iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Loosely inspired by (my vague memories of) this level from Fez, which remains an impactfully gorgeous, mysterious, magical game even tho it feels like it was released in a different universe one thousand lifetimes ago

A screenshot of the video game Fez, showing a purple geometric pixel art underground temple resting in a sea of fuschia water

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My roommate has a very fancy printer (it has 10 ink cartridges! 10!), and I’ve wanted to learn how to make high-quality art prints for awhile, and gosh dang if it was the perfect excuse to draw some ducks 💖

“Lake trees”, an illustration showing a bunch of stylized skinny geometric blue trees with pastel coloured bushery set against a red background. A weird little house has two ducks on it. The whole scene is reflected halfway down the illustration as if in a lake.

Same, but a few copies printed out as physical media on cardstock

A close up view of the ducks on printed media

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I just lost like half an hour to debugging a strong contender for my dumbest typo in the 2020s so far. Try and find it, this is JS. If it takes you fewer than thirty Gregorian minutes you're doing better than me. Brb gonna go eat chocolate because am baby.

It's a block of Javascript for a string function called count. I guess I'll just copypaste the whole thing into the alt text? I can't believe it fits lol

String.prototype.count = function (countString, allowOverlap = false) {
if (isBlank(countString)) { return 0; }
// a string cannot contain another string longer than itself
if (countString.length > this.length) { return 0; }
if (countString.length == this.length) { return this == countString ? 1 : 0; }
let count = 0;
switch (countString.length) {
case 0:
// theoretically this should already be caught, but, failsafe
return 0;
case 1:
// one character, simply iterate through the whole string
for (let i = 0; i < this.length; i++) {
if (this.charAt(i) == countString) { count++; }
}
return count;
default:
// more than one character
// optimization, don't substring unless first char matches
let firstChar = countString.charAt(0);
// optimization, only search to this length minus one less target length
for (let i = 0; i < this.length - (countString.length - 1); i++) {
if (this.charAt(i) == firstChar) {
let sub = this.substring(i, i + countString.length);
if (sub == countString) { count++; }
// if overlapping values aren't allowed, skip ahead
if (!allowOverlap) {
i += countString.length - 1;
}
}
}
return count;
}
};

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Drew an amblypygi, or tailless whip scorpion. They’re sweethearts! Fully harmless to humans, and among the only arachnids to exhibit social bonds - mother/child, and even siblings, grooming each other. Taking lil art breaks in between other projects is nice~ #sciart #insect #arachnid #procreate

Digitally drawn image of an amblypygi, an arachnid sorta halfway between a spider and a scorpion. It has six distinct legs, with its frontmost two legs having adapted into long slender “whips”, sensory limbs that give the bugfriend its name. Its pedipalps, grippy “arms” beside its mouth, are spiky and scary but harmless unless you’re a cricket or something. Its carapace is drawn purple and pink with a seafoam outline, against a pale yellow background. Colours are not true to life but stylistically chosen.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

I'm supposed to be cleaning right now, so naturally I drew this picture of how a coffee machine works instead :) #sciart #engineering #industrialdesign #productdesign

An illustration of how a coffee machine works! Water goes into the reservoir in the back, and flows into a tube around the bottom of the machine. The tube passes through the heating element, which both heats the water and the coffee carafe. The heated water becomes vapour, a mix of both liquid and gas. The hot vapour rises through the tube and passes a bubble valve, which lifts to allow rising water but lowers if water tries to backflow, ensuring water is forced up towards the grounds. A sprayer ensures the hot water is evenly dispersed over the grounds, which leach their delicious flavour into the water. The water then pours into the carafe, and you're left with a hot pot of fresh bean juice.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Labeling maps is a WHOLE THING. Like, just the names of the continents - specifically, Australia / Oceania.

A screenshot of the art app Procreate, with a world map graphic that has Australia in the center. Above it in large text is the word "Oceania".

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Making closed captions is fucking delightful and I apologize in advance if this messes with anybody’s screenreader.

Picture of a caption editor showing a still image from a video. The text caption at the bottom reads “just walked everywhere”, the image shows me trying to paint a map projection onto a canvas while a cat strolls over my attempted art, and also there is secret bonus closed captions of a emoticon cat face. Emoticon, not emoji. We’re going OG MSN Messenger mIRC style baby.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Visualization of latitudinal and longitudinal distortion on the Grieger Triptychial map projection. You can see how landmasses end up being largely accurate, thanks to distortion being centered in the oceans. #sciart

Distortion of Latitude and Longitude visualized on the Grieger Triptychial world map projection. Three maps are visible, a Tissot indicatrix and two heatmaps, that show lat/long distortion. This map projection manages to make landmasses very accurate because centers of distortion are located in the oceans.

The Galápagos islands, given their location, happen to be comically oversized lol

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Would love thoughts on which animation transition you prefer, simple (flat) or bumped. Having a hard time choosing. I've def lost objectivity over if the bump animation looks "good", and whether it takes away from the fact that the animated linework is superimposed over the painted lines.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Video rendering 😪 I’m getting a blistering 5FPS on a ~3 minute 30FPS video. I hate tasks that both hold up your entire workflow and can be measured in “seconds per second”

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Animation I made for a project I’m working on involving map projections~

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Totally nails it. AI is a panacea for people who not only hate doing the work, but who don’t understand why our teachers asking us to “show your work” - annoying as it was - were right to ask it of us.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Progress! I'm making an animation that details the Grieger Triptychial world map projection. Frame-by-frame animation takes TIME but it's so fun and rewarding. Next up: highlighting the equator, and (time permitting) latitude and longitude in 15º increments. #animation #cartography #sciart

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

2/2 "...identity pieces to be just another opinion or belief. And they’re not. The pieces of who we are deserve to be held as they are.. This book helped me. I’m not sure what helps boomers. lol."

A link on the website Thriftbooks showing the cover of "A Quick & Eay Guide To Queer & Trans Identities, by Mady G & Jules Zuckerberg"

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

First animation I've ever exported from Procreate! Happy with how this turned out. Gonna use this to make some map projection infographics :)

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

WIP, converting my duck model to vector art. Vitruvian quack

screenshot of Amadine for iPad, showing a 3D duck with circles drawn over it

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

I've been making maps! My current project, painting the Grieger Triptychial world projection. It’s a rearrangement of the Adams Hemisphere projection. Distortion is ocean-centered, leaving land mostly accurate. I LOVE IT. Playing with colours, materials, patterns. Almost done ☺️ #sciart #maps

Close-up view of the Grieger Triptychial map projection, hand painted on a green canvas. Latitude and longitude lines are labeled in 15° increments.

Me standing beside another canvas, this one in orange.

Close up showing the projection map I use to make the paintings, projected partially over my hand, but mostly onto a black and white checkerboard map canvas.

Me sitting on a couch, holding a hand painted map of the Earth in the Grieger Triptychial projection. I’m surrounded and covered by similar canvases.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

I just finished a lil commission for a friend making stencils for signage in her pottery studio. My desk is COVERED in tiny burnt letters lol

View of my work desk with a spare piece of wood, and hundreds of tiny charred paper letters (like, alphabetical lil guys)

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Happy new year, lovely folks 💖 Late 2024 I started gutting old housewares and putting lights inside, that only activate when you interact with it - eg picking it up. May our 2025s be filled with glowy magical secrets 🎊 (I also catsat for a friend’s very playful kitty, can u tell)

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve programmed any chips and, even tho it’s just a simple little test pattern, uggghhhhh it feels good to be playing with LEDs again.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Yesterday I did a TON of work on optimizing this model, including building out all the hardware and cleaning up the in-file organization. Makes it easy to make little animations like this :3 #art #industrialdesign #electronics #ducks

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Progress! Cut the body out of wood. Something small and colourful and cute coming together. (Ignore the fact that I cut through the bottom lol, the clearance gaps are tiny) #art #wood #industrialdesign #cnc

A small wooden cylinder, about 2” tall and 3” in diameter, made of four layered pieces, held in my hand. A small button is visible on the side.

The same, but slid at an angle so all four pieces can be seen individually.

A top-down view showing the inner workings of the individual pieces. A hole is visible through the bottom - I’ve accidentally cut all the way through, past where the battery is supposed to go, and out the bottom.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Here’s a picture too, since video compression seems to have completely eaten Bort’s magical sparkles ✨🐱✨

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Made this for a friend’s birthday a few years back, because her cat Bort is an absolute slut always showing off the goods 🥹 Lasercut into wood with glittery acrylic on top. #art #laserengraver #lasercut #wood #woodart #acrylic

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

I don't think there's anything as linguistically upsetting as the technically-correct usage of "cum" to mean "combined with"

Facebook marketplace post listing a $230 "chair cum massage table", which looks like a massage table that can be folded into a chair position.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Testing gif uploads with one of a game prototype I made yeeears ago. This was a cute project, and while I’m largely doing other non-game stuff now (art & electronics), it’d be fun to revisit this someday :) (God I hope it animates lol)

Gif of a building game prototype I made years ago. It’s a cute, lofi 3D construction game, where holding down a button spawns bouncy cubes in the shape of the house you’re building.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

I’ve lowkey rebuilt my entire like, brand? Vibe? Around ducks. It brings me so much joy. If you want to put a lil yay in my day, send me a picture of a duck. I literally painted a duck on the door of my design studio. Which is called Duck Pond Studio. It’s nice to discover what your ducks is 🥹

It’s a door, painted orange, with a duck painted on it. It’s a very cute duck. It’s white with an orange beak. It looks like it might be a little confused, but that’s okay. We all get confused sometimes. The important thing is to just keep waddling on, because eventually there will be peas to eat and ducklings to lead on a tiny parade. We will always have peas and ducklings.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Both are fixable, and it’s definitely cool to take apart equipment and really understand how it works. But oh my GOD I’m now multiple layers of unexpected maintenance removed from carving wood lol

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Pictured: my disassembled CNC machine spindle, that I took apart to fix, but then my SOLDERING IRON also broke, so I’ve disassembled that too 😅

A disassembled soldering iron in front of a disassembled spindle for a CNC machine, held on my lap.

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

The way Data enters the room after boning down for the first time is the single greatest entrance in tv, film, screen, or stage

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

I had fun designing the posters for this year. Ultimately they’re a bit busy but whatever, I wanted to show off all the artists and had to cram a lot of info on there. Caveat caveat caveat who cares, I’m proud of them 😌 LOOKIT THE ART THOOO

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Vancouver friends! I’m in the Eastside Culture Crawl this weekend, at Pandora’s Box Art Studios near Victoria @ Hastings. Wanna see weird LEDs, wood and paper crafts, and lots of duck shaped things? Plus art by a dozen other creators artists? Come say hiiii culturecrawl.ca/buildings/pa...

The front door the Duck Pond Studio, painted orange with a big duck on the front

A poster detailing when are where the culture crawl is, featuring three artists taking place in it

A promotional image I made for Duck Pond Studio, showing a glowy LED lantern with a ghostly duck hovering in the background

The art gallery and studio setup, partially underway, with pictures beginning to be mounted for the Culture Crawl

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

Happy Thursday, just doing some queer little debugging with some queer little lights

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

The first spinny scene I made, just a mishmash of colourful things I found on my desk~

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

Oh man, the interplay of light and shadow is a good one, there are some good ones already here. Check out the shadows I saw awhile back, cast by two adjacent streetlights - one big ol’ orange sodium one, one fancy new blue LED one. EVERY COLOUR LOOKED FAKE

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

I didn’t get a video showing the depth, and I gifted this to a friend so I can’t take one now, but here’s the Procreate timelapse. The big challenge is figuring out how to arrange the piece into X number of flat layers to maximize the illusion of depth. It’s a fun pseudo-3d puzzle :)

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

Another layered paper cutout. You’ll never guess what I was listening to while I made this one 🎧

Layer cardstock cut out scene of the “Lofi beats to study and relax to”

Same, from a different angle, showing the layers of depth

Screencap of the lofi girl YouTube video

Monochromatic view of the cutout art piece as it was made in Procreate on iPad

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

Some more pics, and the scene it’s based on

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

Layered paper cutout piece I made awhile back of Our Flag Means Death, because oh my god the gay pirate show you guys

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 20/10/2024

I’ve been refining the design so instead of made inside an old cigar box, it’ll be CNC cut from 1/8” wood and manually assembled. Can’t wait to finish this project~ #sciart

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 20/10/2024

Collaborated with a friend of mine who did paper cutting on this lil LED shadowbox, as an xmas present for her sister :) I made the box, she did the (incredible) art

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 20/10/2024

It’s just a cozy little Sunday afternoon today, isn’t it 😌

Selfie sitting on a leather couch, with a scruffy beard and incredible hair

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nick yonge 🌱 @nickyonge.bsky.social · 20/10/2024

Yesterday, got the LEDs and rotary encoder working just so Today, a time-delayed sleep mode, waking on interaction (gotta preserve that battery life) Tomorrow, gentle candle fx, and gonna wrap it up it rice paper and decorative cardstock Soon, guiding groups of folks on making their own :)

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