Hi everyone, finally got back from vacation, but got sick in return, possibly due to sleeping in the airport for my next flight back home. Me and my family are currently in the process of recovery from our fever, hopefully we can all recover soon without seeing the doctor.

So it's been a couple of weeks since my last news post, went to a lot of places around, preparing to head to one China area to the next, some hectic travel problems, but now I'mback home to where Google services are availablr.

Anyways, some of you, if not much, are probably wondering the current update on my last post, and I can confirm with you all in the NG community,

Newgrounds is officially censored by China mainland's firewall, again, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanning, Shanghai, etc. (with the exceptions of Hong Kong. Taiwan, and possibly Macau).

There are probably some factors to why it came to this (Xi Jinping art or adult content ban laws), and although this sounds unfortunate to those who hoped to use NG in China besides Hong Kong and Macau, it's probably for the best. One reason is if there are strict government laws in regards to NSFW content, then it's a similar situation with India, as I heard that Newgrounds is censored there as well due to forbidding any pornography content. The second reasons is unless you've visited there recently this year, I have seen advertisements and small businesses using Generativ AI art to advertise, promote, or sponsor their business or products. Even if Newgrounds is not banned in China mainland, it could be a major headache for NG moderators to monitor more AI heavily generated content, not just art but animation, audio, or even games. If you want to access Newgrounds in China, you will have to prepare a VPN on your device(s) or sign up for a global mobile plan, I cannot guarantee if there is an unlimited option for the mobile plan. A moment of silence for NG user "Kenzu" for all his efforts to get Newgrounds unblocked in China, only for years later to be blocked again, all in vain.

So far Proton VPN works in some areas of China with Wi Fi, can confirm it here. You can also try Nord VPN, Express VPN, or surfshark, but you need to purchase a subscription of your choice for full access to pass through China's firewall. I also recommend to forget any saved Wifi networks in China mainland before you leave there, as it is possible its government can track it frkm what I've heard from folks I know who lived there.

Hello everyone, quick update, I'm currently in Hong Kong and am about to head to mainland China territory, possibly Guanzhou first. I will especially give up to date whether or not if Newgrounds is still available in any other countries of China besides Hong Kong and Taiwn (both are available, Macau I will not be visiting but I'm sure NG is available there). I have heard that NG was unblocked in China over 10 years ago thanks to a NG user lobbyist in Shanghai, but after looking up on some specific "China political illustrations", it has become skeptical whether or not China can still tolerates with Newgrounds or not anymore. Whatever's the case, I will try to give a brief update. If I come back with a news post this week, than Newgrounds is still unblocked in China. If I don't post any updates within 1, 2, or 4 weeks, than it speaks for itself that Newgrounds is blocked again in a majority of China mainland. Hope to keep up to date soon!

As of right now, I am currently on a family vacation, so I won't be uploading nor creating any personal, creative content for a while. I am traveling around Eastern Asia and our plans include visiting Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, some countries of China, and hopefully South Korea. As of now I am in Kyoto, and will be visiting Osaka next. My family have already tried to find the right time to purchase the lowest ticket prices to visit, so I am making the best of it and holding on memories of the places I will visit (photographically).

Looking back, I did not contribute to this site as much as I hoped for, nor did I contribute to my personal passionate hobby as I hoped for. I only did two digital illustrations that I posted this year here on NG, and they were only fanart ideas, either crossovers or OCs. I did do some traditional sketching here and there, but I was hoping to revised them digitally in the future, which I guess I'll work on next year (hopefully). Because of the bird flu issue growing more drastic and there are no online classes enough for me to take, I might need to take a semester "pause", but that doesn't mean I can take a 5 - 8 month break. I may start looking for part-time work if I don't take a full-term semester at the start of 2025, and it doesn't help that my family is getting me to finish my university education ASAP. I've already was going to enroll for 5 - 6 classes mixed with in-campus and one online, and we make have second thoughts due to public concerns.

On the good news, right now me and my family are on vacation at Corpus Christi, and although there was tension at the beginning, it surprisingly got better these past 2 days. Me and my mother got to visit Mustang Beach then Port Aransas and we saw some dolphins and a wild sea turtle! And today we visited a science & history museum and an art museum during a free admission sponsorship by HEB, also ate some fish tacos at Sarina Park! Tomorrow will be our last day and I do have a place in mind to visit, but it's most likely going to be another beach area. If anyone has visited Padre Island or Corpus Christi and have any suggestions on where we should visit, feel free to drop suggestions! I'll post some dolphins and sea turtle pictures for anyone who are curious to see (I couldn't get a clear shot on their faces, sorry!)

I don't know what the future holds for all of us, let alone me and my family. I still have no other choice but face it head on, push forward, and brace unprecedented changes up ahead. Here's wishing you at least had a enjoyable or at least a relaxing New Year's by the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025!

Late update on this, but university, what can you do?

Honestly it was a mixed feeling of hopeless dread of announcing at a pretty late time for most artists, wasn't really considering that timeframe (turns out announcing it at the second week of September was still late for most artists). Maybe it was my guidelines were too strict, maybe there was some misconception that I didn't word out right, or maybe it was my template wasn't appealing enough. But it didn't mean there weren't any artists that try to take up the challenges, just only a few. And unfortunately there were at least 3 who attempted but gave up due to their personal schedule restraints. On the bright side, there were at least 2 artists who managed to take up the challenge all the way through the month, on actually pull through 31 days, and another did a full group illustration (not sure if collage is the right word for it), and it got frontpaged on the day of Halloween!. Shout outs to @CatNya313, @Mattmax483, and @HeroPapaya for attempting the challenge, and HUGE SHOUT OUT to @MOHD5aqer and @remalicious for pulling through completing the challenge!

Newgrounds October Art Challenge: Villaingrounds

What is this Art Challenge?

This is an upcoming October art challenge for Halloween. The main theme is villains from online content or projects frontpaged on Newgrounds, whether they’re movies, games, or comics. The inspiration of this theme is based on Disney’s Halloween villains. The challenge will start on October 1st. You are free to decide whether to participate fully, partially, or not.

The goal of the art challenge

The challenge is to come up with 31 (or more) villains from web content frontpaged on the Newgrounds portal (Movies, Games, Comics). The challenge’s purpose is to give awareness to the Newgrounds platform and the content available there where they are not popular enough on the Internet. This is also another opportunities for artists on Newgrounds to have illustrations for potential to be frontpaged and possibly gain new followers("fans"). Artists can also submit their illustrations to their online social media accounts or art portfolios to gain more viewership traction online. You can also include villains from indie games curated by Newgrounds on Steam or based on trailers or promo art frontpaged on Newgrounds.

Main guidelines

Although the indie content within Newgrounds is vast, it is highly suggested to focus on content that has been frontpaged. Daily picks or mainstream shows, games, and webcomics created by Newgrounds users (ex. Smiling Friends, Mao Mao Heroes of Pure Heart, The Amazing Digital Circus, Gorgon Shield, I Was Born to work Retail, etc.) are an exception and can be implemented at Oct 1st (choose 1 villain) or 31st (6 or 9 fanart template). The content frontpaged on Newgrounds must be original content and not based on fan animations unless serialized (Decline in Video Games, Minecraft Noob Adventures, SMBZ). Villains from indie series that are only available on YouTube but no Newgrounds plug in goes against the theme of this art challenge and is not recommended to include in this challenge (Helluva Boss, Murder Drones, Bigtop Burger, Long Gone Gulch, etc.) unless they are available AND either frontpaged or daily picked on Newgrounds before October.

You can illustrate in any style you want! You can draw your choice of villain in full body with or without background, portrait or mug-shot, color, grayscale, black and white, whichever style you feel is easy and adaptable within your schedule! You can even illustrate them in traditional ink in the spirit of "Inktober" as well, two challenges in one month! Just please don't resort to relying on AI, it ruins the challenge and effort of hand drawing if you never have hands-on practice. Do not repost someone else's illustration as your own either, you can share but you must give credit to the original artist.

If you are unable to fulfill the 31 days art challenge, you can also have the option to do 5 days (non-aligned) of 6 panels characters template with an additional 1 template, 3 days of 9 panels template with an additional 4 panels challenge template, or a mix of both (2 days for 6 panels template and 9 panel templates respectively. If you want to just post one for a single day, you can post an illustration of 31 villains in one piece either as a group portrait or a fanart challenge template (speaking as someone who have spent almost a month doing a similar illustration idea, this is not recommended). It's okay for having a favorite indie project and wanting to give awareness to it, but posting just one Newgrounds villain illustration for the whole month may seem that you are playing favoritism, and this challenge is to come up with villains from different indie content on Newgrounds. If you wish to post these on your social medias (X, Bluesky, Meta social medias), you can use the hashtag #villaingrounds or #villainsgrounds to announce the art challenge trend.

Below is a list of villain suggestions for Villaingrounds Art Challenge. The first 7 are games curated by Newgrounds, 7 indie series, 7 webcomics, and rest are additional ideas. If you have a favorite indie project or series you want to draw, you can choose those over any of the suggestions here. If you need more suggestions, I will post a doc link of different villains I could find that are on Newgrounds or promoted by Newgrounds. Remember, you don't have to draw these villains specifically, you just need to come up with at least 31 Newgrounds content (3-5 animations, games, and webcomcis respectively) you like that have their own antagonists.

Where to begin? In Mid August me and my family managed to recover from Covid, but it left us with coughing fits, my closest relative express pain from their body area below their right breast. Few weeks as of now, we've been taking home remedies to treat the coughing fits, and we seem to be coughing less now, so that's some good news. We still might have to see our usual doctor to see if there are any long-term damage to our inner bodies or organs thanks to the virus (I pray my family to be free from this). Covid was a horrible experience, over 10 days down the drain, we cannot get infected again, which is hard since MOST OF HUMANITY stopped caring and doesn't bother about it AND its mutations.

Anyways, enough about my modern humans vs pandemic rant...

My first university choice they couldn't accept me, but my second university choice did so I got to start my fall semester but on a full-term just to qualify for the financial aid I signed up for, so unfortunately not only will I won't have time for self computer program study, but I will have no time to draw at all. I am already eating up minutes of my time expressing current updates on my personal life. Not to mention due to my major most of the courses I have to take are on campus, and I do NOT feel comfortable going into cramped rooms every since the 2020 pandemic (not to mention actually getting affected). There might be some living conditions that might have to be arranged if I were to drive back and forth from my home to my campus in the future, so there might, JUST MIGHT, be a chance I have to move back to my old hometown just to get to campus better. I know it was my decision to go on full-term for my semester, but I'm honestly kind of bummed out as I won't be able to arrange any free time for myself, and the next three upcoming months are going to be more stressful since I have to go in-campus instead of online.

To show that I'm still alive, here's a pic of my attempt to draw anatomy digitally. Special thanks to @Rappenem for their anatomy studies submission and their numerous art references that they've been posting here. Go check out their page and links!

I feel I kind of lost count somewhere. This may be my last post, not only have there been little to no responses to these posts, but I feel I am fully recovering. My closest relative is planning on getting tested at the hospital this weekend to see if they're still positive or negative, they still have coughing fits but it's much more less than before, I just hope it will not be a new constant for them. I may be recovering physically, but mentally, it will still take a while to adjust to this. Our lives are going to be a whole lot different, I really wish and hope it's only temporary (even though it's just wishful thinking).

So good news, yesterday we went to the hospital for a checkup, and my closest relative does not seem to have any permanent damage to their organs due to covid. As for me, my covid symptoms are getting lighter and the doctor has told me how my body is still fighting well with the virus, but they say it may take 5 days, a week or two for full recovery and to have a negative test. My relative was able to drive us to the hospital yesterday, and they are coughing much less than before, they're still coughing hard but it's a sigh of relief for me knowing there is no internal damage in their bodies. I've been taking care of their needs more than our step-relative who went out today (possibly to work, not completely sure), and we will still be quarantining ourselves for another week. It still feels miserable that you can't do a lot about your situation, but at least I get to spend more time on this site, maybe I can prepare some linework for anatomy references.

So it's been a full week of Covid for me and my family. So far I still may have a slight fever since every night I go to sleep, I wake up sweating in the morning (and in some occasions diarrhea). My nose is still congested and I got some mucus in my throat, but I don't cough as much. My closest family member has an on and off fever thanks to the ibuprofen they've been taking but they still have a coughing problem and it's been hurting their chest. I am worried for their health and just begging for their pain to ease. Our step-member seems to have light symptoms, they have some coughs and a possible fever, but they are not taking this emotionally well.

Our step-member lashed out at my relative and I told them to back off, not to get angry at them. They seem to be more stressed than the rest of us even though they have lighter symptoms. I want our situation to get better by the next week and my closest relative can be relieved of their coughing at least. It doesn't help that our AC is not acting up very well and it is scorching out there, and none of us are in any condition to fix the problem. Fortunately I have a portable AC in my room but it can only relieve my room temperature temporarily until the next morning, and I hope that my relative across the hall don't feel hot and have at least some cool air through their air vent.