Hello dear readers!
February has continued to be bothersome. Once again, there have been multiple reasons for stress and discomfort. However, I will only touch on them briefly, and as always try and focus on the positive.
I have learned new things, made fun art and have lots of cool links to share with you.
Bad News First: Why February Has Been a Month
“Bad News” is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration (especially in times as troubled as these).
In a rapid-fire nutshell:
- There were more family-related health worries, most of which fortunately only minor complications.
- Someone who wanted to commission me sent me a gen “AI” image trained on art I had done for them in the past as a reference image. The matter was resolved as amicably as possible, but it still made me nauseous and upset to see something so uncanny.
- The recent news about Discord implementing age verification through ID submission has caused quite a bit of turmoil in the servers I frequent.
- I was also hit by a very persistent cold that drained a lot of my energy and negatively impacted my sleep.
Ok, now that’s out of the way, let’s look at the nice stuff.
New Art & Video: Ska-Punk Demon Girl Band!
This week, as I slowly emerged from the snot-filled torpor of my cold, I was struck by inspiration.
As long-time readers and friends will know, I’m a big fan of Craig of the Creek. One of the many wonderful things that show did for me was introduce me to Ska-Pop and Ska-Punk. It is now one of my favourite music genres, and listen to it almost daily.
This week I re-watched K-Pop Demon Hunters. Just as I did the first time I watched the film, I felt the demons deserved a little more sympathy given the revelations made during the film’s plot. It’s definitely something I hope they explore in the sequel, if they ever make one.
Anyway, all these various sparks of inspiration kind of crashed into each other and I suddenly wanted to draw an all-demon girl band, with big weapons, that plays Ska-Punk.
You can watch more of my design process in this video, and get a better look at each member of the band in the gallery below.
Pictured above: (Clockwise from left) Chort, Gremory and Vantha: the three members of Skatenate!
Assistance With Albo: Chatting With Cezar!
Twice over the past fortnight I had the great pleasure of finally speaking face-to-face with a prolific game designer who I have admired for a long time. The one and only Cezar Capacle, author of Everspark, Mausworn and Nexalis (among many others). He has done me the absolute honour of including a lot of my art assets in his games over the past couple of years.
I had been struggling with one particular mechanic in Albo, as well as terminology. Chatting about it with Cezar was not only extremely helpful, but enjoyable. His approach to finding a solution to my problem was almost certainly not one I would have ever reached on my own.
Thanks to our conversations and brainstorming, Albo is now that much nearer completion!
Even though… I still need to play-test it.
Learning New Things!
How to solve game design related problems wasn’t the only thing I’ve been learning about this past week.
Because of the aforementioned issue with Discord, I have been researching possible alternatives. This has lead to me understanding more about decentralised systems and federated internet.
What with me having abandoned most of the major big social media platforms (mostly just lurking on bluesky), Discord has become an important space for me. Not just for chatting with friends, but interacting with art and TTRPG peers, and sharing my work.
That said, aside from their highly questionable choices as a company, there are many aspects of Discord’s design that I have grown to dislike. I am skeptical about how one can truly build a community in a space that contains thousands of users, and the average live chat discussion contains hundreds of messages. These messages pile up in an endless scroll and are overwhelming to try and sift through. The “several people are typing” aspect of live chat also means that most users can’t really jump into the conversation, meaning a lot of the time it’s always the same group of people chatting. This is certainly not true of all Discord servers, certainly not the smaller ones. Nonetheless, aside from my private server, Discord feels more and more like a mass of group chats, in which I barely know any of the participants.
For all these reasons, regardless of whether there will be a big migration to one or more Discord clones, I’ve been researching ways to do something different.
That said, I will be one of the many people waiting until March to see exactly what happens.
Media Spotlight!
- JP Coovert is doing a series of videos on how to write, design and print a Zine! As I am envisioning Albo being published as a Zine, I am excited to see more.
- Lily Alexander has a chat with Ahmed Mahter, reminding us that so-called “ceasefire” in Palestine has been routinely violated by Israel and the genocide is very much ongoing.
- An excellent video essay by pillboy on Dwayne McDuffie: The Man Too Black for Superheroes.
- Another Cartoon Cartoon short: Afternoon Special!
- During my alternative internet spaces research, I came across this video by onionboots on the Web Revival Movement.
- And finally: want to listen to some real-life Ska girl bands? Then have a listen to Girls Go Ska, Oreskaband, and the Kyiv All Girl Ska Orchestra!
That’s all for this issue!
As always, thank you so much for reading.
One last reminder that if you feel like supporting my work, you can buy something from my website or itchio, join my Patreon as a paying member, or commission me.
If none of the above are doable for you, please consider spreading the word about my work to your friends!
New subscribers to the Penflower Post get a special discount code to use in the shop, as a thank you.
Until next time,
– Penflower
