Check this song out while you read:

Da Intro

Howdy and hello, folks, and welcome to the second monthly blog post. Give it up for month two!!!

Just as a disclaimer: I’ll only be showcasing submissions rated E or rated T. I have the M and A ratings turned off for my account, so if a user I showcase here has submissions with those ratings on their account, I may not know about it. Viewer discretion is advised and all that!

Da Recap

This segment is where I’ll be talking about stuff I’ve done this month here on NG (possibly other sites as well, if it’s notable enough)!

First was my song “u’d nvr lie to me,” featuring artwork by the impeccable @duimaurisfootball. This song’s title was suggested to me by dui, and I kinda just ran from there. It’s a bit odd, but I like it. There’s some solid bars in there, methinks!

And that’s all for my April on Newgrounds! I posted one thing wooooo!

This one isn’t on NG but I still wanted to share it - last month I also tried my hand at making a YTP for the first time!

Da Spotlight

“Da Spotlight” will be me going over three works and/or users from this month that especially stood out to me here on NG. It may be popular stuff that I want to celebrate even more, or it may be more lesser known things that I think need a bit more love. Who knows! Anyways, here’s da spotlights for this month.

Da first spotlight belongs to @JazzDew’s “静粛||力---SiLENTPOWER 'my 10000th song',” which I can only describe as a genre bending, tempo switching, brain busting journey. Every repeat listen to this tune feels like the first time around, which is a wonderful feeling. Every sound is meticulously placed to assault your psyche with adrenaline in .mp3 form. As the song says as its repeated anthem: “GET LOUDER!!”

Da second spotlight belongs to “Sheep Time” by @Dalblauw. A juxtaposition from their usual character artwork (although not their first portrait of this nature), this piece is very soft and inviting. The coolness of every color combined with the textures of the greenery and sheeps’ wool make for a very relaxed piece that envelops my brain in a sense of wistfulness. For as simple the piece is, it’s very evocative, reveling in that simplicity to present an intense feeling of natural beauty.

Da third and final spotlight goes to @InventoryObjects. Inventory Objects’ experimental sound may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but their music tickles my neurons in just the right way — their driving distorted basslines combined with their solid melodic structures makes for some real toe-tappers. Additionally, all of the amazing artwork for Inventory Objects created by @Certly is such a departure from Certly’s usual use of clean and clearly defined shapes and colors, and that departure captures the experimental attitude of the music well; the accompanying artwork is twisted together, drenched in muted colors that bleed into one another. Absolutely go check out this amazing music and art duo!

Da N00bz

This segment is meant to celebrate the cool new users to the site who are just getting started on here. Whether they’re completely new to creative expression, or experts that are only new to NG, anyone who’s started their account in the past month is fair game >:D

Thick lines, pitch black shadows, and unforgiving machinery permeate every corner of @xkl-3’s gallery. Within this framework also comes a good bit of stylistic variety, all executed with precision and finesse. Everything from the composition of the shots to the choices of colors and shading is just so, and it gives xkl-3’s work quite an edge. Welcome to Newgrounds, xkl-3!

@evangel1ne is a singer and songwriter with a voice that works really well in multiple styles of music, as shown by the following two tracks! The juxtaposition between her music’s upbeat tone and her lyrics’ typical subject matter - ranging from melancholy to anger - makes for songs that warrant an immediate second or third listen to truly understand. It all feels very bittersweet in the best way possible. Welcome to Newgrounds, evangel1ne!

@kani-has-no-tattoos is an artist capable of creating both incredibly charming works and incredibly disturbing works. They have the special ability to produce art that can either make me feel happy or give me a pit in my stomach, all under a consistent stylistic umbrella. Muted colors contrasted with foreboding reds give Kani’s work an appropriately spooky atmosphere, and it’s awesome. Welcome to Newgrounds, kani-has-no-tattoos!

Da Rest

This is the final segment and I’ll be using it to give any closing thoughts I have or mention anything that doesn’t fit into the other segments.

Wanted to use this bit to talk a little about my summer plans. I currently don’t have a job lined up for the summer (I work at my university’s library and they aren’t able to take any student workers this summer) so I’ve decided to stay broke and focus hard on making cool stuff. I have a metric ton of ideas I want to pump out this summer - I want to improve my art abilities, I want to work on an album idea I’ve been concepting, I want to make a ton of cool YouTube videos (already got a great idea for this year’s Halloween special planned), that kinda thing. Sacrifice the financials for the artistics. Plus, being unemployed leaves me open to spontaneity; I don’t have to take off work to go do something fun with friends or family, or to participate in a church activity - I can just simply go.

I’m blessed beyond measure that I’m at a place in life where this is even an idea that I can say is worth considering and I don’t want to take that freedom for granted. So expect some cool stuff from me this summer! (And if any of you cool people want to collaborate on making something cool, my DMs are always open lol.)

Also, April 9th marked the two year anniversary of my Newgrounds account’s creation! (I completely forgot on the day of…) What a wild two years it’s been. I can confidently say that discovering Newgrounds (thank you, FNF, xoxo) was one of the best things that’s happened to me in recent memory. You’ve heard the “NG shill” spiel a thousand times over, and this blog post has been sappy enough already, but genuinely, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you to everyone who has made my experience on this website so special.

I also worked my first ever youth church camp this past month, which was an exhausting blast. I am an intern with my church’s youth group so I helped plan most of the games and events, as well as helping with some more stuff both behind the scenes and on-stage. It was such a wonderful, spiritually enriching experience and I cannot wait to do it again next year.

Also as a tease - I’ve been working on some music in my short bouts of spare time! I’ve been working on a semi-secret gaming project as well as an Art-Inspired Music project, and both of those are shaping up nicely so far.

I’ve also finally decided what I want my audio portal collab to be, and I’m currently planning to drop the details sooner rather than later! I’m excited to finally be able to share all of this, eventually!!! (EDIT: I ended up being able to post details for this collab in the NGAP Collab Center discord, so go check it out there!!!!)

That’s it for this month’s frontpage blog! Take care everyone; good luck to anyone who is or has been taking final exams, and I hope your May is excellent!