Over this last Extra Life, I’ve realised that I really enjoy drawing penguins. We named this penguin Benedict Cumbersnax (if you want a treat, look up any video you can of Benedict Cumberbatch attempting to pronounce the word “penguin”.
There’s no better way to spend an evening than engaging in a hobby you like with snacks you love.
Here’s another Extra Life perk! This one is coming to you from a donation from my nephew, Oliver – a basketball playing goat!
G.reatest O.f A.ll T.ime, you see.
This was so much fun to make live! I never get a ton of viewers on my twitch streams (at least partially because I only stream once a year) but we had a great number of lovely folks watching during this stream!
There’s a bit of an explanation for this upcoming set of drawings (found under this drawing), but I won’t go on and on about it after this first post! Here’s a picture I made of a thresher shark!
We learned a lot about thresher sharks during the art live stream
If you want to give yourself a little treat right now, look up some images of thresher shark faces. They are the cutest little babies, and they have the most magnificent tails.
On the 5th of November, I joined my dear friends and many, many gamers around the world in Extra Life, a charity event that raises money for Children’s Miracle Network hospitals around the US. I offered perks (largely hastily drawn art) for anyone who donated over a certain amount. My friend Shay requested this piece as a perk for their donation, and I made it live on Krita during my Extra Life livestream. I think we will be doing this again every year, but probably not on the actual day of extra life, since we were meant to be spending the day gaming!
Oh hey! In truth, I’ve been composing here and there lately, but I haven’t made much time to post between work, research, and other things.
But here’s a cute little sketch I made for The Video Game That Doesn’t Exist; it’s the music for the second town; not the protagonist’s home, but their first stop. This is the place that lets the hero know that they will find other pockets of peace along their journey.
“Oh, you’re looking for the Carpenter? He’s in the green house, to the north of here.”
As with most of my other work, I wrote this using the free digital audio workstation LMMS and a really great set of free SF2 files provided by the St James Orchestra, which you can find on Zanderjaz.
I can’t say that I will be updating this more regularly, but I sure hope you don’t forget me in the gaps!
Are there any levels you’d like background music for? This video game doesn’t (and is likely to never) exist, so there are no wrong answers!
While I don’t tend to have a lot of time to write new music these days (I’m learning how to program for my PhD and doing a lot of editing for my fee gig as an assistant editor, but this isn’t LinkedIn!), I have been writing little fun projects with my students to couch my theory lessons.
One of my students is learning how to employ different drum patterns, and I made a little goofy groove over the very first pattern he learned, the ubiquitous 4-on-the-floor. We decided it would make a good piece for The Video Game That Doesn’t Exist. In this scene, a new, radical frog NPC has come into the picture in order to give us a new skill.
“Whoa dude! Let me teach you how to double jump!” 🐸
This was written in LMMS, and most of the instruments I used can be found in the main library and the ZynAddSubFX synth. It’s nothing too fancy, but it’s been a while, and it’s about time I showed you a bit of what I’ve been up to!
Here is a little unfinished electronica experiment sketch that I built inspired by Patricia Taxxon’s Theory of Pop Harmony. I really enjoy her ideas and I highly recommend giving her video a look if you’re interested in a fresh take on the Four Chord Piece. She does a great job of balancing education and entertainment, and I had her final song, Our Axis, stuck in my head for days afterward!
Who needs more than 4 chords anyway?
I would definitely call this more of a sketch, and I would love to develop it a bit more someday. As always, I used LMMS to create this, which I highly recommend for anyone dabbling in creating electronic music.
If you can believe it, we’ve only got two more April Ducks posts (this piece included) left! I’ve been making a good deal of art lately, but it’s mainly been in my bullet journal (I try to keep it cute so that I will keep using it!). Is any of that art something you’d be interested in seeing? Let me know!
Without further ado, here are the April Ducks from the 17th to the 19th!
I do really enjoy the little cheeseburgers.
I’ve been preparing for my PhD program as well, which starts next month. It’s been really exciting to uncover all of the skills I will need to develop in order to get this project off the ground.
I feel like this fella really needs a name.
While a large portion of my time has been spent on education and work, I do still hope that I manage to keep this blog full of silly side projects.
I think someone got a little duck potion in their coffee!
Well, I think the cat’s already out of the bag, but just in case we’re not in constant contact, here’s the news I mentioned in passing.. I just received my official offer this morning for a PhD program at the University of Huddersfield! I’ll be starting next month, in mid-September.
I’ll be studying music through an evolutionary lens, specifically focusing in on the role that selection plays in music evolution. This is a very interdisciplinary project that will involve some creative computing, so there should be a lot to share! If you are interested in learning more about my program (or if you’d like to read my proposal, which always has the possibility of being a fine example of the best-laid-plans proverb), let me know!
More art and music are coming to this space, of course. But I thought this news needed its own post!
Hey there! Today I’ve decided to show off a goofy way that my electronic composition and production students and I use up any additional time at the end of our lessons.
One of my Friday students had 6 minutes at the end of his lesson, and we took 30 of those seconds to decide that we should see how much of a piece we could write in the remaining time. We each chose an instrument in ZynAddSubFX (one of my favourite synths, it comes included in LMMS). The instrument he chose was strongly emanating 80’s sci fi energy, so I picked a complement and we got to work.
The file is actually called “ICantBelieveWeWroteThisIn5Minutes.mp3”
He chose the direction for the ostinatos and the secondary underpinning, and I plunked the notes into the piano rolls. There were a total of 4 patterns, and since we had 20 seconds before the end of our lesson, we opted to plunk the aforementioned underpinnings in at random. It’s not likely to win any awards, but what a delightful little piece to come out of this little arbitrarily limited project.
(shared with permission of my student, who has now requested that we end many more lessons like this.)
Just in case you’re one of my small handful of avid readers (thank you thank you thank you!), I’m taking July off from posting; everything is fine, I’ve just got a few projects I need to focus on for the time being. Expect my next update to be on Monday, the 2nd of August!
Gosh friends, I have been SO busy! A good number of the projects I’ve been up to have been so long-term that I seem to have very little to share of my recent work. Lucky for us, I have a few ducks in the *wings*.
I’m sorry. Anyway, here they are.
Funnily enough, I was busy when I made this duck as well, so it was both hastily made and hastily presented.
Also, I celebrated my 10-year wedding anniversary this last week. I’ve been feeling very positive and lucky lately.
I feel like Swamp Duck is an untapped market in the monster movie genre.
The last of this set might be my favourite. Isn’t she sweet?
Downright magical!
Thanks for visiting, and for your patience while I fill space with latent ducks!
Hi. I'm Mandikat. 