The 888 Inner Artist Initiative — November 2022 Update
Three months have passed since the public announcement of the 888 Inner Artist Initiative. In that time, every week, we have continued to purchase art from emerging artists. We have also continued to grow our “Verified Inner Artist” community in organic fashion, one artist at a time (to become a Verified Inner Artist, please apply here).
One thing that has been especially encouraging is the diversity of art and artists that we have encountered. We now have artists from all over the world participating in our weekly celebration of art and joining our artist community. These artists also represent a wide variety of different styles, from painting, to photography, to sculpture.
Weekly Celebration of Art
Here is the art that we have purchased since our last update.
Week 10
The Emotional Creation #12 by CarlaSaFe
Week 11
Continuación del vuelo rosado y apretado by Magdalena Lizarraga Nardocci
Week 12
Yami Blossom by Sonríe-InkTerrorist
Week 13
White Angel by Miriam Anerisart
Week 14
Spotlight Artist AMAs
Here is a sampling of the AMAs that we had this past month (slightly edited). To see the complete interviews, please visit the artist-spotlight channel in our Discord Server.
Carla SaFe
Question:
You are known for your physical large-scale paintings. What drew you to doing such big endeavors? Would you care to share a bit of your process?
Answer:
I just love to create huge paintings! I kind of feel immersed in the work, inside the painting.
My work is completely intuitive and spontaneous, with a vibrant color scheme, vigorous brushstrokes and lots of dripping.
I paint barefoot, in silence, just listening to my inner voice. It’s just me, my empty canvas and the colorful paints around me.
My studio gets natural light/sunshine from morning until sunset, it has got a 7 m (approx. 23 ft) wide x 4 m (approx. 13 ft) height sliding glass door, facing sunset (west), so I may open it and it’s almost like I am outside, ‘en plein air’. From my studio, I can see the sea.
There is something that has a major influence on me and my art: the sun! I can’t create without the sun and I never create if there is no sun.
Here is another piece by the artist:
To learn more about Carla, please visit https://linktr.ee/carlasafe. Her work may be found online either as an NFT, NFT+Physical or only Physical. All of her physical work may be minted as an NFT. If you don’t see the piece you love as an NFT, you are invited to get in touch with her at contact@carlasafernandes.com.
Tommy Kwak
Question:
Can you tell us a little bit about your approach to art? How do you choose your subjects, and how do you create the ideal shot? How important is the equipment you use versus your natural instinct and skill as a photographer?
Answer:
My photography work follows my interests, which are mostly nature and hiking-based. So a lot of my photography is shot in locations like Iceland, Faroe Islands, Lapland, and the Caribbean. For my approach, it starts with a place, which I will do extensive research on various locations to visit. Then at the location, I will try to shoot at ideal lighting conditions (sunrise and sunset). From there, I don’t really have a set agenda, other than to just be in the moment and let my eye and intuition lead my picture taking.
I think natural instinct is more important than the equipment. Having a cheap camera, but being in the right place and time will most times make a better photo than having the most expensive equipment and shooting anything. For me though, I used to photograph with medium-format film exclusively, which has a very beautiful aesthetic, but I found it tedious and limiting with the preserving and scanning/retouching the negatives, not to mention expensive. When I switched to digital in 2017, it really changed my work and taught me a lot because I wasn’t afraid to experiment and shoot as many shots as I wanted. Storage space was the only limit. I also learned how powerful post-processing can be. So, I would say ultimately, natural instinct is much more valuable but that the equipment can also have an impact.
Here is another piece by the artist. It is part of his “Remix” series.
To learn more about Tommy, please visit:
- https://www.tommykwak.com
- https://foundation.app/@tommykwak
- https://opensea.io/tommykwak?tab=created
- https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x6c8537c491784bd95c8020e5420315456e155a77/1
- https://twitter.com/tommykwakstudio
- https://www.instagram.com/tommykwak/
Sonríe-InkTerrorist
Question:
Going back to art, can you talk about any differences between doing street art and studio art? To many people, graffiti/street art sounds very exotic and potentially dangerous. Are there any special considerations to take into account when doing street art?
Answer:
About the differences between street art and studio art, in my case, I like to bring the street interventions to a portable medium, paper, wood or any other format.
About the risk of interventions at the public space, here in Mallorca, we haven’t had a really big scene in terms of people doing Street Art actively. When I moved here back in 2012, only two artists were performing street art or a mix with graffiti elements. In those days, I was doing more paste ups than other things. Another artist called Joan Aguilo was beginning to paint stencils interventions so I wrote him a message to meet and go to paint together. Joan was the first street artist in Mallorca who was signing “Illegals” interventions with his real name. We were a bit concerned about how people would react to this, and nothing happened, just a few DMs by insta saying “thanks you make me smile” or similar. Then one day I decided to go and paint during the day acting like I was hired for paint. At the beginning, I was very scared, but people’s reactions were amazing. Almost every single person who saw me painting had a couple good words for me and the painting. Then we realized there is a difference between graffiti and street art. We started to paint in abandoned spaces, always trying to add something to the space. Then we go a little bit further and place a few pieces in non-abandoned spaces and again people received it very very well. After a few years the scene grows and more artists emerge, helping us to create a very good relationship between Street Art and people.
Here are the digital and street versions of another piece by the artist:
To learn more about Sonríe-InkTerrorist, please visit his Twitter at https://twitter.com/inkterrorist.
Asking Artists
Last month, we announced a new segment to our artist-spotlight channel, which we call, “Asking Artists.” The basic idea is that we ask art-related questions to our community of artists, and then we crowdsource their answers and create a discussion around their responses.
Since we launched the segment, here are some questions that we’ve asked. To see our artists’ responses, please visit the artist-spotlight channel within our Discord Server.
Question: How does a traditional physical artist who wants to turn their work into an NFT go about digitizing work done on a canvas, mural, wall, large area of paper, via sculpture, other traditional medium, etc …? What tools are needed? Is there any expense (such as hiring a professional or buying/renting any special equipment) involved? Any tips in terms of making sure the transfer is clean and the digitized artwork is as faithful as possible to the original work?
The most common answer to this question by our artists was to utilize digital photography for 2D works, such as paintings, and potentially a 3D scanner for three-dimensional works, such as sculptures. Sometimes, traditional artists would hire or do collaborations with digital photographers and/or 3D artists who could help capture their work in digital form and prepare it in presentable form. This might include photographing the work at very high resolution, color correcting to match the original, and then doing some small re-touching. It could also include getting a full scan of the piece using a 3D scanner and/or recreating certain projects in software solutions like Blender or Nomad and then rendering the sculpts. There are many online tutorials for how to use such software and perform such tasks. It was also suggested to get involved with an artist community (like ours) and to ask for assistance.
Another approach, especially for artists that have hundreds or even thousands or pieces to sell online, is to learn how to do the digitizing process themselves. This would include photographing the work and “post processing,” such as matching colors and editing. Tutorials for how to photograph artwork can also be found online. One tip that was given was to make sure to get high-quality photographs, which includes considerations of focus, light, etc. A fancy camera is not necessarily needed, however. An iPhone camera and a tripod might work perfectly. Generally a 12 MP (4032 x 3024 pixels) camera will work for creating images as an NFT. This is because monitors are usually full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) or 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels). Physical prints will need larger files, though there may be software tools that use AI to help enlarge with minimal or no loss in quality.
Question: If someone would like to get into digital art, what do they need to get started in terms of equipment, system requirements, software, knowledge, education, budget, etc …? If you were giving advice to a traditional artist trying to get into digital art, what are the first and most important pieces of advice you would give them?
One common theme in our artists’ answers was that digital art comes in many forms, and what you need in terms of hardware/software may be affected by the type of digital art you’re trying to do. For example, creating static 2D images would require much less computing resources than creating 3D animations. For art that requires a lot of computing resources, there was a recommendation of purchasing a PC over a laptop because it has better heat dispatch, larger cooling pads, muffled fans, and overall better performance. One other hardware recommendation was to get a drawing tablet, such as a Wacom Cintiq, that allows you to directly draw or sculpt on the screen.
In terms of software, there are many available software options, depending on whether you’re doing painting (e.g. Adobe Photoshop); vector-based art (e.g. Adobe Illustrator); or digital sculpting (e.g. Pixologic ZBrush). There are also ways to sculpt in virtual reality, so things feel more hands-on. One artist noted that it is a common misconception that software solutions have to be expensive. There are many free commercial grade programs and tools that are available, including GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), Glimpse Image Editor, Inkscape, Blender, and KDenlive. There are also closed source software solutions that allow for free use, if you agree to their terms and conditions. Some examples include Autodesk Fusion 360 and DaVinci Resolve.
Question: For digital artists who would like to expand their horizons and learn how to paint, how do they get started? What kind of special equipment/basic skills/knowledge do they need? What advice would all of you painters give to someone who is just getting started?
Ironically, one piece of advice that multiple artists gave about painting did not involve actual paint. The advice was to get a pencil and a sketchbook and to doodle as much as possible, seeing what comes up.
Another piece of advice given was to experiment. There are free and/or cheap online courses that one can take to learn the basic techniques of painting. However, part of the fun of painting is to discover your own techniques and tricks. Picasso was given as an example here. Although he was a master of classical techniques, Picasso experimented and broke traditional “art rules.” This led to the creation of an influential new art style.
Perhaps the best advice given was to not let fear get in your way. Some people may think, “I can’t draw or paint.” But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It was noted that expensive equipment is not needed. What was recommended was practice. Practice, practice, practice. Have fun, and enjoy!
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As a reminder, the 888 Inner Artist Initiative is not just a single program. Rather, it is a comprehensive and ever-increasing set of efforts and endeavors designed to celebrate, empower, and support artists. Our goal is to meet the various needs of various artists, in a wide variety of ways, wherever they may be on their artistic journey.
For more information, please join our Discord server, follow our Twitter, and view our Medium. Also, as a reminder, if you are an artist, we encourage you to apply to become a Verified Inner Artist. No token purchase is necessary, but you will need to join our Server and be verified as a community member in order to receive the role.
