#skillshare project

[alessandra-estrella]

Piece done for this Skillshare class by Iva Mikles (Art Side of Life) to make stylized, simple characters in various positions with Procreate, then placing them in the windows of the building template she made!

Of course, I ended up doing Buffy characters lol I plan on making my own building when I have time. The video is a collection of short timelapses of me making the characters.

-My Instagram

[feliciore]

[lohstandfound]

i think acting in a show again would fix me

[unanimoustwins]

qsmp as an anology for us colonialism and the spread of capitalism and corporal punishment

[antifainternational]

10 Years Of Antifa International!!!!!!!!!!

This month, the Antifa International collective celebrates our 10th anniversary! Back in 2014, we saw a need for a crew dedicated to reporting on different anti-fascist actions around the world, who could also come up with ways to support anti-fascists around the globe and promote the tenets of anti-fascism.

We started with two people and a Tumblr blog and have since grown to a collective of ten members in eight different countries, posting on nine social media platforms, where we've put up over 20,000 posts over the last ten years for our 110,000+ followers to have a look at.  

Since 2014, we've also initiated a number of projects we're quite proud of! 

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund: it was not too long after we started our collective that we saw an increasing number of anti-fascists around the world calling out for support after encountering an emergency situation resulting from their work. Whether it was court costs, legal defence fees, emergency relocations, or medical expenses - anti-fascists were facing dire consequences for standing up to hate and then would have to do whatever they could to get help dealing with those consequences. Our solution was to start a standing fund that would be devoted to providing emergency aid to anti-fascists facing problems related to their anti-fascist work. We would do whatever we could to fundraise for it on an ongoing basis, and then use the funds to help antifa in trouble. All decisions about how the Defence Fund runs and is used would be made by the people who've contributed a minimum of $20USD to it, via consensus wherever possible and majority vote where consensus was not forthcoming.   Nine years later, the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has provided nearly $250,000USD to more than 750 anti-fascists in 28 different countries. More than 1500 anti-fascists from around the world have been invited to participate in the Defence Fund by helping to make the decisions about how it is run and what it is used for. To our knowledge, the Defence Fund remains the only project of its kind, devoted to providing emergency support to anti-fascists around the world, but it has inspired similar defence funds.   THIS IS A PROJECT YOU COULD BE INVOLVED IN!  A minimum donation of $20USD will get you invited to participate!   

International Violent Hate Crimes Research Project: from 2017-2022 we tracked media accounts of violent acts motivated by hate or committed by far-right extremists around the world. Over the course of those six years, we documented over 3000 such attacks, in which more than 1800 people were killed and a further 5254 were injured. The Project allowed us to examine trends in the types of attacks being committed; who was being targeted; and where the attacks were taking place, among other things that we wrote about in our annual reports.  Unfortunately, a lack of resources compelled us to discontinue the project in 2023.   

25 July: The International Day of Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Prisoners: July 25th is a day when all anti-fascists are called upon to demonstrate their solidarity with those of us who are locked up behind bars. Taking the baton from NYC Antifa, who started this project, we've set up a website with information and resources about the day, including translations into several different languages and a list of current anti-fascist prisoners. We also maintain a donation page and sell this t-shirt designed by a former anti-fascist prisoner; every July 25th, we pool what was raised and send it directly to current antia prisoners/their families/their support teams.  WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO SOMETHING TO MARK JULY 25TH! You'll find some ideas and resources here. If you put anything about the Day on social media, please use the hashtag #j25antifa so others kind find your posts!  

Training for Anti-Fascists: Beginning in 2020, we organized a series of online training and skillshare workshops for anti-fascists on a number of topics, including digital security practices, de-escalation tactics, open source intelligence gathering, intelligence sharing, first aid, self-defence, and far-right radicalization warning signs & intervention strategies. Each session was attended by anti-fascists from around the world, who were able to take what they learned and put it to use in their own communities.  

Anti-Fascist Flags, Shirts, & Stickers: Although these were originally intended as fundraising items for the Defence Fund, the anti-fascist flags, shirts, stickers, and other items we produced soon took on a life of their own. To date, we've distributed hundreds of anti-fascist shirts & flags and nearly 90,000 anti-fascist stickers around the world.  Our Antifa International flags have been spotted in Afrin, Boston, Brooklyn, Kiev, London, the Hauge, the Scottish Highlands, Kobane, L.A., Melbourne, Oakland, Philly, Standing Rock, and Toronto, among other places.  

deathtofascism.com: is the site we've set up as a repository of free, downloadable anti-fascist flyers, reports, and 'zines that anyone can read, print out and give away. If you're tabling an event or show, there is probably a few things there that you'll want to hand out!   

Antifa Shirt of the Month: from 2021 to 2024, we produced a new anti-fascist t-shirt each month as a fundraiser for a different antifa crew somewhere in the world, raising nearly $20,000USD for those crews. You'll find most of those shirts still available at our online store.

We're not telling you all of this to brag (well, OK, we might be bragging a little bit!); rather, we're hoping some of what we've done over the past ten years, as volunteers, without any funding or resources to speak of, will inspire you & your friends to think about what you can do where you are! 

[anarchopuppy]

FESTIVALS OF RESISTANCE: ORGANIZE TO OPPOSE TRUMP

January 11

Chicago, Illinois: A training about fighting deportations, as part of the week-long “Regroup and Strategize” series.

Sacramento, California: “Call to Action” conference and gathering, featuring a “day of skillshares and trainings” along with workshops, panels, and a keynote presentation from anarchist author Dean Spade. You can find more information and a full schedule here.

January 18

Atlanta, Georgia: A mass mobilization and day of resistance on the two-year anniversary of the murder of Tortuguita.

Brooklyn, New York: A community gathering including workshops.

Carbondale, Ilinois: A community event, currently in the planning stages.

Cleveland, Ohio: 3 pm Coventry Peace Park, 5 pm Rhizome House

Dayton, Ohio: 5 pm, Union Hall, 313 South Jefferson; a community discussion followed by music

Durham, North Carolina: The Triangle Festival of Resistance, a weekend-long festival focused on community defense, resilience, and liberation. For updates and information about how to contribute, consult Triangle Radical Events.

Gary, Indiana: A demonstration against mass deportations.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 6 pm at Nice Hair, with workshops on trans defense, migrant defense, self-defense, and movement defense

Minneapolis, Minnesota: A screening of Fell in Love with Fire with letter writing to prisoners and a discussion about the next phase of struggle at the Seward Cafê at 6:30 pm.

Portland, Oregon: A gathering in a COVID-safer, sober space. Families with and without children are welcome to attend. Food will be provided. You can also find updates about event organizing in Portland here.

Providence, Rhode Island: 3 pm - 9+ pm, AS220

Oakland, California: A march to a community assembly, departing from Wilma Chan park next to the Lake Merritt BART at 1 pm.

Olympia, Washington: The People’s March, 12 pm, departing from Heritage Park; followed by the Festival of Resistance.

Phoenix, Arizona: 3-8 pm, Margaret T. Hance Park, featuring a Really Really Free Market, food, literature tables, and a number of educational workshops

Richmond, Virginia: A community assembly involving panel discussions, workshops, and food, followed by a benefit concert.

Events are also being organized in Salt Lake City, Utah and elsewhere.

January 19

Chapel Hill, NC: The second day of the Triangle Festival of Resistance.

January 20

Indianapolis, Indiana: A Mutual Aid Convergence at Ujamaa Community Bookstore.

January 21

Arcata, California: A march departing from Arcata Plaza at noon—against Donald Trump, in solidarity with Palestine, and in memory of Tortuguita.

January 25

Tampa Bay, Florida: A community gathering and organizing fair for “politics beyond the ballot box.” “Organize with your community to fight for transformative change! Connect with a local project from anti-capitalist orgs, labor and tenant unions, mutual aid orgs, and more!”

Click here for the call to action and most up-to-date list

[sapphicacademic]

things to study once classes end

for those who want to keep up a habit or just enjoy learning

a new language

a style of literature less commonly studies (e.g. fantasy, science fiction - I took a sci-fi course this semester and it was so fun)

practice an instrument or learn some music theory

take some skillshare courses!

start / join a book club. this isn't really studying but imo most English courses are just really expensive book clubs

learn to read tarot / study other spirituality. I want to get better at astrology

study your local history! your library probably has a bunch of stuff on it

pick up a new hobby or craft and learn the history of it

study the plants in your local forest, aim to create a mini foraging guide

design a heavy programming project for yourself, challenge yourself to learn how to do it before the fall term starts

teach yourself some psychology! there's a LOT about it out there

do a bible study if that's something that suits you

the 1980s UK punk scene. I just took a course on this it's great

really any pop culture era

the Salem witch trials. there's a lot to learn there

if you're up to it, learn the history of some local indigenous / aboriginal groups if you happen to be on colonized land. learn what you can do as an ally (I actually have a reading list for those of you getting in to indigenous American allyship, and you can always reach out to me for a starting point)

literally take out a textbook from a library or get a used textbook off a friend and read through it, annotate it if you can, study the material. It's fun to learn without deadlines looming.

work on your handwriting

[bfpnola]

Virtual Fibercrafts Skillshare THIS SATURDAY!

From our Climate Action Youth Advocate and General Volunteers:

BFP’s first Skillshare will be on Saturday 1/27 at 7:00 pm EST! Stop by if you want to learn how to make warm clothing to donate to your local community!

Here are the supplies you will need: Fibercrafts require very little to get started. For crocheting, you will need yarn (in this demonstration we will be using #4 worsted weight yarn, but other weights can be used, you just have to adjust the gauge), and a crochet hook (we will be demonstrating on a H/8 or 5 mm hook. Others will work, and if using yarn of a different size, be sure to check the standard gauges for your yarn).

For sewing, you will need fabric that is stiff enough to work with (fleece, flannel, and cotton will work,) sewing needles, some sewing pins, and thread.

A note on materials: cotton yarn is best for beginners as it is stiffer, harder to break, and doesn’t fray as easily, while aluminum hooks are best for beginners as they withstand pressure. Dollar stores and Walmart sell sewing kits cheaply, which are acceptable for beginner projects. You may have to buy extra thread, or pins separately. Nylon and polyester threads tend to be the easiest to work with. Some beginners also prefer double-sided sewing tape in place of pins.

[emiplayzmc]

'Like a Moth to a Flame'

YIPPEE, new artwork! This was drawn as a project during a Skillshare class, featuring my moth character, Benjamin, chasing one of the Will-o-the-Wisps of their dreams.

Raghhh Benjamin, my tragic presagillo character, my beloved, nobody could ever make me dislike you :3 Actually this is probably one of my better works as far as lighting and focal points goes!!

[painterofhorizons]

Yo, end of year, time for a chaotic thoughts thing?!

Ugh. 2024 almost over.

First of all, I will try to follow that post that says "strive to be the couch between the years". I will try to not stress these specific days.

Easier said than done.

Remember how I said I would not stress about my work future before 2025? Fuck shit, 2025 is almost there. (Technically I didn't say I would start stressing Jan 1st, so I don't need to do it right away. But you get the sentiment.) My current job ends Feb 2026, and since 99% I will not quit early because I AM the project and it won't get finished if I quit, it doesn't make sense looking for job, like, right away. But since I might drop out of my current field after this job ends (academia and laws and academic circumstances, let's not start talking about the WissZeitVG), and might have to do something completely different after current job, what the fuck am I supposed to do? So yeah, stressful.

Then, lets not think about how early in January this current year I was full of ideas what I was gonna do this year, and then blink of an eye and it's Dec 26th and have I done any of the things? Nooooope.

Which leads me to the matter of why. I think my biggest issue was I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do (like, "attend more cultural things") but I didn't turn that vague idea into actual plans.

Which leads me to "why do I never do real plans", to what the answer probably is: I fear failure. Making plans feels like I set myself up for failure, because I won't stick with the plans anyways. So, why bother. Why making workout goals if I drop them anyways 15% in. Same for art. Lets not talk about things like writing a PhD thesis. And so on.

(And let's not fool us: I should probably just *really* get an ADHD diagnosis and treatment. It cannot make my life worse. I'm always hesitant bringing that up because I don't want to look like I'm looking for excuses, but... It might be I'm not a complete failure for no reason, but for some stupid invisible disability. I'm trying really hard, you know?)

So yeah, I will try to make, like, real plans next year, and try to stick with them. Like, Tuesdays afternoon is for an art class on skillshare or something. I was starting to get some weekly routine-ish things established this year and it hasn't failed completely, so maybe I can do that?

Also, I want to try to do less of the all-or-nothing thinking. Like, so I did not stick with my workout routine I was hoping to build. But I still went to the gym more times than ever before. And did more stuff to tackle health issues at home, and I think that works. And I did not attend as many cultural things that I wanted, but I went to the local art hall and got myself a yearly membership and I still have a couple of months left to use it. And I started going to the local history museum just for fun more often. So I did not fail my vague ideas completely. All-or-nothing thinking gets me to drop vague ideas completely. I don't wanna do that.

Also, do less comparing myself to others, because that only harms, like, everyone. We're all on different paths, with different circumstances.

I'm trying really hard. And change of years is nothing else but some artificial point in time we usually stress too much about, but in the end it is just one day following another, like everyday.

So the whole "looking back" at one year and giving it a lable of "check" or "fail" and looking at the next year and making big plans is stupid, after all.

But I will try to be less vague and make more actionabl plans and then hopefully a few more will turn into reality.

[alessandra-estrella]

Piece done for this Skillshare class by Iva Mikles (Art side of Life) to make a stylized simple character, then make a pattern in another file to put on her clothes.

ngl, I was thinking of Eliza Dushku (specifically as Faith from Buffy) for this one.

-My Instagram

[heartmush]

hihi ! i wanted to ask if you're a self-taught artist or if you went to art school to get where you are right now? ^_^

hi! the short answer is "technically no", as i've gone to art school.

my longer answer is the following:

i have complicated thoughts about the term "self-taught". it's difficult to know where to draw the line, so to speak.

for example, if i take an online course (say, a class101 course, or skillshare), does that still "count" as being self taught? does taking AP art count? or a public watercolor class, or even following a tutorial, whether online or those "how to draw manga" books (debatable but that's the point of this being complicated, I think).

what about if you went to art school, and learned very little from the staff? most of my teachers assigned projects, but it was up to us to develop the skills necessary to carry it out. they would not teach us how to draw, but rather simply gave us guidelines on the project (i.e, it has to be a three page comic, or a work based on a news article). i've also encountered plenty of teachers that have done... the opposite of teaching.

basically, a lot of my time in art school was spent teaching myself the necessary components to fulfill the requirements set for me. i don't know if that still counts as "self-taught", even though i was the only one working.

i do think i've benefitted from some teacher's knowledge and the opportunities afforded to me (access to supplies/printing machines, etc.), so i'm not saying i'm entirely self taught or that art school isn't "worth it" (that's an entire other discussion that i don't care to get into), but i also know i've spent a LOT of my time teaching myself too, during university but especially growing up, when my family was against my wanting to be an artist in the first place.

to summarize, i think everyone is self-taught to some degree, and the idea of "self-taught" and suddenly not being self taught because you went to art school is an arbitrary way to categorize people.

[hprofational9]

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[clovers-spin]

[ID: A watercolor painting of strawberries on the vine]

My interpretation of a skillshare class project

[pinkacademic]

Studying for Fun

Ok, Girlies, Part of me was like “duh, Queenie, they know how to have fun;” but then I realise that what I actually needed to do was provide advice for structured fun- not to mention resources!!  So, those are my two points for today.

Part 1: Structure

You know what your actual timetable looks like, but here’s a sample one that I’ve made that might help you add structure to your day

Now here’s how to actually do that

List out every single thing you HAVE to do in a week- work, studying etc, but also tidying, cleaning, what day is laundry day.

Make up a grid like this, or do a list of times, however you’d prefer. Fill in all the immovable things- work*,lectures- and then fill the moveable things- study time, exercise, travel time to your lectures- around them.

if you work shifts, you may need to do this weekly 3. Be realistic. Are you actually going to wake up at 5:00? Girl, are you not going to socials on Wednesday nights? Are you not going to need a little bit more time in bed on a Thursday morning? You know what makes sense for you. But also, can you realistically get all the things you need to do done if you wake up at 10 and go to bed by 6?

I’m using silly examples, but I think you get the point that you need to make sure you are working healthily for your lifestyle.

Let me know if you want a more in-depth tutorial on this!

Another idea that can really help for structure and discipline is parallel play … that’s a phrase usually thrown about in child development, but whatever…

Parallel play or body doubling is essentially two or more people working on two separate tasks, but in the same space.

study with your friends

Set goals with your friends

Call them and exercise together

Accountability buddies are how you keep up structure.

Part Two: resources

These are some of my favourite places to learn things

(Yes, I do like history, how did you guess?)

*i don't use duolingo anymore bc of the whole ai, staff layoff thing... but I thought I ought include it...

Here's some others!!

Ok I'm DONE!!

[andymakesgames]

Andy's 2024 Year in Review

I tend to work on a lot of small projects with a smattering of larger ones mixed in. Often I end the year thinking I didn't do all that much, but then I start going through my posts and realize that I did more than I thought! Hard to believe that stuff I did last January was this year!

I've fallen out of the habit of doing these year-in-review posts, which is a shame, but I'm turning that around right now! Here's a quick look at all the things I made last year.

EMMA

Probably the biggest thing for me is another successful year of the coop I'm a part of, EMMA Technology Cooperative. After a somewhat tough 2023, we bounced back this year. Seeing us survive a lean time and watching the coffers refill in the past year really drove home the value of organizing around cooperation as opposed to infinite growth. And if you're reading this and in need of a creative technologist, please drop us a line!

Taper - January

A the start of this year I was on the editorial board of Taper, online literary journal for computational poetry. I only assisted with one issue (which I also contributed to!) but it was a very new experience for me and I'm happy I could be a part of it!

A few years ago I kind of stumbled into the occasional piece of digital poetry without ever realizing. I was doing a literal poetry reading when I realized that I write poems from time to time. It's very fun that my practice occasionally pulls me in unexpected directions.

MAGFest - January

Every year, we bring all of the games in the Arcade Commons collection to the Music and Games Festival just outside of Washington DC. It is our biggest show of the year by a mile and I love it every time. There is a DIY spirit to MAGFest that really sets it apart from any other con I've been to. We're well underway for 2025 as I write this. As I frequently do, I emceed a bunch of our tournaments.

The Algorithm - February

What a fun project this was! Alia ElKattan and Lujain Ibrahim contacted me about their Mozilla Foundation-funded project to explain how algorithmic feeds work. I created modular P5JS animations to serve as the "content" for their app.

They found me via the P5 tweetcarts I had been posting during the pandemic. I got to explore some of those same ideas without the super tight character restrictions.

Check it out here.

EMMA Skillshare - March

I did a small workshop on getting PICO-8 to communicate with Javascript. This was the basis for my project Pico Pond which I wrote about on the EMMA Blog.

This skillshare took those ideas and presented them in a livestream, which you can watch here.

Our Generation - May

I was contacted by Nick Montfort to submit a piece of computer generated poetry for a small-run book called Our Generation: Programs + Computer-Generated Texts. I channeled my inner Jenny Holzer for this and really enjoyed it. The full src appears at the top of the page and it was interesting to factor that in to make sure the output exactly filled the page. I keep thinking it would be fun to do a series using this size restriction but I haven't done it yet.

You can see my full page here.

Tastebud Tapdancer - May

You've been swallowed by a giant serpent but you're trying to make the best of it.

A little video game with a source code of just 500 characters! Made for TweetTweetJam 9 You can play it here.

The Indomitable Rocket Dog - June

Around this point in the year is where I started working on my current project, The Indomitable Rocket Dog. I'm enjoying this game so much. I haven't made a real twitchy arcade game since PARTICLE MACE, which just celebrated its 10th birthday. It is still very early but I feel really good about this one!

After MAGFest 2024 I was percolating on physics-y arcade games mostly because I am so deeply in love with Hoverburger by Nick Santaniello. Before I knew it my love of N++ was mixed in there as well.

I'm writing all of my own physics in C++ because I had a vague sense of how I want it to feel and it's a hobby project so I can do what I want.

I've been documenting my development on it in a mastodon thread.

Isabelle Poppy And Bling - August

OK, this one isn't new at all! This is a flash game I made in 2009 for musician Justin Braun. But this year I got it playable on the web again!

Like so many game developers my age, I got my start with Macromedia Flash. This game felt like the culmination of my style at the time, which was heavily influenced by Animutation. I was starting to be more deliberate with my collage style as opposed to aiming for totally random elements. I think I got paid $600 for it, which felt huge at the time.

1K Pac-Man - September

Another size coded game. This time it's as faithful a recreation of Pac-Man as I could muster in 1024 bytes of source code. All of the ghost logic is accurate to the original!

You can play it here. I'm very pleased with the mouth animation.

I made it for PICK-1K Jam 2024. I do wish I had read the page a little more carefully though. The jam required compressed source to be 1024 bytes and I did raw source. The game is only 723 compressed bytes so I had a lot of room to expand, but by the time I realized that I had painstakingly trimmed and optimized my code and I couldn't imagine untangling it. Oops.

Cloud Gobblers - November

Arcade Commons received a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council to create an arcade machine showing a collection of games that incorporate weather data into the gameplay. EMMA was commissioned to make one of the games. Cloud Gobblers is a snake-style game where the playfield is a video satellite field of global cloud coverage over a period of 48 hours.

This was the first time all of the members of EMMA worked together on one project!

Three Tapestries - October

I didn't make many pen plotter drawings this year, but I really liked this one. You can see the full thing here.

It's currently still available in my shop! Until somebody buys it it will be hanging on the wall in my office.

Lever Up Jam - December

Back in 2021, I worked with Matt Lepage on an alt-control game jam called Jam Jam Revolution. We prepped a parts list so all participants could build the same controller and make games for it. This year we decided to dust off that idea with the Lever Up Jam. This time there will be a full-sized cabinet at MAGFest that the games can be played on!

My favorite TweetCarts / Postcarts This Year

I no longer use Twitter, but I have been making the occasional tweetcart (a PICO-8 sketch with source code 280 bytes or less) and posting them on tumblr and mastodon. But there was an exciting development towards the end of the year! Lexaloffle, the creator of Pico-8 created a section on the BBS for 300 char or less "Postcarts", so we now have a centralized home for these little byte-sized demos.

Here are three of my favorite postcarts that I made this year:

Spinning Cube v3 - April

p=pset::_::cls()for i=0,99do u=0s=i/4+t()/5x=64+sin(s)*39a=64+sin(s+.25)*39y=39+cos(s)*9b=39+cos(s+.25)*9line(x,y,a,b,6)for k=0,99do if x>a and i<4and k<50then line(x,y+k,a,b+k,k>48and 7or 9+i)p(x,y+k,7)p(a,b+k)end v=pget(i,k)u+=v if(v>6)break if(u>0)p(i,k,8)end end flip()goto _

Big year for making things spin. You can check out my tumblr post to see all my attempts at perfecting this spinning cube. The outlines were the real cherry on top for me.

Balatro Spinning Card - May

a=abs::_::cls()e=t()for r=0,46do for p=0,1,.025do j=sin(e)*20k=cos(e)*5f=1-p h=a(17-p*34)v=a(23-r)c=1+min(23-v,17-h)%5/3\1*6u=(r-1)/80z=a(p-.2)if(e%1<.5)c=a(r-5)<5and z<u+.03and(r==5or z>u)and 8or 8-sgn(h+v-9)/2 g=r+39pset((64+j)*p+(64-j)*f,(g+k)*p+(g-k)*f,c)end end flip()goto _

This was so hard to make! I can't believe I did it. I wrote a giant writeup breaking down the 279 byte source code on the EMMA blog.

Fuji - October

pal({7,12,140,13,129,1,5,8,8,14,142,143,7},1)r=rnd::_::x=r(128)y=r(128)c=9+y/26-2+r(1.5) if(y<((x+40)/6)^1.6and y<((178-x)/6)^1.6and y<79+r(2))c=2.5-sgn(y-45-sin(x/21)*r(4))*1.5+r(2.5-sgn(x-69-r(8)-y/3+25)*.7) pset(x,128-y,c)a=r(1)d=r(25)pset(28+sin(a)*d,30+cos(a)*d,9)goto _

I made this during some downtime on a vacation to Japan. I was hoping to see Fuji the next day and the clouds wound up being kind to us, giving an amazing view.

I almost never make representational art and I was really happy with how this turned out.

That's it! I hope you all have a great 2025!