WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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36 comments
With mascot of:
- Mastodon, https://joinmastodon.org/
- Pleroma-tan of Pleroma, https://pleroma.social/,
- Ai of Misskey https://misskey-hub.net/,
- Lemmy https://join-lemmy.org
- Sepia of https://joinpeertube.org/,
- sloth mascot by Anna Abramek for https://gotosocial.org,
- Fediverse logo (but shaped like a tree with many nodes)
Done on paper with pencil and with a bit of watercolor while traveling in family.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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9 comments
💜 Framasoft does so many things in sync with my values that I'm always so proud when I do illustrations for them.
Check out their campaign page to end 2023 (and support them if you can); it's presented as a 2D character selection of a fighter video game and it was really fun to draw all the characters and monsters:
https://soutenir.framasoft.org/en/
[Sources files here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/artworks/framasoft.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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6 comments
Hey, earlier this week I posted a first version of the upcoming episode 39 to the development forge of the Pepper&Carrot project. It's **an important milestone** for a new episode and I'm really happy that this one finally arrived in this state!
However, the episode is far from being ready for public release. I call this version Alpha 1 because many things will change. The artwork of this 11-page episode is still undetailed and in grayscale; it's **an intermediate step** in the production. Dialogue and storytelling will also be improved.
If you're not afraid of spoilers and want to contribute, I'm **currently collecting feedback** on the story, and I've written more about it in the dedicated discussion here:
**https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/webcomics/-/issues/254 **
Feel free to jump in, it's an open webcomic project! Just don't expect any major progress on the repository until the beginning of 2024: I'm currently on a family vacation for the holiday season.
I estimate I'll need about 160 hours to finish this episode, so I'm optimistic for **a release by the end of January** if all goes well.
What's next? Here are the main next steps in the development of a new episode:
- Alpha: Fixing the storytelling, the ease of reading it, the info given by the dialogue. Make sure the comic "works".
- Beta FR: Improve the dialog, simplify the sentences or make them easier to read. Also correct spelling and punctuation.
- Beta EN: Translation of the French version.
- Beta ready for translation: Opening the translation to all other 66 languages of the project before the release.
... and of course parallel to all these steps, the coloring and painting of the pages.
_Screenshot on top: Four panels of episode 39 Alpha 1, grayscale, painted in Krita 5.2.2appimage on Fedora Linux 39 KDE, the files are tiled on a 1080p display, the one of my laptop while traveling._
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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250 comments
The recent excitement surrounding Thread's arrival on the Fediverse is concerning. To understand why this is not a good idea, consider their economic interest in harvesting data, their poor moderation, and their manipulations. Nothing good can come from their federation. Don't roll out the red carpet for them.
[Artwork source here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-12-14_Don-t-roll-out-the-red-carpet-for-them_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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36 comments
My version of the character Ada from "Ada & Zangemann", a Creative Commons license (BY-SA) book for children and a funny story about Free/Libre and Open-Source. It's written by Matthias Kirschner and illustrated by Sandra Brandstätter. It is great to see new characters in the Free Culture, especially because Ada is so cool.
You can find it printed in English, French, German, Italian → https://fsfe.org/activities/ada-zangemann/
[Source file here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-12-03_Ada-and-Zangemann_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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69 comments
_Picture above: concept art for episode 39 (click to enlarge).
A close-up of a piece of artwork showing Wasabi, but young._
### A philosophical questioning
Recently, I've been browsing DeviantArt, ArtStation and other art platforms that have decided to empower AI artists, as if the recent and continuous [enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification) of their platform wasn't strong enough.
But I have to say: AI-generated digital artworks are really improving and getting more and more things right: proportions, composition, even the number of fingers! They are getting closer and closer to complete imitations of real artists, and that is impressive in its own way.
But even if it sounds like I'm praising some aspect of AI-generated imagery, make no mistake: I'm still very much against it. I remind you that thousands of my artworks have been analysed over the last 20 years and are part of the LAION-5B database. All without my consent.
In this respect, I could ironically say that all generative AI stuff can be considered derivative of my work, even if only to a 0.00001% degree of derivation.
**All of this is really energy consuming.**
So this soup of feelings continues to influence my relationship to making new artwork, the way I approach the canvas and the way I paint.
Because it challenges some deep underlying philosophical questions:
What is human in my work?
What is my signature?
What is "I"?
To be honest, I still don't have a clear answer to these questions, but my instincts are pushing me in one direction: to show more of my brushstrokes, my hand gestures, and to avoid smoothing things out.
### Brushstrokes as a vector of identity
Let's start on the same page: I'm pretty sure that artificial intelligence art will eventually manage to parrot every artist's brushstrokes, if it hasn't already. But it could be very challenging: so far I see a lot of over-smoothed artwork, blurred or melted strokes, strokes with no start or end, and over-cleaned surfaces. Many results are devoid of personality and gesture.
That's probably why my taste for expressive brushstrokes, human gestures, has increased since my last art browsing session. Even my taste for artists who use the traditional is on the rise, and in my opinion it could even be a new trend.
But what about digital art? I think that we can still manage to express ourselves. With some artists, I'll always recognise their long brushstrokes, or their little 'loops', or their 'noise', or the way they accentuate their colours.
**Could an artist's brushstrokes convey authenticity?**
Maybe so. At least here is a hint where I can put my "human signature" in the most obvious way. Unfortunately, it is difficult for a painter to master the economy of the brush stroke. Resisting the urge to smooth a volume and 'let it go' is rarely my first reflex.
But I'm working on it, and things are starting to come together on this stylistic issue:
- My recent [pen training](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1001/ballpoint-pen-training) sketchbook really reminded me of how I loved to crosshatch, and how those crosshatches were personal gestures.
- My [new tablet](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1004/xppen-artist-pro-16-gen-2-review-on-gnulinux) helps me to transfer this kind of gesture to digital, thanks to the low parallax and fast response.
- Also, during the recent [exhibition of prints](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article992/large-exhibition-in-plerin-france) in giant format, I enjoyed seeing my brushwork magnified. Especially when I saw the scribbling and crosshatching done on [the Dragonfish Restaurant](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article157/texture-test-water-dragons-cooking-and-snow), a 10 year old piece, printed in large ([see zooms at 100%](https://www.davidrevoy.com/data/images/blog/2013/01/Dragonfish-restaurant_by_David_Revoy.jpg)).
So that's what I'm working on at the moment, and what kind of thought chemistry is boiling in my brain.
Do you want to know the irony of all this? These developments towards a stronger personal style in my art, though I am pained to admit it, come from the pressure of the existence of AI-generated images.
Should I be grateful for that?
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-12-02_young-wasabi.jpg)
_Picture above: concept art for episode 39 (click to enlarge).
Artwork showing Wasabi, but young._
[Picture source here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/sketchbook__2023-12-02_young-wasabi_by-David-Revoy.html)
