I'll be back in Brittany in July with two dates:

Saint-Brieuc, Bulles à Croquer festival, saturday 5, sunday 6, 10h/19h
I'll be doing signing sessions for my comic book during the "Bulles à Croquer" festival in Saint-Brieuc. Entry is free, and there will be many other authors and activities. For more information, visit: https://www.bullesacroquer.net

Dinan, Bookstore "Le Grenier", wednesday 9 Jully, 15h/18h
On my way back to the south of France, I'll do a halt to the bookstore "Le Grenier" in Dinan for a signing session. For more information, visit: https://www.librairielegrenier.com/decouvrir_la_librairie/

I hope to meet many of you there!

Hey! This week, I'm preparing for my future workshops at Geekfaeries 2025, so I'm taking Monday to publish a production report on my progress with episode 39.

Previously on Pepper&Carrot...

Abnormally a lot has happened since the release of the last episode 38: 'The Healer', so here is a quick recap if you haven't followed it:

The canceled version

I initially released in December 2023 a beta version of Episode 39 codenamed 'The Bedtime Story' to the feedback of the community. The concept of this episode was that Cayenne decided to use bedtime story moment to info-dump the backstory of the series. A ten page long flashback, already painted in grayscale, with a lot of text and illustrations. It unfortunately rised more questions than answering ones, and the execution was clumsy. I tried to fix it for months but ultimately later in 2024 decided to cancel it. Last month, I ported the backstory and some panels of this canceled version to the Wiki of Pepper&Carrot.

The end of Pepper&Carrot

In mid 2024 and following a long period of personal struggle, I announced the end of Pepper&Carrot after completing the episodes necessary for my fifth book. I was decided to write only four more episodes: 39, 40, 41 and end at episode 42. Retrospectively, that was a mistake.

MiniFantasyTheater

Shortly after anouncing the end, I also announced my new project MiniFantasyTheater, a series better suited for social networks that allowed for more frequent posting. Releasing the first ten MiniFantasyTheater episodes weekly from April to July felt like a breeze in creativity and productivity. From a metrics standpoint, it was a success.

Back to Pepper&Carrot

However, I felt that I was merely recreating all of the Pepper & Carrot infrastructure with MiniFantasyTheater, including the font, translation system, Git repositories, and website. I also missed being able to write longer episodes. Ultimately, I decided to merge the projects. Along the way, I incorporated all the innovations I made for MiniFantasyTheater into Pepper&Carrot. I also decided to embrace a long-term vision for Pepper & Carrot and not end it at book five. By the end of 2024, I had implemented all these new ideas, despite the technical difficulty of merging all the MiniFantasyTheater repositories and techniques into a new Pepper&Carrot website.

Tough production conditions

I'm not looking for excuses, but creating a new episode doesn't happen in a vacuum. Here is also a list of things I'm dealing with since episode 38:

• AI generative imagery: It's everywhere and hard to avoid now. It drains me to receive sometime accusations that my digital art style is looking like AI-generated.
• Linux is in its worst shape: It's really difficult to advocate professional Digital Painting nowadays (Wayland, packaging mess, Microsoft stylus guidelines in Linux). I keep receiving requests for help from users who are lost in this mess. I published my workstation install guide last year to address this.
• Patreon: converting soon 'per creation' to 'monthly' by November 2025, messing with my 'per episode' income model (details: Pepper&Carrot's Support page and I'll share more details about this change one month beforehand).
• Tougher Society: Inflation, hatred, wars, and the rise of fascism.
• Family: There have been too many deaths in recent years...

Research and development

Since the beginning of 2025, I have been (re)testing various workflows. The focus of this research was to find a method that I could replicate on dozens of panels consistently and enjoyably.

Workflow A: the classic

This is the classic of classics in the industry: line art, flat colors, and shading. This is the workflow I used for the first eight MiniFantasyTheater episodes. The problem? Once I obtained clean line art, I spent a lot of energy filling the artwork with color while preserving the line art's precision. So, coloring and shading became tedious and boring tasks. I always die a little inside while doing it because it doesn't stimulate my brain enough.

The three steps of the classic workflow on Shichimi and Torreya artwork.

Workflow B: direct painting

This is a workflow that I used a lot during my career as a concept artist. First, I built the grayscale building blocks, then recolored them approximately, and finally painted over them until they looked good. While this method is the fastest, hands down, it also has a major issue: many things can go wrong with the proportions, drawing of the face, and facial expressions. The same goes for speedlines or a specific perspective and view angle. All the efforts are postponed to the final pass, where I redraw the details and make everything solid. In this demo artwork, I did well, but unfortunately, for many panels in a comic, this method is simply hard to manage, pushing all the efforts toward the end of production.

Three steps of the direct painting workflow on Pepper 'Rain' artwork.

Workflow C: compromise

For episode 39, I've decided on a compromise workflow. First, I'm creating a thick sketch in mid-gray on a white background. This step is a bit frustrating because I can't make all the details look as precise as line art, but the goal is different. The goal is to create solid volumes that are correctly proportioned and to achieve the correct view angle and perspective. The pre-coloring step is divided into two steps: grayscale and recoloring the grayscale. I find it easier to focus on defining how the light source builds up the volume and splitting the different parts of the picture into grayscale. Thanks to the semi-transparent sketch, I have a guide that helps me minimize the number of brushstrokes. This makes them more visible, even once recolored, as individual entities rather than blending them together into a mess. Because of the thick sketch, it's also easier to paint in grayscale and recolor with precision. It's "blocky." Finally, I can flatten everything and selectively repaint or edit details on top.

Four steps of the workflow c, on the 'A Drink Alone' artwork.

If you look on a close-up you'll get a better idea of how the sketch totally blended into the final result, how the brush work is visible, and how the details and resolution are located only on few area of the painting. On this crop: the lips.

A close-up of the artwork "A Drink Alone".

Preproduction:

This section lists all the steps before drawing on the comic page, i.e., production.

Scenario

I wrote many scenarios, for which I mostly used Kate, the KDE Plasma desktop's text editor, to save my text files in Markdown format. Everything was versioned into Git repositories, but each time I wanted to open and refer to a version quickly, I saved the file incrementally. So, for each story, I ended up with a column that looked like the one on the left in the screenshot below. Thanks to Markdown, I can use the quoting symbol at the start of a sentence to get a different color for the dialogue. Sometimes, I want to reread only the dialogue, and it's convenient to have it color-coded.

A screenshot of Kate.

Here's a tip for determining the number of panels: In Kate, use the Regex search/replace function with the following: ^([A-Z]), It will only count the first capital letter of a sentence. In my case, it will count the first letter of a new panel description.

Of course, I don't write my story panel by panel in this way, as you can see in the screenshot. This is the final product, the last cut, of many underlying passes.

Synopsis

My method often starts with a clumsy synopsis of a philosophical problem that I personally want to address and share with others. In future episode 39, the topic will be noise in public spaces and confronting strangers about it. It's a common problem we've all experienced: sharing a train, bus, or bar with strangers. Then, I write a long paragraph that broadly tells the story I have in mind, which I'll use as a metaphor: it will take place in a tavern with a group of warriors. There will be a minotaur, a hyena, and a lizard.

The Grid

Once I've written my synopsis (and I write many!), I test my favorite ones using what I call "the grid." It's a list of questions that helps me clarify the story's objective.

• The universal problem of the episode.
• The psychological blindspot preventing the main character from solving the issue.
• The character's inner, strong desire.
• The false idea the character has to solve the problem.
• The immoral actions the main character is willing to commit to solve the problem.
• The main character's real psychological need, which he does not see at the start but will grow to adopt.
• A "revelation, turning point, or thought outside the box" that reveals the real need.
• Unexpected twist(s).
• Intrinsic human values of the story.
• Visual interest and concept art.

Once the grid is completely filled in to my satisfaction, I move on to two things.

The Premise

The core of the story in one or two sentences: This will be my compass for the full episode.

Pepper, without her usual powers, learns the meaning of bravery. It is not the absence of fear, but rather the determination to act in spite of it.

The Beatsheet

This is a simplified version of the story in the form of a bullet list of simple actions. There is no dialogue or description. However, this structure respects the timeline of the final script. Below is an example of how my beatsheet begins for episode 39.

• Pepper and Cayenne stop in a village to rest and relax.
• At night, the tavern is calm and peaceful.
• But the atmosphere is quickly disrupted by a group of noisy, badly behaved warriors.
• Cayenne discusses with Pepper how to tell the warriors that they are not alone.

The Cut

Once the beatsheet is complete, I copy and paste it into a new document. Then, I replace each line of the beatsheet with a panel description and dialogue. This process often requires many proofreading passes and corrections. Some panels can be removed, while others need to be inserted. Once the episode is correctly cut, however, we have a document to move on to the drawing part.

Concept art

For this episode, I decided not to create too many concept art for the visuals. My workflow is flexible enough that I don't need definitive line art with all the details from the beginning. I can create concept art of the new character I need and incorporate it as needed. However, some locations required more work. For example, here is a sketch of the exterior of the tavern hotel.

A drawing in grayscale of the exterior of the tavern.

I conducted more advanced research on the three warriors. Initially, I wanted characters that looked annoying, so I gave them the faces of well-known CEOs. However, that would have distracted from the main plot of the story, so I abandoned that idea.

A concept art exploration for the design of the warriors.

The three warriors: the minotaur, hyena and lizard on a panel.

Production

Storyboard

For this episode, I decided not to use a single document with many thumbnails, as I often do. I wanted finer control over the composition and placement of the dialogue, as well as control over the zoom of each face and expression. I ended up storyboarding directly on the final page size with a thin brush preset at low opacity. At this step, I eyeball perspective, but sometimes use a composition grid (eg. for the 'thirds' composition rule, diagonals, and centers). These sketches are quick to draw, which allows me to explore different angles and expressions until the scene is just right.

A sample without text of three panel at the storyboard step.

Drawing

Even when using a digital painting tool with a simple, flat brush and pressure-sensitive opacity ( a brush very similar to 'B) basic-6 Details' of Krita default brush presets) I like how it feels like penciling. It's probably because of the mid-gray color over white. Once the storyboard is finished, I zoom in to 66% of the viewport size on my XP Pen Artist Pro 19 pen display, which is flat on the desk, and add details to each panel. Some panels require a bit more preparation. For example, I used a perspective grid for almost all the panels in the montage at the beginning, when Cayenne and Pepper arrive in a cute mountain village for the night.

The final drawing of the page 2 of future episode 39 "The Tavern".

To be continued...

That's all for today. I'm still drawing the many pages of the next episode.

I'll update this report in a couple of weeks, after I finish the "precolor," which is the grayscale plus recolor pass. After that, I'll provide a final update with the finishing touches and notes about how the production process went.

I am very happy to announce that I will be a guest at the Geek Faëries Festival 2025!

The festival will take place at the castle of Selles-sur-Cher (France) on June 6, 7 and 8. This year I'll have a permanent booth with chairs and tables dedicated to drawing. Come with your sketchbook if you want training and tips, I'll be around to help. I'll also be giving workshops, and I'll be bringing my laptop to do screen projections and live painting with Krita on the castle at night.

More info: https://www.geekfaeries.fr/

Illustration source here.

I'm excited to share with you a significant update I've made to my digital archive. I've been working on re-releasing around 25 of my 'best-of' digital paintings from before 2012, under a new license. Previously, they were available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Non-Derivative 3.0 (CC By-Nc-Nd 3.0), but I've now updated them to the more permissive Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC By 4.0).

To make them more accessible, I've even uploaded the full high-resolution, in lossless quality to the Pepper&Carrot artworks gallery, under the "Misc" directory (and at the bottom, because before 2012). Gallery link here.

Some of these artworks, like my award-winning "Alice in Wonderland," (2010) were already available under CC By since 2022, but didn't have a proper home to host the lossless file. Others, like "SpiderHarp" (2006) and "Fantasy Landscape" (2007), had never been shared in their full resolution online before.

You'll also find my portrait of Charles Darwin in the collection, which I'm thrilled to say was recently on display in an exhibition at a museum. This whole project was inspired by that, after seeing that photo of an old artwork from 2012 inside a museum, which got me thinking about the importance of digital conservancy and preserving my art for the long run.

It took me all the evenings of this week to update the old blog posts, dig out the high-resolution files from archived DVDs, and convert them, but it was worth it. Some pieces are over 20 years old... It made me realize all the time I've spent in my life with a stylus in my hand, painting, painting, painting.

I hope you'll find something in this list of artworks that inspires you to create something new, whether the project, medium, a print, or something completely different. On my side, I'm happy to share this 'vintage' pieces with you in a new way. 💜

→ 📦 Gallery link

An overview screenshot of the concerned digital paintings

Video:

• On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkZ-sSz65rU
• On Peertube: (work in progress)

This article accompanies my video review of the Huion Inspiroy H610X, a medium-sized screenless pen tablet. The video provides my in-depth look at the device's hardware. This blog post, on the other hand, focuses on the information and technical aspects of installing and configuring the device on a GNU/Linux operating system.

Official links:

• Huion store: https://bit.ly/3F6Xa9O

Out of the box situation

What features are available out of the box? Basically, all primary functions are operational. In the absence of a dedicated driver, the Huion H610X emulates two standard devices: a generic pen, similar to those used with laptop-tablet PCs, and a standard keyboard for key input.

Modern versions of GNOME and KDE, running under Wayland, can accurately detect the stylus coordinates and set the screen aspect ratio. Under X11, the xsetwacom command line utility can achieve similar results.

The limitation of this emulation is that most of the shortcuts for the stylus buttons and pad buttons are hard-coded and cannot be changed without a dedicated driver. The default key mapping is shown in the figure below (see image). While not ideal, the default shortcuts are still useful. However, you will need to get used to using a pen without a right-click button, as an "eraser mode" is activated by holding down the button instead.

Default buttons layout when connected to a GNU/Linux machine

The proprietary driver

I have not tested or used the Linux proprietary driver provided by Huion, for ethical reasons. However, I am aware that many users may find its existence beneficial and may choose to make an exception to use this binary blob, prioritizing convenience. I do not judge their choice.

Link: https://www.huion.com/download/

The FLOSS driver (udev-hid-bpf)

Still Work in Progress!

I reported the device here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libevdev/udev-hid-bpf/-/issues/61 , but due to a line-break issue in the export of Konsole, I'll have to redo it.

Issue: Second Stylus Button Hardcoded Erase Mode

As a device compliant with a Microsoft stylus standard, one of the two buttons of the stylus will switch to a eraser mode by default. On Linux, this behavior was implemented at a kernel level and no graphical or cli tool can customize this behavior. That's why the button might appear as customizable on the GUI of Plasma on Wayland, or GNOME on Wayland, or X11 xsetwacom CLI tools, but it will not be possible to change this hardcoded eraser mode into, let say a simple right-click.

When this new behavior appeared, every tablets started to receive a custom fix: remove the hardcoded eraser mode and replace them by a customizable button. But after too many devices reported, it was decided to handle the problem differently: a merge request for libinput with a code that would allow the user to make the hardcoded Erase Mode map-able as a button. Unfortunately, it might take a long time before reaching the end user: the merge request needs to be accepted on libinput and merged, then a libinput release needs to be made with the new code, then the distribution needs to package this new version of libinput on their update, then the desktop environment like GNOME or WAYLAND will probably need to adapt their System Settings GUI for the tablet to offer this new option.

In short, while it's probably a change that is brilliant on the long term, it will probably benefit the Fedora and Arch user first in a optimistic 6 month from now, and 2 years for Debian or Ubuntu-based users.

Customization

On Plasma Wayland

On Plasma Wayland, the tablet went totally undetected. Worst: the active area was detected as a square. While it was possible to manually resize this area, it was difficult to setup a "set proportion" to the display.

The device could still be used, but not in a professional way.

screenshot of the tablet system settings of Plasma 6.3

On GNOME Wayland

I was surprised to see the device listed on the tablet settings (Fedora), but there was a problem: two devices were listed, and the "button 2" has no effect (that was predictible). The buttons of the pad were not listed for customization.

The device could still be used, but not in a professional way.

Huion Inspiroy H610X on GNOME Wayland.

On X11

That's what I used for the review and for the demo videos and I could get a good enough comfort to start working with the device.

For this part, I'll directly redirect your to the Inspiroy H610X review and technical blog post made by Raghavendra Kamath AKA ‘raghukamath’ , a well known Krita contributor (and friend).

His post is a gold mine for setting up the Inspiroy H610X on Linux, X11. Just mind that since Raghukamath wrote it, there was some update with the recent kernel and the Microsoft specification for tablets (what I already detailed here before). So the second top button of the stylus will be a hardcoded "eraser mode".

Conclusion: contribute?

That's all, this guide can be of course continued or updated! You can send me your tips via comments, or on various threads mentionned in this article or via email.

I'd like to share some context about this artwork ↑, which I started creating yesterday evening in Limoges during the conference at the Library. You can watch the full replay in French here ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXwg2rP8oU0 . I wanted to thank everyone who attended - it was a wonderful experience!

I couldn't resist putting the finishing touches on the artwork, so I spent some time refining it this afternoon during my train ride back home.

A screenshot of the video replay (click to play), video hosted on the Youtube account Bibliothèque francophone multimédia de Limoges.

A photo from my point of view in the train: a laptop (a Lenovo Yoga 370) connected to a tablet (a Xppen Deco 01V3) while finishing an artwork.

Video:

• On Youtube: https://youtu.be/trXxX3ZY5FM
• On Peertube: (work in progress)

This article accompanies my video review of the XpPen Deco 01v3, a medium-sized screenless pen tablet. The video provides my in-depth look at the device's hardware. This blog post, on the other hand, focuses on the information and technical aspects of installing and configuring the device on a GNU/Linux operating system.

Official links:

• Official product page
• Buy on official store

Special Offer/Promo code
20% OFF on the Deco 01 V3 tablet with code “DAVID20”, valid in March 2025, cannot be combined with other promotions.

• FR : https://bit.ly/41HXzZ2
• UK：https://bit.ly/3QJ1Xkc
• DE: https://bit.ly/4ihb6wk
• IE: https://bit.ly/4bpNdjC
• ES : https://bit.ly/4h40EqV
• PT : https://bit.ly/4hYIJ66
• US: https://bit.ly/3D4xbiI
• CA: https://bit.ly/41iLJD6

Out of the box situation

What features are available out of the box? Basically, all primary functions are operational. In the absence of a dedicated driver, the XpPen Deco 01v3 emulates two standard devices: a generic pen, similar to those used with laptop-tablet PCs, and a standard keyboard for key input.

Modern versions of GNOME and KDE, running under Wayland, can accurately detect the stylus coordinates and set the screen aspect ratio. Under X11, the xsetwacom command line utility can achieve similar results.

The limitation of this emulation is that most of the shortcuts for the stylus buttons and pad buttons are hard-coded and cannot be changed without a dedicated driver. The default key mapping is shown in the figure below (see image). While not ideal, the default shortcuts are still useful. However, you will need to get used to using a pen without a right-click button, as an "eraser mode" is activated by holding down the button instead.

Default buttons layout when connected to a GNU/Linux machine

The proprietary driver

I have not tested or used the proprietary driver provided by XP-Pen for ethical reasons. However, I am aware that many users may find its existence beneficial and may choose to make an exception to use this binary blob, prioritizing convenience. I do not judge their choice.

Link: https://www.xp-pen.com/download

The FLOSS driver (udev-hid-bpf)

On GNU/Linux, all drivers are built into the Linux kernel, but forcing users to wait for the next kernel to get their hardware working would be madness. To address this issue, projects such as udev-hid-bpf provides a solution by allowing users to load Human Interface Device (HID) drivers in the kernel. Presently, this is where the development of new tablet drivers is taking place.

So I reported the device specifications to Peter Hutterer (whot) and Benjamin Tissoires (bentiss) who manage the project. I opened a new thread with all the Deco 01V3 specifications. Peter then wrote the merge request 185 with the code to support the tablet. And waiting the code to join the main release of udev-hid-bpf (and maybe later the Linux kernel), you can install the code of the merge request using the tutorial provided by the documentation of udev-hid-bpf.

Note: the merge request is still in progress, while all buttons of the pad are now ready to be customized, the top button of the stylus still reports an eraser mode.

Customization

On Plasma Wayland

Once the udev-hid-bpf rules are correctly installed, the Plasma 6.3 system preference on Wayland will detect all buttons. Below is a screenshot of the three panels (click to enlarge).

screenshot of the tablet system settings of Plasma 6.3

On GNOME Wayland

Once the udev-hid-bpf rules are correctly installed, GNOME will still need more info: a .tablet file and a .svg layout in https://github.com/linuxwacom/libwacom/tree/master/data because the graphical user interface requires such files. This is still a TODO for GNOME users, and probably duplicating the files for the Deco 01v2 and tweaking them might be enough. But without them, the preferences panel look like this:

screenshot of the tablet system settings of GNOME 47

On X11

Once the udev-hid-bpf rules are correctly installed, you'll be able to control the basic features of the tablet by command lines using xsetwacom utility. First, find the ID of your device:

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 28bd:0947 XP-Pen Deco 01 V3

Then create (or edit) the file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/60-xppen.conf and put inside this paragraph, with the MatchUSBID identifier you found previously.

Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "XP-Pen Deco 01 V3"
  MatchIsTablet "on"
  Driver "wacom"
  MatchUSBID "28bd:0947"
  MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

Then reboot.
At this point, you should see your XPPen tablet stylus listed if you write in a terminal:

$ xsetwacom --list
UGTABLET Deco 01 V3 Pen stylus          id: 11  type: STYLUS
UGTABLET Deco 01 V3 Pen eraser          id: 19  type: ERASER

Bravo! Xsetwacom utility is now in charge of your tablet.

Create an Xsetwacom script

Open a non-rich text editor (eg. Micro, Kate, Geany, Gnome text also called Gedit, etc...) and copy/paste/adjust the script under:

#! /bin/bash
# ----------------
# XP-Pen Deco 01v3
# ----------------
# License: CC-0/Public-Domain license
# author: deevad
Tablet definition
Identifier obtained using the 'xsetwacom --list' command line
The tablet appears after creating a special rule for Xorg.
See blog post on https://www.davidrevoy.com/index.php?tag/hardware for it.
tabletstylus="UGTABLET Deco 01 V3 Pen stylus"
tableteraser="UGTABLET Deco 01 V3 Pen eraser"
tabletpad="UGTABLET Deco 01 V3 pad"
Constrain the stylus to use it's own monitor
Monitor name here "HDMI-A-0" was obtained
using the 'xrandr' command-line. Your monitor's name might be different (eg. "HDMI-1", "DisplayPort-3", etc...).
Note: you might need to make some math here if the ratio is not the same than your monitor
output="HDMI-A-0"
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" MapToOutput $output
xsetwacom --set "$tableteraser" MapToOutput $output
Pressure sensitivity calibration
You can use this widget online here to create your curve
https://linuxwacom.github.io/bezier.html
The number are set like this: "X1" "Y1" "X2" "Y2"
default: PressureCurve 0 0 100 100
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" PressureCurve 50 45 20 100
Styluse's buttons:
First button on the stylus
I like to get the Control key to pick color on this one.
default: button 2 2
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" button 2 key Ctrl
Second button on the stylus
I leave the default right-click (not: it doesn't work right now, it will be an eraser mode)
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" button 3 3
Data trimming and suppression
Better to not filter or delete any data of this device for increasing its precision
data pt.s filtered (0-100)
default is 2
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" Suppress 0 
data pt.s trimmed (1-20)
default is 4
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" RawSample 1
Buttons from top to bottom:
+-----+
|  1  |
+-----+
|  2  |
+-----+
|  3  |
+-----+
|  8  |
+-----+

+-----+
|  9  |
+-----+
| 10  |
+-----+
| 11  |
+-----+
| 12  |
+-----+
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 1 "key Control_L" # Ctrl = color picker 
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 2 "key KP_Divide" # / = Switch to previous used brush preset
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 3 "key Shift_L" # Shift = Resize brush
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 8 "key v" # v = line
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 9 "key m" # m = mirror
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 10 "key e" # e = eraser
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 11 "key r" # r = pick layer
xsetwacom set "$tabletpad" button 12 "key Ctrl z" # Ctrl+z = undo

Save your script under the name of your choice, I saved mine as xppen_Deco-01-v3.sh (using the extension .sh at the end of the file will ease identifying the file as a Bash script later). To run it, after saving the file you need to give this text file execution permission. You can do so with many desktop environment by right clicking on the file, go to the property of the files, and in a permission tab add the "execute" checkbox. Another way to do it is via command line in the same directory:

chmod +x xppen_Deco-01-v3.sh

Now, if you run:

./xppen_Deco-01-v3.sh

The script should run and apply your preference. If your desktop environment is modern enough; you should have a way to add a script at autostart (usually in Settings > Autostart). This way, the preferences will be applied each time you start your computer. You can of course change options, and execute the script as many time you want to test and adjust.

You might also create a shortcut on your main menu to execute quickly the script.

Conclusion: contribute?

That's all, this guide can be of course continued or updated!

You can send me your tips via comments, or on various threads mentionned in this article or via email.

Join me at https://www.alivrouvert.fr/ bookstore in Paris on Saturday March 8th for their 20th anniversary! From 14h00 until closing, I'll be signing comic books and chatting with you all. It will also be livestreamed. Also: kids' workshop, food & drinks. Come and join the party if you can! 📚🎉

artwork source here

Been writing and storyboarding all week and it feels amazing to see these characters come to life again. It will take time to complete the next episode, it's an ambitious one, but I'm definitely on it.

sketch source here

Intro

I'm starting the year with an update of my previous brush bundle: it was starting to feel a bit outdated compared to what I'm actually using. Even though it looks mostly the same, under the hood all brushes got a lot of improvements.

Gallery

Changelog:

• Added 8 new brushes.
• Kept the design, and color code by groups
• Refactored pressure sensitivity curves: the bundle is now more linear.
• Fixed glitches here and there.
• Fixed a brush that was too similar to another one (I accentuated its effect).
• Fixed initial brush size, optimised for working at 66% 50% and 33% zoom of the viewport.
• Switched smudge brushes to "Parralel" blending mode; better color mixing results.
• Added brush tag "deevad 25.01"
• Added "deevad 25.01" in brush name to ease filtering them.

Usage

Here is the old video I made for 23.01 but it still applies for 90% of this brush bundle.

( I'll post soon a new one, subscribe to my channel to get informed or follow Shichimi on Peertube with any Fediverse client.)

Download

I am able to keep these resources free, open, and without a paywall thanks to the 1% who support my work and make this possible for the other 99%. If you want to be one of them, thank you! You'll find the links to support my work here, I have accounts on Patreon, Tipeee, Liberapay and more options are listed).
Thank you 💜

Direct link: deevad-bundle_25-01.zip

Checksum (Sha256): 3ffb70e88bd9c71e436a1fa77eeea9f40b178352ca5e441424a8b00fdc2a1c43

Install

1. Download the zip.
2. Extract the file from the zip, it should be named "deevad-bundle_23-01.bundle".
3. Launch Krita (5.2.6 or newer).
4. Open Setting > Manage Resources
5. Press the Import Resources button, and find the file you extracted earlier on your disk.
6. Done; you'll find the brush in the tag deevad 25.01.

License

• These brushes are licensed under CC-0 Public domain. You are free to do commercial work with them, to reshare them, to fork them, to reuse them, to include them in your software.
• The pictures and artworks for the demonstration in this article, under CC-By to David Revoy.

FAQ

Q: Can I paint with these brushes for a commercial project??
A: Yes you can. I have set the license to CC 0 / Public Domain. You are free to use these brushes as if they were your own.

Q: How to set their layout in a two columns?
A: I detail this in the introduction of this video (link with timecode).

Q: Why do you pack erasers, airbrushes, move tool, etc.? Aren't they already included in the standard Krita package??
A: That's because this bundle is my standard set; the one I've been painting with every day for years. Having duplicates of the presets in my pack allows me to slightly update their behavior if I want. I keep only this brush pack visible on my interface, usually in a two-column layout.

Q: Lazy artist! Your brush looks just like the default set! Same name and design! Some are even similar!
A: That's because I designed the default brush of Krita and even if my taste evolves a bit, my main tools and my way of solving problems remain the same.

Q: Why are you investing time to do this for free??
A: Many reasons: One is that it is a good way to create a clean snapshot of my tools at a given time. Sharing them forces me to document them, clean them, and make nice thumbnails. I'm the first one here who enjoys using something clean for my work. I also like to share my brushes with artists who are interested in how I created this or that effect.

Happy New Year 2025! Wishing you a year of creativity, inspiration, and full of hidden treasures.

source here

As I'm writing this, I'm still trying to catch my breath after diving head-first into the rabbit hole that was my project "When Worlds Collide". It's been a month and a half of intense work, but I'm thrilled to finally share the results with you:

Tadaaaa 🎉 www.peppercarrot.com 🎉

The Why

You see, in mid November I wanted to end the year with a big cleaning and maintenance of the website. But, as I often do, I got a bit carried away and decided to merge MiniFantasyTheater, Pepper&Carrot, and comics one-shots into a single, unified platform. It was a daunting task, but today I'm proud of what I've accomplished.

The How

The base engine of the website is still the one I wrote back in 2021, which has proven to be robust and economic. It's handled the huge waves of visitors with ease, and I'm confident it will continue to do so. To give you an idea, it is able to manage 15K daily visitors in average and spikes to 300K in days of release on a hosting that cost less than 300€/year. However, if I left the engine almost untouched, I've made significant changes to the presentation of the elements, making it easier for you to access and enjoy the content.

New Features and Content

MiniFantasyTheater Comic Strips: Finally hosted and translated in French.

Webcomic "Misc": Old webcomics remastered, now compatible with the translation system, transcript, etc... (A third one is coming soon)

Side by Side: My favorite new feature, which allows you to compare the active language with English.

Translation Progress Indicator: Keep track of the translation progress in the language selection panel

Related links: A feature located at the end of the Pepper&Carrot episodes, it is mainly used to link to the related blog-post (making of, tutorials, and production reports). It also links to the Pepper&Carrot fan-comics like the "Pepper&Carrot Mini" episodes of Nartances that are answers to some episodes and also it links to the movies by the Morevna team on Peertube.

Restored "Philosophy" Page: Restored from the old website, and refreshed for the future and with an open letter at the end to give update on why I'll keep "[...]to change the comic industry!" on the homepage, even a decade later.

New Cover Illustrations: Each galleries (and homepage too) now have their own "cover".

Support Page: A full new page with more description about all options why I have so many patronage platforms.

Fan-art to the top, and Cosplay! The blog post about cosplay were buried deep into the history, so it was time to make a dedicated gallery to them, and also plug Fan Art to the top of the website.

Life Drawings On social media, I often share my watercolors while I'm on a trip. Now, I ported all of them in the Artworks > Misc category

visible with link only On Pepper&Carrot we have a secret area (a reference to the manga City Hunter) where contributors help me to proofread episodes. This part was rewritten from scratch, it now allows me to just switch a comic in published=0 (visible with link only) into 1 (public).

Opengraph everywhere That's an improvement for when you share a page on social media: the generated thumbnail preview will now show a preview of the page you share, including all galleries, artworks, etc.

Still in Progress

Translation: I've added so many new English text in the code! The goal was to describe everything, and be user-friendly.

But all this new text is also temporarely problematic: when the website displays another language, untranslated text appears in English. So, unless someone translate the changes quickly, many visitors will experience half broken website's translation. Almost all language that had 100% translation are now back to around 70%... Sorry about that.

Any help to complete the translation on our Weblate: https://weblate.framasoft.org/projects/peppercarrot/website/ is welcome (and we have a documentation here).

Technical Details

For the one familiar with this type of graph on repositories.

• Fully Open Source: GPL V3+, hosted on Framagit: https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/website-2021
• The final MR: 62 commits ( +74852 and −26006 changes)
• Mainly PHP: PHP and CSS/HTML5 on top, I'm keeping it simple.
• No JS: The website can run without Javascript.
• No web framework: Lightweight and built from scratch.
• Accessible: Transcript available under each comic, also tested with 400% zoom.
• Responsive: From smartphone to tablet, to smart TV... try it!
• Cached: Average page loading under 0.003 sec server-side to serve more clients for the same hardware/resources.
• HTTPS by Default: Because security matters.
• Designed to be Easy on Eyes: Not a dark theme, not a bright theme, I tried to blend the two and avoid using pure white for backgrounds.

When World Collides branch, before merging!

That's it for now. I hope you enjoy the new website, and I look forward to hearing your feedback!

The website → www.peppercarrot.com

Useful links:

• Review video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/M9VbiVJX-J4
• Review video on Peertube: [to be done, please wait: server is transcoding :-) ]
• Official store page
• Official product page

Technical:

• udev-hid-bpf thread
• udev-hid-bpf thread (Kdial remote)
• libwacom PR (Kdial remote)

Special Offer/Promo code
Black Friday (Nov.21th~Dec.2nd): KamvasPro19 will have a 20% discount on Amazon and Store.

• Huion Store: https://bit.ly/40J0aSv
• Huion Amazon: https://amzn.to/4aCPIhE

Intro

Here is my video review of the Huion Kamvas Pro 19 pen display tablet. Everything about my feelings, and tests about the hardware is in the video above.

This blog post here is a list of my installation method, scripts and tweaks to install the device under a GNU/Linux operating system.

I spent a lot of time to do research on this unit, but at the end of the day, I'm just a tweaker: all the credits for improving the support of this tablet goes to Joshua Goins (restrate), José Expósito, Benjamin Tissoires (bentiss) and Peter Hutterer (whot) (and probably many more I forgot, sorry).

The proprietary driver

I don't use the proprietary driver provided by XPpen for ethical reasons, but I know that many users will be happy to know of its existence and will probably make an exception for this binary in order to "simplify their lives". I don't blame them.

Link: https://www.huion.com/download/

Wayland

Wayland is the default session on all major GNU/Linux distributions. Unfortunately, it is currently very difficult to set up this type of tablet in Wayland. In Wayland, all this kind of input and configuration has been delegated to the desktop environment developers. So now you understand that there will never be a single Wayland method to configure a tablet under any desktop environment, but a Gnome-on-Wayland method, a KDE/Plasma-on-Wayland method, a Sway-on-Wayland method, etc.

On a recent Fedora GNOME 41 Gnome or Plasma, you'll get very basic options, out-of-the-box and you might even access more thanks to CLI tools like gsetwacom for GNOME or ktabletconfig for Plasma. But you might also hit a wall as soon as you'll want to configure something not exposed to the GUI or this CLI tool.

Great progress is being made and if you install the latest udev-hid-bpf and libwacom you may soon see all the features of this tablet exposed in the system settings (even with the remote control!). However, it is not yet available via the usual packages, and it may take some time for it to spread downstream to all GNU/Linux distributions. So, it is painful to say, but in most cases your best option for Wayland now might be to use Huion's proprietary driver temporarily:

X11

I'm using a Debian 12 KDE on X11 setup. On it, I could setup the tablet correctly (almost a perfect support) with a collection of xsetwacom command-lines executed at system boot via a script.

Remaining issues

1. The Kdial remote will be a pain to customise, but you can do it with this method for all keys except for the dial, but big progress and even an official support are made on the udev-hid-bpf project

Fix unwanted Eraser mode on stylus

By default, the second button of the stylus will simulate a stylus flip to eraser while holding it. You'll prefer a right-click to that.
You'll also have no possibility to setup the extra button on the thick stylus.

For that, you need to apply the rules contained in the udev-hid-bpf project. That one contains a rule to make it work again as a right-click (or any button because it will be exposed to xsetwacom for customization after that).

To install it, download the latest package of udev-hid-bpf (packages, not source code or asset), and unpack it somewhere. Then go to the directory and execute the bash script ./install.sh.

Reboot your system. You can check if everything is correctly loaded with the CLI command line tool tree:

sudo tree /sys/fs/bpf/hid/

Note: On my GNU/Linux installation based on Debian 12 Bookworm, you'll need a newer kernel to load BPF programs with eBPF. To do this, I install the curl package and then the Liquorix kernel using the one-liner command line provided on their website.

Setup X11 to put xsetwacom in control

For that, we need the ID of the tablet first.
Plug the tablet and run in a terminal:

lsusb

This command will list all usb devices connected to your computer and their ID.
My line looks like that:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 256c:006b HUION Huion Tablet_GT1902

Copy your ID somewhere, mine here is 256c:006b, and if we have the exact same model, your might be the same.

Then change directory (cd) to the place where X11 stores its rules:

cd /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/

I'll create a new file in this directory (note it require your system root password because we are editing a system file with 'sudo'). I'm using here the text-editor "micro", but you can use your favorite. "nano" is often installed anywhere, but has less user-friendly keyboard shortcut and color syntax by default.

sudo micro 70-huion.conf

We can copy/paste the paragraph under at the end of the file; if your USB identifier differs, you'll need to adjust the line starting with MatchUSBID:

Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "Huion Kamvas Pro 19 Tablet"
  MatchIsTablet "on"
  Driver "wacom"
  MatchUSBID "256c:006b"
  MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

Save and then reboot your system.
At this point, you should see your Huion tablet stylus listed if you write in a terminal:

xsetwacom --list

Bravo! Xsetwacom is now in charge of your tablet, and that's a good news because you can setup almost any aspect of your tablet with this CLI tool.

Create an Xsetwacom script

Don't be affraid of the word "script"; it is just a series of command written line by line on a text file so the computer will execute all of them at once. Each line will setup one aspect of your tablet. Line starting by the character # are not interpreted by your computer, so I added some notes on them to guide you in the customisation of the script. Open a non-rich text editor (eg. Micro, Kate, Geany, Gnome text also called Gedit, etc...) and copy/paste the script under, and then read it and try to customise it to your needs. On this script you'll find my own settings as an example:

#! /bin/bash
# -------------------
# Huion Kamvas Pro 19
# -------------------
# License: CC-0/Public-Domain license
# author: deevad
Tablet definition
Identifier obtained using the 'xsetwacom --list' command line
The tablet appears after creating a special rule for Xorg.
See blog post on https://www.davidrevoy.com/index.php?tag/hardware for it.
tabletstylus="HUION Huion Tablet_GT1902 Pen stylus"
tableteraser="HUION Huion Tablet_GT1902 Pen eraser"
Constrain the stylus to use it's own monitor
Monitor name here "HDMI-A-0" was obtained
using the 'xrandr' command-line. Your monitor's name might be different (eg. "HDMI-1", "DisplayPort-3", etc...).
output="HDMI-A-0"
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" MapToOutput $output
xsetwacom --set "$tableteraser" MapToOutput $output
Calibration (reset)
Start by reseting calibration to default area
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" ResetArea
Default area is '0 0 32767 32767'
You can obtain it with the command line:
xsetwacom --get "HUION Huion Tablet_GT1902 Pen stylus" Area
Calibration (set)
Calibrate your device manually with tweaking the numbers under
and then re-run the script. Add 50 here, substract 50 there, and see the effects.
(you can also use a tool like xinput_calibrator)
The number are set like this: "MinX" "MinY" "MaxX" "MaxY"
default: Area 0 0 32767 32767
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" Area 100 120 32794 32797
xsetwacom --set "$tableteraser" Area 100 120 32794 32797
Pressure sensitivity calibration
You can use this widget online here to create your curve
https://linuxwacom.github.io/bezier.html
The number are set like this: "X1" "Y1" "X2" "Y2"
default: PressureCurve 0 0 100 100
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" PressureCurve 30 30 35 100
Styluse's buttons:
First button on the stylus
I like to get the Control key to pick color on this one.
default: button 2 2
xsetwacom set "$tabletstylus" button 2 key Ctrl
Second button on the stylus
I leave the default right-click
xsetwacom set "$tabletstylus" button 3 3
Third button on the thick stylus
The key of your choice? "e" for eraser mode?
xsetwacom set "$tabletstylus" button 8 key e
Data trimming and suppression
Better to not filter or delete any data of this device for increasing its precision
data pt.s filtered (0-100)
default is 2
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" Suppress 0 
data pt.s trimmed (1-20)
default is 4
xsetwacom --set "$tabletstylus" RawSample 1
Mapping touchscreen
This is tricky, and I had to make a workaround to capture the good ID among three identical
It re-use the $output parameter set on "Constrain the stylus to use it's own monitor"
id=xinput --list | grep -F 'HUION Huion Tablet_GT1902  ' | grep -Po '(?<=id=)dd?' | tail -2 | head -n 1
xinput map-to-output ${id} ${output}
id=xinput --list | grep -F 'HUION Huion Tablet_GT1902  ' | grep -Po '(?<=id=)dd?' | tail -1 | head -n 1
xinput map-to-output ${id} ${output}

Save your script under the name of your choice, I saved mine as huion_Kamvas-Pro-19.sh (using the extension .sh at the end of the file will ease identifying the file as a Bash script later). To run it, after saving the file you need to give this text file execution permission. You can do so with many desktop environment by right clicking on the file, go to the property of the files, and in a permission tab add the "execute" checkbox. Another way to do it is via command line in the same directory:

chmod +x huion_Kamvas-Pro-19.sh

Now, if you run:

./huion_Kamvas-Pro-19.sh

The script should run and apply your preference. If your desktop environment is modern enough; you should have a way to add a script at autostart (usually in Settings > Autostart). This way, the preferences will be applied each time you start your computer. You can of course change options, and execute the script as many time you want to test and adjust.

You might also create a shortcut on your main menu to execute quickly the script.

Monitor Luminosity/Brightness and OSD

Some desktop environment will propose you an icon and a slider to manage the screen luminosity. If it works this way, then you are all set.

But if you can't access a simple slider, or you need all other options of this display, you can do it via ddcutil:

initiate modprobe and ddcutil:

sudo modprobe i2c-dev
sudo ddcutil detect

In the list, the monitor will be detected as HAT, you can list all its options with:

sudo ddcutil --mfg=HAT capabilities

For example, if you want to reduce the brightness, first check it with:

sudo ddcutil --mfg=HAT getvcp 10 
VCP code 0x10 (Brightness                    ): current value =   100, max value =   100

Then you can set it to 75% or back to 100% this way:

sudo ddcutil --mfg=HAT setvcp 10 75
sudo ddcutil --mfg=HAT setvcp 10 100

Conclusion: contribute?

That's all, this guide can be of course continued or updated!

You can send me your tips via comments, or on various Gitlab or Githubs thread mentionned in this article or via email.

Source here

✏️ Mark your calendars!

In just two weeks, I’ll be offering a free Krita workshop (in French) at Capitole du Libre 2024. This session will be a perfect blend of exploring Krita’s features and sharing valuable drawing tips.

I can’t wait to see you there and create together! 🎨 :krita:

More info: https://cfp.capitoledulibre.org/cdl-2024/talk/KLHKLR/

https://capitoledulibre.org/

Creating smiles, one drawing at a time! Here is one for my amazing dentist friend! 🐉🦷

Hey, I safely made my trip back to the south of France after a couple of day in Bergen, Norway, for the Raptus Comic book convention where I was a guest.

I had a very good time and signed many Pepper&Carrot books and drew almost non stop, meeting many of you.

Again a big thank you to the one who also traveled to Raptus to meet me. 💜

Sadly, I forgot to shoot the drawings I made and I don't have a lot of photos to share here but here is a small sample I can share with you.

First, I was super happy to find Pepar & Gulrot at the book store, it's always impressive to me to see the books there, ready to browse, especially in another country like that.

I also took a touristic morning, walking on the port of Bergen and I tried to make a watercolor. I couldn't detail this one as I wanted because it sudently started to rain right after I painted in overlay the gray cloud in the top-left corner. Bergen is a lovely city, I totally would recommend it to anybody looking for a nice city to visit (big bonus for the funicular and its amazing top view on the city).

Here is a montage of photos sent by the Raptus festival, You can see Thierry Capezzone, Miguel Diaz Vizoso, Paolo Mottura ; it was super nice to meet them and share the festival with them. Also, a big thanks to the team of volunteers who made this convention possible, I had super interesting discussions with them.

I also could meet in real life Karl Ove Hufthammer, one of the two translators of Pepper&Carrot in Nynorsk and beta readers of episodes since years. I also met Kazima Sjøvoll , my publisher at Outland Forlag. Here is a photo of Kazima, Karl and me:

Finally, I want to thanks a lot Susilune and Elisabeth who gave me fan-arts of Pepper&Carrot. I love them!

All in all, I really hope I'll be able to return to this comic convention in the future. I had a really good time. 🙂

🌼 I couldn't help but draw Pepper and Carrot in traditional clothes from Bergen. I'm happy to share it with you!

→ source file here

Just unveiled a new black sketchbook and have begun an experimental artistic journey. Excited to see where this takes me! 🖤🎨

(click to enlarge the pictures)

Okay, I know: the photo may not make you dream: but this is my first test bench dedicated to Linux graphics tablets, and it's a big change for me.

It's all in my garage, and it allows me to stop doing the kind of tinkering that breaks my main production operating systems on my desk at home (my catstation). It's a plan to have fewer boxes, hardware, and wires everywhere while I'm drawing comics, and still have a test bench ready to go. I had to go through some sick decluttering, yak shaving and be clever with my storage space to dedicate this little corner to this exclusive use: it's not very big at home.

That's why I had to share this photo and this news with you. It is still reduced to the strictly functional: a desk and a bunch of graphics tablets that I had in stock and accumulated over the years.

Hardware

For this first version, the machine is currently a Purism Librem 13 (2018), which has been retired after years of faithful service (replaced by my two-in-one tablet, a Lenovo Yoga 370, which I use when traveling). The system is mainly KDE Neon, the developer edition, Plasma 6 and Wayland.

Among the tablets shown in the photo (top left to bottom right):

• Wacom Intuos Pro L
• Wacom Bamboo Fun Medium
• Gaomon M10K 2018
• Wacom Intuos 3 Large
• Wacom Intuos 4 Medium
• Huion WH1409 (v1)
• Wacom Cintiq 13HD (plugged)

Off-camera (because very large):

• XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro
• Wacom Intuos Pro 4 XL

My latest XPPen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) is still the one I use full time on my desk at home, for this reason I'm going to plug it very occasionally to test.

You can find tests about these graphic pen tablets on the hardware tag of my blog.

The goal of the setup:

The primary goal of this setup will be to test how to setup these graphic pen tablets on GNU/Linux, using only free/libre software solutions.

I'll mainly test the Plasma 6 desktop under Wayland, in different scenarios: different ratios, different drivers, different buttons, and different pressure curves. I'll also test other aspect as color calibration, Krita packages, etc...

This will also allow me to test and give feedback on features as they are developed, on a system that's very unstable because it's full of work-in-progress code.

It's a one hundred percent volunteer beta testing effort to help the developers get through a couple of crises: packaging, Wayland, graphic tablet drivers. Unfortunately, this continues to scare off and confuse newcomers, a situation I've described in detail in this article.

Future improvements:

It's still early days, but it's a start. If the setup proves useful and becomes practical, I plan to improve the storage of the tablets: wall hangers, pen holders, packaging and plastic boxes to help preserve them, a better PC for testing, and an improved work environment.

Time investment

This is a background task, of course, spread out over the weeks, an hour here, an hour there. You get the idea. My priority and my working hours at the moment are completely consumed by the creation of the Mini Fantasy Theater website. CSS, PHP, theming, parser, bug fixing... nothing exciting to show and it takes so long!

After that, I'd like to start producing the last episodes of Pepper&Carrot. I don't think my scenario for the last arc (episode 39, 40, 41 and 42) will have a better rewrite than what I've explored over the last month. It's really time to put it down on paper, but I'll have more details on this plan in a blog post later.

Transcript:

A wordless webcomic in four panels:

Panel 1: A small fairy with brown hair and ordinary transparent wings (a bit like a dragonfly, but less beautiful) sees a proud fairy, beautiful, with colorful butterfly wings. She's ecstatic at the sight.

Panel 2: Later at home, in front of her mirror, as the sun sets, our fairy looks at herself and her wings, depressed.

Panel 3: At night, she lies down on her bed in a phoetal position, crying.

Panel 4: The next day, on the bed, same shot, but instead of the fairy a huge silk cocoon. It's morning light, and the sun rays are shining on it. This panel is full of hope and announces a future metamorphosis.

Transcript:

A webcomic in four panels:

Panel 1: A very young knight, poorly equipped (oversized pants, topless, wooden sword and shield, rusty helmet), screams with overconfidence in front of a cave on a foggy night.

Knight: Master of Dragons! I challenge you to a duel, against ME, the greatest knight the kingdom has ever known!!! My knowledge of fencing is unrivaled!!!

Panel 2: The dragon walks calmly out of the cave, only the large nose is visible while his head is still in shadow. Not a fierce look, but a massive size. He is just tired of this kind of interruption. The knight continues:

Knight: You're terrified, aren't you?! well, you should be! I'm terrifying! Show Yourself!!! Coward!!!

Panel 3: The camera shows an oversized dragon, the knight is the size of a mosquito, attacking his toenails. The dragon just look at the situation with thinking. And an epic full moon illuminates the scene.

Knight: Hyah! Hyah! Partner of the dragon (off panel, from the cave): Honey, who is that?

Panel 4: A close-up of the dragon, turning his head towards the cave to answer his partner:

Master of Dragons: It's no one. As usual: an overconfident newbie, victim of overestimating his own abilities. A classic bias in human nature. Knight (off panel): Hyah! Hyah!