WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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19 comments
This is a remake of an old sketch. A black and white sketch of Pepper, then a very young witch, in a scene where she is disgusted and discouraged after knocking over a magic cauldron almost her own size. The scene takes place afterwards, at a time when she no doubt imagines having to clean up and start all over again. That particularly thankless moment after any such disaster... Carrot, curious by nature, looks at the viscous liquid spilled on the floor.
I did it to try out new pencil brush presets while drawing the upcoming episode.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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24 comments
Visual developments for the next episode of Pepper&Carrot.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-08-15_episode_39_visual-development_pepper_s_home.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-08-15_episode_39_visual-development_the_story_of_cayenne.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-08-15_episode_39_visual-development_the_awekening_of_the_komona_tree.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-08-15_episode_39_visual-development_the_child_of_the_dragons.jpg)
Sources: https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/artworks/sketchbook.html
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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37 comments
Character study of the [GoToSocial](https://gotosocial.org/) sloth, a future new member, when I'll be drawing the group of mascots of the Fediverse.
Directly inspired by the GotoSocial logo by [Anna Abramek](https://abramek.art/) under CC-By-Sa 4.0 license.
[Artwork source here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-08-03_GoToSocial-Mascot-Study_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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47 comments
Last April, [I left my Twitter account](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article964/goodbye-blue-bird), but without deleting it, to keep more than 10 years of posts for archiving (tutorials, brushes, threads, etc...). I also wanted to occupy the namespace to avoid seeing an account doing impersonation. Then I uninstalled the app, stopped reading my TL, and put all this in the background...
But when a friend told me yesterday that it was a good thing I had left Twitter early, I felt bad that I still had that dormant account.
I deleted it as soon as I got home.😺
And then today, someone reminded me in the comments about my Reddit account. I deleted it as well.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-08-02_screenshot_deleting-reddit.jpg)
If you meet me on Reddit or X, you can be sure it is impersonation now.
In this case, please report.
(Ps: I'm not posting this by the way to try to snowball anything, or influence anyone. It's just a report of my personal cleaning.)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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57 comments
I made a new avatar generator for Peertube mascot squid-like characters.
You can play with it here:
→ https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/html/2023_peertube-generator/
It's a personal contribution to the Peertube-plugin-livechat (WIP, link to the plugin on the generator page).
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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107 comments
I was just thinking about how the bluebird social network was rebranded, and how it now feels legitimate to give it a place in the museum of dead social networks...
[Source file and high resolution here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-07-30_Scary_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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111 comments
A picture I had in mind about the topic of [Web Environment Integrity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity).
[Source here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-07-27_Fighting-For-The-Open-Web_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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79 comments
Artwork source: ["Mastodon mascot as postman"](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-07-26_Mastodon-mascot-as-postman_by-David-Revoy.html) by David Revoy, based on the mascot of [joinmastodon.org](https://joinmastodon.org/) − CC-BY 4.0
Two days ago [I decided to give up on my blog's commenting system](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article980/ive-decided-to-give-up-on-my-blogs-commenting-system). I wrote about a solution that I had tried but abandoned along the way: synchronizing comments from my Mastodon account. I abandoned it because I thought that my instance automatically flushed all posts older than 30 days, and it was too ephemeral to be a long-term solution.
But here is an update: I was wrong. The instance doesn't auto delete the message and an admin on my Mastodon instance contacted me to tell me the reason: they had an accident that resulted in the loss of comments older than that date. And he assured me that they don't plan to do it again.
So, in light of this new element, I've decided to give my solution another try, even if it only affects the last five articles published on my blog after 25 June 2023. The solution works (you can see it in the footer of my recent posts) and I'm happy to have an alternative commenting system back here.
As many of you understood from my previous post, removing them was really emotionally difficult for me.
I'll share my code and method if you want to get something similar on your blog:
## Demo page
[Demo of the Php code (public mode).](https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/html/2023_Mastodon-Php-Comments/)
## The Php code
A single file that requires pretty common php libraries (Json, Curl).
https://framagit.org/Deevad/mastocomblog/-/blob/main/index.php , (MIT License).
**Git repository:** https://framagit.org/Deevad/mastocomblog
**Changelog:**
2023-07-29:
- Move from the Snippet on Invent.kde.org to a Git repository on Framagit.org.
- Privacy: Hide DM(direct) and Followers Only(private) messages.
- Security: prevent harder code injections.
- Support more attachement type.
- Security: prevent page flooding with high character limit.
- Display account address for readability of quoted discussions.
- Decorate :custom_emojis: everywhere and (status) in display name.
[](https://framagit.org/Deevad/mastocomblog)
_a screenshot of a sample of the (v1alpha) code_
## Setup
The script needs to be in a directory with write permissions to write the cached json files. You can customize the path to this directory with `$cache_target` at the start of the CACHE section in the code.
`$mastodon_post_id` The 18 numbers of your Mastodon post. You'll find this number on the URL of your post on Mastodon.
`$mastodon_server` Your Mastodon instance URL.
`$mastodon_account` Your account.
**Token and authentification:**
`$your_mastodon_access_token` (optional) This is a token you can get in your Mastodon account by going to Settings → Development and registering your site here. Without this token, the API will run in "public mode" and will limit the number of messages you can list (~60 for my instance). Instances of Mastodon might have no public mode enabled. In this case the authentication token method might be mandatory to connect to your messages.
**Cache:** I wrote a caching system because with more than 13K daily visitors to my blog (which sometimes peaks at over 300K), I did not want to be a problem for the bandwidth of my Mastodon instance. The default in the code is set to 24h. You can extend it with something more complex if your blog system gives you a date. I use 1h for this week's blog post, then 4h for the month and 12h after that. Just be kind to the bandwidth of your Mastodon instance and donate to them to help cover the server costs.
## Inspiration
The inspiration for this system came from Carl Schwan's blog post ["Adding comments to your static blog with Mastodon"](https://carlschwan.eu/2020/12/29/adding-comments-to-your-static-blog-with-mastodon/). If you are looking for a Javascript client-side method, check out his post.
I also found a real-life example of authentication by token to be very useful, found on ["MastodonBotPHP"](https://github.com/Eleirbag89/MastodonBotPHP/tree/master) by Grimstack aka Eleirbag89 on Github.
Also very useful is [the official Mastodon API documentation](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/entities/Token/), well done to the contributors who maintain this kind of detailed documentation.
Bonus artwork: because I'm happy, here's a happy [Mastodon mascot as a postman](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-07-26_Mastodon-mascot-as-postman_by-David-Revoy.html) that I painted this morning.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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101 comments
I have had this blog for almost 20 years, long before social media like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter existed. For a long time, my comment system was the only way I could get feedback on what I was painting and writing. And over the years you have posted 13,007 messages on 978 posts on my blog. Thank you very much!
Unfortunately, the amount of spam, attacks and hateful comments has also increased. For years I protected the humble commenting system of my [PluXML](https://github.com/pluxml/PluXml) blog system with honeypots, home-made captchas and services like Akismet. I also spent a lot of time moderating, but it started to ruin the little time I had offline during holidays, conferences and book signings.
My blog comment system was open to everyone, without login, and it soon became a place loved by haters. It also became a secondary destination for all the profiles I blocked on social media. 2023 was the first year I had to make a report to the police for the many death threats I received.
But I persevered: and before I gave up completely, I looked for solutions and spent more time coding them. I spent days connecting my blog to my Mastodon posts using the API and coding better protection. But then I realised that my Mastodon instance was flushing all comments older than a month [1]... Also, all my "better protections" were easy to bypass for anyone who knew a bit about VPN and the Tor browser.
So I've finally come to the point where I've decided to give up on my blog's commenting system and shut it down. And it is a very hard pill to swallow.
That doesn't mean I don't need your feedback anymore... I do!
It is simply impossible in 2023 and with the number of visitors I now have to host and manage a comment system myself. I'm sad about that.
I spent most of last week archiving all your comments, and you'll find a link to view them in the footer of my old articles. I updated my CMS, the plugins, I updated my custom code, I updated the server to a new distro and newer libraries.
My blog is ready for the next few years and I'm going to keep it up. New articles, new artworks, new brushes, new tutorials, new episodes of Pepper&Carrot: I'm sure we'll find new places to discuss about it.
I'm also going to accept the ephemeral nature of social media. I've seen so many platforms rise and die, with thousands of comments disappearing each time... I hate this data loss and I would like to archive all of our interactions somewhere.
Unfortunately, on my little piece of the internet, I can no longer create this ideal. I'll miss all the feedback just below the installation guides, which were useful for troubleshooting other configurations. I'll miss the pages of reactions to the latest episode of Pepper&Carrot. I'll miss the little words of wisdom from the regular users of the comments section.
Thanks again for all of that.
Update:
[1] This is not a policy of my Mastodon instance, just a bug that happened on the server and happened to be 30 days ago. That's why I assumed the server had a 30-day flush policy. It doesn't. This made me want to take another look at this solution in the next blog-post.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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46 comments
A new piece of artwork to celebrate reaching 25,000 followers on [my Mastodon account](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy).
The scene is a parody from a still picture of the movie "My Neighbor Totoro" by Studio Ghibli.
["Source and full license here.](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-07-16_My-Neighboor-Mastodon_25K_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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5 comments
Thanks again to @brettmakesgames@mastodon.gamedev.place for organising it, and (many) thanks to all the participants. 😻
[youtube]1AsvqyofhWA[/youtube]
- Ptb: https://peertube.touhoppai.moe/w/fo4Udw77tSYaQQhXrpP7Y3
- Ytb: https://youtu.be/1AsvqyofhWA
**The video game are here:**
**https://itch.io/jam/pepper-carrot-jam/entries**
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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79 comments"Cool, which AI did you use for this?", "his work is definitely AI", "this is AI art and I find it disheartening"... Here is a sample of the comments I am getting more and more about my art.
**And this is not fine.**
In a world where now legions of AIartists are invading platforms like Social Medias, DeviantArt or ArtStation, I see the opinion of the crowd starting to put digital art and AIArt in the same bag. As a digital artist who creates my artwork like a real painting, **I find this situation very unfair**. I'm using a tablet, layers, digital paints and digital brushes. I put hours of hard work into it. I don't just type in a prompt and hit enter to get my images.
That's why I started hashtagging my art on social media with **#HumanArt**, then **#HumanMade** as a clear indicator that my art was 'handmade' and not using Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, Midjourney or whatever AITools are out there now. I wanted to disambiguate that to stop getting the kind of comments I quoted at the beginning of this intro. But which hashtag is the best for that?
I had no idea, so I started a poll on [my Mastodon](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy) timeline:
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-06-29_ai-hashtag-poll-humanart-humanmade.jpg)
**Source:** https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/110618065523294522
## The Results
With 954 people voting (thank you), #HumanMade got 55% of the vote compared to 30% for #HumanArt.
But what changed my mind was the diversity and richness of opinions I received in the comments. A lot of them were unlisted, not public or in PM so [you can't read them](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/110618065523294522). But they have definitely changed my mind on the subject. That's why I decided to write this blog post and talk about it a bit.
## Critiques about #HumanMade and #HumanArt
Firstly, #HumanArt felt like a contradiction to the famous #FurryArt tag for the furry community. Good point, and I don't want that.
Then #HumanMade was criticised because the AI was also human-made, so it lost its point. But most people could clearly understand what #HumanMade would mean under an artwork. So it didn't steal its 55% of the vote.
I also had a lot of #HandCrafted, #HandMade, #Art and other suggestions for variations.
## The popular #NoAI
I also got a lot of suggestions for #NoAI hashtags. I got a lot of funnier, and mostly more salty, variations. It was a lot of fun, but I don't want to rule out all artificial intelligence. Some of them might be based on ethical datasets in the future and be good tools. I'll explain that later in this post.
In any case, I have always tried to be in a mindset of 'for something' rather than 'against something'.
## Ai artist should be the one who tag their post
This was also a very popular feedback in the comments. Unfortunately, AIArtists rarely tag their work as seen on Social Medias, DeviantArt or ArtStation. And I understand them, because they have too many advantages not to.
First, they can fake an artist identity with little effort. Then they can give their art something more legitimate in their eyes and, by extension, in the eyes of their audience. Finally, they can probably avoid a lot of hateful comments and reports from anti-Ai artists on the platform.
So I don't expect them to ever do it. I hate this because it is unfair.
But lately I started to enjoy this behaviour in a new way, because this faking could be what wastes all the data sets and training models: [the AI eats itself](https://www.platformer.news/p/the-ai-is-eating-itself).
## Don't Hashtag at all
The last suggestion I often received was not to hashtag at all.
This was because writing #HumanArt, #HumanMade or #NoAI would immediately mark the post and the art as premium content for training future datasets. As I wrote in the previous chapter, getting human-made datasets is the future challenge for AI. I don't want to make it easier for them.
I can still write my ethics about "not using an AI image generator based on unethical datasets" in the info section of my social media profile, or just link to an article like the one I'm writing now.
## Conclusion and thoughts about AI
So I have made my decision: I will no longer hashtag my art with #HumanArt, #HumanMade or #NoAI.
I will continue to publish my digital art online, as I've been doing since the early 2000s. I will continue to publish [all](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/artworks/artworks.html) under a permissive Creative Commons licence and with the source files, because that's how I like my art: free and libre.
Unfortunately, I'll never be able to prevent unethical AI companies from siphoning off my art collections. The damage has already been done: hundreds, if not thousands, of my illustrations and comics have been used to train all their AI. It's not hard to find evidence of this (e.g. [on haveibeentrained.com](https://haveibeentrained.com/?url=https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/LPlP9KL5ewuvjudmTEBRTQQZpAn4UJb09AhgBw-4pML9JyPbVsaX4VEuTnY9m7-3Y0-KjlaSQN2nF7b-qrjGHZopBq7O8NAI__9awwKHFT6Dn0Wa5QX8EstqX2Iyez3afvOmpbAOM0d5DovHGyFmfhqlM53ZbHHsDjJu=s0-d) or on the [browser for the Laion5B commons training dataset](https://rom1504.github.io/clip-retrieval/?back=https%3A%2F%2Fknn.laion.ai&index=laion5B-H-14&useMclip=false&query=pepper+and+carrot)).
I don't agree to that.
What are my options? Not much... I can't remove my art one by one from their database. My art has been copied to many wallpaper sites, galleries, forums, other projects. I don't have the resources to do that. I also can't exclude my future art from all the next scans. Also, protection methods like [Glaze](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.04222.pdf) seem like a really pale solution to the problem, I'm not [convinced by it](https://framapiaf.org/@stjepanlukac@mastodon.art/110621034955419503). Same goes for heavily watermarking my art...
Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against AI technology itself. It's everywhere these days. In phones to [enhance photos](https://ai.google/static/documents/portrait-light-case-study.pdf), on [3D software GPU denoisers](https://code.blender.org/2019/07/accelerating-cycles-using-nvidia-rtx/), on [translation tools](https://www.deepl.com/write), behind search engines, etc... The technique of neural networks, machine learning on datasets, is proving to be very efficient for certain tasks.
Even FLOSS projects like GMIC are developing [their own neural network library](https://twitter.com/gmic_eu/status/1574487981750046720). Of course, they'll be based on ethical datasets. As usual, my problem is not with the technology. It's with the governance and ethics of the one using such a technology.
For my part, I'll continue not to use generative AI in my work (Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, Midjourney and co). I have experimented with it on social media in the past, sometimes [seriously](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/108969346357981937), sometimes [impressed](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/108985184327745261), but mostly [sarcastically](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/109524190956229762).
I just don't like the AI process...
When I create a new piece of art, I don't express the idea to myself with words.
When I create a new piece of art, I don't text the idea to my brain.
It's a more complex mix of emotions, shapes, colours and textures. It's like capturing a rare scene from a dream that temporarily visits my brain. It doesn't require a translation layer of words. When I do this, I share an intimate part of my inner dream world. It goes beyond words to reach certain emotions, nostalgia and feelings.
With AI, AIArtists simply type in keywords for a subject. They season it with keywords, target the imitation of an artist or a style. And then they let randomness produce a result for them. Then they discover a result with - of course - embedded pictorial emotions, shapes, colours and textures. But are the emotions their own or just a by-product of their process? Either way, they can own those emotions.
AIArtists are just diggers for cool auto-generated artworks, the new digital [Readymade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_object) of our time. This technology seeks productivity for less effort and less cost. I think it is very appropriate for our times. It provides many writers with cheap illustrations for their book covers, editors for their articles, musicians for their album covers and AI artists with portfolios...
I understand we can't go back, this audience is now addicted to this empowerment. They can finally get illustrations quickly and cheaply. They'll treat any artists who fight against this as [Luddites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite)...
But I'm going to go on here and say that I personally dislike this art, because it tells me nothing about its creators. What they are thinking, what their aesthetic taste is, what they had in them to draw that line or that brushstroke, what light shines into them, how they cover up their mistakes, their delicious inaccuracies with make-up... I want to see all this and follow the life of people, piece by piece.
I hope you will continue to follow and support my art, comics, articles and tutorials for the same reasons.
Header ilustration: **"This is not fine"**, [sources and hi-resolution here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-06-29_This-is-not-fine_by-David-Revoy.html) − CC-BY 4.0
