-art_pepper_by-david-revoy.jpg)
About the group on my scenario, they were not really defined; but I quickly saw it was interesting to invest a bit of time on their design since I want to keep the possibility to reuse them later. They are mercenaries only temporarily together to complete a quest, and they have to look a little bit untrustworthy. [Erik Mondrian](https://framapiaf.org/@erikMondrian@fosstodon.org/109922786660634711) found them good names: the halfing white wolf "Fritz", the archer "Vinya" and the warrior "Brasic". Only Brasic is explicitly named on a speechbubble in episode 38 (for now).
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-02-23_ep38-team-concept-art_by-david-revoy.jpg)
Monsters appears on panels, but because they are just single appearance, I'll design them "on the fly" while drawing the comic.
# Production
For the production of the episode, I decided to use the technique I described in this video.
▶ Peertube: https://peertube.touhoppai.moe/w/6GetvC3grjMRdFooDDMe62
▶ Youtube: https://youtu.be/kisT96h5h80
## Pencil artworks
I'm using a very thin and "not clean" pencil line for this episode. This contrast a lot with my habits, but I know this way I'll not be tempted to keep the line in the process. They are only guidelines made to go to the trashcan. On the eight pages, seven pages are done 100% with this step. I'm redoing the last page this week because, thanks to the 3D model of the landscape, I had ideas of better view angles.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-20_b_pencil.jpg)
## 3D Backgrounds
Once I have my sketch, I setup my 3D scene to match the panel, and I render it. I put the renders into background layers. Blender has a lot of good option on the camera to put a background image, so I don't have a lot of difficulties to match the view angle. The background was reused more than 12 times so far. I'll paint-over them a lot at the final step. I have 3D backgrounds done now for all the 8 pages.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-20_screenshot_164537_net.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-20_screenshot_164652_net.jpg)
## Character Color-Flat
It's a new step in my process: I paint the characters under a neutral light. I'm not 'flatting' the color as a comic artist would do; I still do modeling of the shapes, and even crease contact shadows here and there. But I have this intermediate step that help me to maintain the color palette of a character consistent across panels. I have the Color-Flat in progress on page 4, I'm at the midway.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-20_c_flat.jpg)
## Shading
On the top of the Color-Flat, and often inside a group and with Alpha-Inheritance, I'm shading the characters. This way, I can make the same offset of color palette from one panel to another and experiment where I place the light on my set. It's a creative process that I really like. I try to not be too clean at this step because I want to feed the canvas with get a rich texture and painterly feeling. I work this step in parallel with the previous one. I have the two first page ready this way so far.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-20_d_shaded.jpg)
# To be continued...
The beta testing of the episode with the contributors will happens once I finished to do all the color flat and shading on all the episode. It might still take me two weeks. 🥲
Unfortunately, I made slower progress than what I thought I would be able to do, because I was three time sick and had many appliances at home out of order. Also mold in wall issue, and roof leak issue. You know, this type of time when 'all happen at once'... I wasn't really lucky in February/March so far. And my time is often stolen with random events I can't escape.
After the beta? I'll still need to spend a full day of work to paint-over each pages in order to "break" the 3D aspect of the background (then need to be a bit more painterly, and in ruins). And I'll details characters for crisp details, and push the pages rendering until I cannot do more progress.
I hope to get a release around mid-April. I'll certainly show on social media first renderings before the release, or even post a (shorter) production report part 2 🙂.
Thank you all for reading, for your patience and for [your continuous support](https://www.davidrevoy.com/static3/become-my-patron). Clearly, this project would not exist without you, I'm keeping this in mind all the time, and be sure I'm doing my best.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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6 comments
A speedpainting inspired by Devin Townsend's 2022 music album. I'll go to his concert tomorrow in Toulouse! Lightwork Tour. I listen to his music since 2000. I can't wait!
**Update after the concert:**
🤩🤩🤩 The concert was G R E A T!
He really played a lot of song from my youth around the Infinity period: Bad Devil, Truth... or from the start of 2000s, like The Fluke, Deadhead, Kingdom, it was so cool!
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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16 comments
Long time without a blog post, but I have been active on social media. I had an issue on the website with posting new article and I fixed it this afternoon (oh, the joy of self hosting... -\_-\`). Anyway:
I'm still penciling on the next episode of Pepper&Carrot, and this week, I did my daily warm-up before working on the pages with the sketches you'll find here under.
Here is a cleaned compilation of them (credits in image descriptions). These are all mascots of Free/Libre and open-source web services interoperable using the activityPub protocol (eg.Peetrube/Mastodon/Misskey/Pleroma/PixelFed/Funkwhale), the global name of the network resulting of the interaction of all these apps is named the Fediverse.
Sources will be [uploaded later here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/files/comissions.html).
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-03_sketches_pleroma-and-sepia_net.jpg)
_Pleroma-chan, a tiny fox girl (https://pleroma.social) chase happily a squid, Sepia (https://joinpeertube.org). This last one is affraid and run.
License: CC-By davidrevoy.com, pleroma.social_
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-03_sketches_mobilizon-and-sepia_net.jpg)
_Rȯse a fennec-fox (https://joinmobilizon.org) make some balance exercice on top of a roll and a plank, she is in full focus, eye closed. A squid, Sepia (https://joinpeertube.org) applaud at the scene with heart in their eyes. License: CC-By davidrevoy.com_
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-03_sketches_funkwhale-and-pixelfed_net.jpg)
_Fred, a firefox panda mascot I found for Pixelfed (https://pixelfed.org, inspired by artist Andy Cuccaro) panic on the back of a large whale smiling with headphones (https://funkwhale.audio/). These two are not official mascot, just approximation with random quick search.
License: ??? (for Fred), my whale with headphones is an invention._
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-03-03_sketches_misskey-and-mastodon_net.jpg)
_AI, Misskey (https://misskey-hub.net) mascot, a girl with a Japanese student uniform and cat ears pets on the head a tiny mastodon creature, this one is happy.
License: CC-By davidrevoy.com. Misskey by Syuilo ( https://github.com/syuilo/ai/commit/15406d0f30c134e641267795e6eb6cc46a66888a ) under a MIT license as far as I can tell... It's really hard to find license info for Ai on Misskey... Not cool :/ The Mastodon is not looking like the official mascot, just a cartoony Mastodon._
