A new character design for my weekly MiniFantasyTheater comic series.

Update on 2 April: Yesterday's comic was published, but the prank part for 1st April wasn't... (not ready, and too tired to finish it) A bit sad. So, I finished it this morning.

Discover my new online service, Rubber Ducking Avian Intelligence!
https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/html/2026_Rubber-Ducking-Avian-Intelligence/

Transcript:

A comic in four panels:

Panel 1. Cepper, the Gothic Sorceress, is at her iconic desk with a quill, she was writing in her big personal project: her book of incantation at university. She is thinking with intensity bringing the quill to her mouth, looking up and frowning. On a stack of book, nearby, stands a yellow static rubber duck.

Cepper: "Avian Intelligence, what is the correct incantation for a fireball? Hmm... You know, something Pyro... Ball..."

Panel 2. Cepper is now excited, the rubber duck is still silent, staring happily in the void.

Cepper: "PyroBolus! Perfect."

Panel 3. Amall, the small blond elf sorceress appears in the frame from one side, she is puzzled at what she probably saw before. Cepper is laughing a bit of embarrassement.

Amall: "A rubber duck!? But it can't answer you! Are you okay, Cepper?"
Cepper: "Haha, don't worry Amall, I'm fine."

Panel 4. Cepper is happy and proud of her invention, Amall scratch her head but with a smile, considering the discovery of her friend.

Cepper: "I just figured that formulating my questions out loud helps me to solve them, and finally that's all I needed."

This entire piece was drawn freehand with a ballpoint pen (no pencil pre-sketch underneath). I started with the fairy sleeping on the matchbox and just... let the story unfold as I drew.

Each detail, the mice soldiers, the shaman, the priest with her servants, the lizard with its tiny belt and gears, the bird with its rider... they all appeared naturally as I went. It's like the world built itself around her. There's something magical about working that way; you're discovering the story at the same time your hand is creating it.

But... four hours!

That's how long I was stuck at the train station of Montpelier Saint-Roch (France) yesterday because of a massive fire near the railway in Sète city. I was coming back from the workshops and signing sessions at Monistrol sur Loire (It was nice!).

So, nothing to do but sit and sketch, especially because I wanted to economize my phone battery in case the duration expanded further. That's when this piece came to life, and it felt to me like a good reminder that all I need to live my passion is a cheap sketchbook, a ballpoint pen, and time.

Three travelers in the same situation as me yesterday also stuck at the train station came to chat a bit about what I was drawing, and they started to follow my work. I told them I'll post the result. Now you know why I scanned this one and wrote this blog post!

If you want to know more about the details of this improvisation, here is my reading of the final picture: the fairy came with her cherry dinner and curled up to sleep under a cozy blanket in a matchbox, her clothes scattered on the floor beside the box. But while she slept, an entire mouse kingdom and army discovered her. There's a shaman observing this unusual creature carefully, is it a bad omen? I liked the contrast between weird design for the mouse expression and the more classic 'sleeping beauty' design for the fairy. Many mice are uncertain how to react to this strange intruder in their territory, a female priest mouse (near the shaman) with her servants who seems to recognize something prophetic about this arrival (they hold tiny frame with the silhouette of a fairy on it) looks like alerting all of them to not wake up her. One soldier has a lizard familiar wearing a belt and carrying stuff, and another rides atop a small bird...

Well, there is even more, but I let you discover it. Every character has a reaction, a role, a story. That's part of the fun of making this type of artwork!

Artwork source and full resolution here

Transcript:

A comic in four panels:

Panel 1. Cepper, the Gothic Sorceress, sits at her workbench in the basement of the university with her iconic clothes and glasses on her head. She is surrounded by steampunk cogs, wires, circuits, and code snippets written on parchments. She's determined in front of her masterpiece, her own local AI Parrot looking like a big pigeon.

Cepper: "I did it! Running 100% locally now. My own machine, my own terms! hehe."

Panel 2. She excitedly asks it a question, but it takes an eternity to respond.

Cepper: "Avian Intelligence, what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
Local AI Parrot: "1... 1... m... e... t... e... r... s... loading 2%"

Panel 3. Cepper starts to realize the immense computational power required to run AI models remotely. She looks at her local AI Parrot and starts to wonder.

Cepper: "Ouch. That's painfully slow, even with the largest magical stone I had!"
Local AI Parrot: "p...e...r... s...e...c...o...n...d... loading 4%"

Panel 4. A shot late at night, she sleeps deeply on a big armchair, while the local AI Parrot still finish to output.

Local AI Parrot: "a...n...d... t...h...a...t...s... a...l...l... loading 100%"

sources: https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/miniFantasyTheater/045.html

Join me (and my french accent 😁 ) as I take you through my top 10 favorite new features in Krita. A walkthrough/tutorial of my top 10 new feature!

• Peertube: https://peertube.touhoppai.moe/w/4LhZDTx3G5VpfSovUWveTm
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/DNhf_WLfSaE

Also, check the release notes (link under), I contributed to make the short video trailer for this release:

• Full release notes: https://krita.org/en/release-notes/krita-5-3-release-notes/
• Get Krita 5.3/6.0: https://krita.org/en/posts/2026/krita-5.3.0-released/

And again, congratulation to the Krita team for this big big release 🎉. Krita 6.0 is finally my ticket to adopt a more recent GNU/Linux distro with Wayland. I was stuck on the Debian 12 X11 documented here and published back in May 2024. Now I'm experimenting with Debian Testing, Plasma 6 on Wayland and Krita 6.0 appimage and so far, it works: a new guide coming soon.

Hey! As the Spring season is finally here, I'm taking a break from my digital canvas to meet some of you in person this week-end! I'm honored this year to be a guest at "Fête de la BD" in Monistrol sur Loire. An event from 24 to 28 Mars 2026. I'll be around on the last two days:

Friday 27 March

I'll share my passion with the young ones with two workshops "A comic in three panels" where we learn the basic mechanic for writing comic strips. It's for the local school, drawing club, and association for young people (MJC). I'm curious to see all the comics (penciled, black and white) we'll create together that day!

Saturday 28 March

I'll be part of the festival (public, free entrance). Here's my schedule:

• 10h - 13h: Signing session at "Fête de la BD"
• 15h - 16h: Conference at the Médiathèque, where I'll be talking about my special approach of comic: the software I use, the license I use, and more.

Hope to see you there, and I apologize for sharing the news a bit late: organizing all of this isn't easy! If you want to learn more about the event, check out the links below:.

Link:

• Full schedule, PDF hosted by the MJC: https://www.mjcmonistrol.fr/media/programme-V-2-bd-25.pdf
• The MJC: https://www.mjcmonistrol.fr/
• The médiathèque: https://monistrol-sur-loire-portail.c3rb.org/?start=1
• Newspaper article on "Le progres": https://www.leprogres.fr/culture-loisirs/2026/03/13/la-commune-fetera-la-bande-dessinee-du-25-au-28-mars

Transcript:

Panel 1. The Gothic Sorceress paces back and forth on the foundation of her house: all that remains are the floor tiles and the outlines of the walls. The Avian Intelligence (AI) flies while watching her. In the distance, a storm is approaching: lightning streaks across the sky.

Gothic Sorceress: “Let’s think about this. Given your powers, you can probably build me a brand-new house, right?”

Panel 2. Close-up: the stoic Avian Intelligence and the Gothic Sorceress, cheerful and excited by the good news, as a few raindrops fall.

Avian Intelligence: “That is indeed a task I can handle. Shall I make it just like the one before?”
Gothic Sorceress: “Yes!”

Panel 3. Same shot, Avian Intelligence seems to have shifted into a different mode. The Gothic Sorceress is shocked and protests, exclaiming.

Avian Intelligence: “Oops, I can't. You have exceeded your request quota for this month.”
Gothic Sorceress: “WHAT?!”

Panel 4. Under now heavy rain, the Gothic Sorceress has turned her back and is trying to contain her intense anger, clenching her fists. Avian Intelligence continues its sales pitch:

Avian Intelligence: “Subscribe now to Avian Intelligence Premium for unlimited requests!”
Gothic Sorceress: “Grrr!!!!”

Following many Free/Libre and Open Source projects over the past week, last night I added a "Use of Generative AI" chapter to our Code of Conduct, clearly stating that we do not allow the use of Generative AI or LLMs. This also affects all our repositories on Framagit.

→ Link to the new no-LLMs statement chapter in our COC.

I copied the concise and efficient text word for word after discovering it thanks to Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo) who added it to GNOME Calendar, and posted about it on Mastodon. Many thanks to Sophie Herold for writing it, and also for posting it under a CC0 licence.

Illustration sources: Rage against the Slop Machines

A digital painting tribute and fan-art to my favorite author and witch (and her "hat full of sky").

http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/

Transcript:

A comic in four panels:

Panel 1. The Gothic Sorceress stands in the middle of the ruins of her house, in the middle of the mess the floor; a consequence of the night with the Tree Spirits. She's looking overwhelmed. She talks a bit in the void, eyes lost in the distance. Her Avian Intelligence (AI) Parrot listen, perched on a wall in ruins.

Gothic Sorceress: "Ugh, it'll take weeks to clean this up."

Panel 2. A closer zoom on the AI Parrot, replying to the Gothic Sorceress.

AI Parrot: "I know a spell or two for that, but I need the highest permission level. Can you grant it to me?" Gothic Sorceress: ""Granted." It can't get any worse anyway..."

Panel 3. A tempest erupts inside the room, the AI Parrot flies in the middle like a majestic and all powerful bird: he is casting a spell loudly. Lightning flashes, cloud of dust are twirling, and many debries are flying. The Gothic Sorceress protect her face with her hands, in emergency.

AI Parrot: "Arehem Dash Areheff Root!"

Panel 4. The aftermath of the spell: only the floor of the house survived. Just the tiles on the floor, lost in the middle of the natures with trees and grass. The room are empty, except a toilet seat in a corner. The AI Parrot is proud of his work while the Gothic Sorceress stares at the scene, seating still dizzy after the tornado. She feels powerless in front of the result.

AI Parrot: "Cleaning successful, room reset." Gothic Sorceress: "I take it back. It can get worse."

Source here

A character study of Amall, blond elf friend of Cepper the Gothic Sorceress, for the MiniFantasyTheater Avian Intelligence series.

(Alt: Photo of a sketchbook page featuring a top-down view of Amall, a blond elf adult, but looking small like a child, sitting on grass. The photo has an ink pen lying on top (Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner) with blue ink, A5 notebook.)

Transcript:

A comic in four panels:

Panel 1. It's night, and the rain pours through the windows like... cats and dogs (see previous episode). The group of the five Tree Spirits are playing with the Gothic Sorceress's home accessories and decoration, making a mess. The Gothic Sorceress, in the middle, in a yoga lotus pose with candles around her tries to contain their actions, but they are too much. She asks her AI Parrot:

Gothic Sorceress: "Avian Intelligence, tell them in their language to stop! They're making a mess!"

Panel 2. The AI Parrot doesn't react, displaying a spinning loading symbol in its speech bubble. The Gothic Sorceress urges it to hurry as the Tree Spirits continue their actions, breaking things, playing with fire, and spilling ink.

AI Parrot: (Loading Symbol Icon) loading...
Gothic Sorceress: "Come on! Hurry up!"

Panel 3. The AI Parrot's eyes are now crossed and their light turn off. It is obviously disconnected. The Gothic Sorceress feels distress as she realizes she can't communicate with the Tree Spirits anymore and start to panic, while the Tree Spirits action are more extreme: one burn a part of her haircut, another one pushed a book on a candle, and she has ink all over her hands.

AI Parrot: "Network error. Disconnecting."
Gothic Sorceress: "No... No!! Not NOW!!!"

Panel 4. The next day, the AI Parrot finally reconnects, happy and fresh, but the house is in ruins, with smokes, everything is broken, upside down... The Gothic Sorceress sits on the floor, she looks exhausted and apathetic: the five Tree Spirits are all sleeping cutely on her lap.

Narrator: "The next day..."
AI Parrot: "Network restored. Hi there, how can I help you?"
Gothic Sorceress: "Too late..."

source here