The Inkvadyrz: Twenty CryptoArt Characters From the Creative Mind of Doodle Artist Lei Melendres
We finally launched on OpenSea our first collection made by professional doodle artist Lei Melendres!
Last March 24, we minted one of the twenty Cryptoart cards and after a week, we are happy to announce that a collector happily owns T-Bear! We will continue to mint the rest of the cards and auction them weekly on OpenSea.
Lei calls the collection Inkvadyrz. It hints about his art style and the nature of the characters found in his collection. Ink pertains to his first medium in doodling and vaders from the word invaders suggesting that the characters he made are explorers from different realms who invades another place.
The deck is made up of twenty Cryptoart cards composed of three categories: common, uncommon, rare, and legendary. The card’s category shows its rarity, value, and benefits. The legendary cards are priced higher than the rare and common cards. There are also only 2 legendary cards compared to 5 rare cards, 6 uncommon cards, and 7 common cards. Most importantly, owning a legendary card gives the collector the possibility to get the reward piece by getting 9 other cards in the collection.
The Concept
When we asked Lei his inspiration for the design of the cards, he told us that he wanted to pay homage to all the characters included in his illustrations over the past 10 years.
Lei said he came up with 18 characters with physical features that he would normally use. Sometimes he would also combine those features to create a new character so that each will be a unique character for each piece.
The other 2 legendary ones are his signature characters: 4713N and INK. 4713N has the same look every time Lei draws him. INK on the other hand is a bit of a shapeshifter.
The background behind each character represents the world they are currently invading and for the reward piece, they will be meeting up in a single world to form a single illustration where they could interact with one another.
Now, let’s take a look at each of Lei’s Cryptoart character and their backstories:
LEGENDARY CARDS (Lei’s favorite)
4713N (Dropping this last week of June)
4713N is Lei Melendres’ signature character and has been a big part of his branding for 10 years and counting. It is present in almost all of his heavily detailed artworks. Sometimes, he would add and hide it in some of his illustrations especially for those projects where he is not allowed to include this specific character.
Ink (Dropping this last week of June)
Ink is Lei Melendres’ 2nd original signature character. He used to represent himself in his drawings as a chibi character. Yet, later on, he decided to create a version of him as an alien-like intergalactic explorer with a morphing head in an outer space protective suit.
RARE CARDS (5 Characters)
Mermain (Dropping this June 3rd week)
Mermain is a creature born in the depths of the sea. One day while roaming around the ocean floor, he discovered a capsized submarine filled with people who are barely alive due to being stuck underwater for more than a week with not enough food. When they saw him, instead of being afraid, they treated him as a friend. He tried to meet them up close and personal by opening the submarine door.
Bots (Dropping this June 3rd week)
Bots is one of Ink’s earliest creations. It was gifted with an AI brain but after escaping the lab and being exposed to a lot of the harshness of reality, it decided to go on an adventure to eradicate all forms of cruelty but not in a humane way. It’s a robot after all.
The Wraith Guy (Dropping this June 3rd week)
The Wraight Guy is the perfect character to ask for help in accomplishing jobs related to cutting and slicing. He can cut trees, grass, construction materials, even someone’s lifespan if it’s an assassination job. His favorite movie is Edward Scissor Hands.
Eyesore (Dropping this June 3rd week)
Eyesore loves collecting eyeballs from carcasses that are thrown in the ocean. It’s the weirdest hobby of all time but he takes pride in being very good at it. He is also passionate about what he does. Since there’s only a limited amount he can collect, he tends to become very picky with what eyeballs to include in his collection. The other characters hate hanging out with him because he makes them feel weird when he looks at them. Yet this is actually beneficial for him because he would rather spend the whole day searching for the next eyeball.
Hot Head (Dropping this June 3rd week)
Hot head is a character made out of fire. Ironically, he is not really a hot-headed character but is a very free-spirited energetic optimist. Although he doesn’t talk at all, the other characters tend to enjoy his presence probably because he’s warm. He prefers listening more than talking, and he’s nice to be with especially on cold nights. Just don’t get too attached or you’d risk hurting yourself. 3rd degree burns to be exact.
UNCOMMON CARDS (6 Characters)
Octobass (Dropping this June 1st week)
If there was anyone in this group closest to thinking like a human, it’s Octobass. She loves music, dreams of becoming a DJ, but spends most of her adult life working her ass off just to pay the bills. She regrets offering her company to do extra work after realizing more arms doesn’t necessarily mean she can do things faster than everyone else. It meant there will be more work directed at her in her day job.
Feast (Dropping this June 1st week)
At an early age, Feast decided that she would have a solid set of 8pack abs. Unfortunately, after dieting too much by not eating for weeks and focusing all her workout efforts on her abs, a mouth came out of where her abs were supposed to be. Now, her new mouth eats too much just to make up for all those days she refused to eat.
Bowbun (Dropping this June 1st week)
Bowbun thinks bowties are cool for one reason because he once saw a logo of a rabbit with a bowtie from his father’s collection of magazines. He was too young to understand what it was even after reading all the magazines. The idea stayed with him years after that tragic moment. Come to think of it, he saw nothing wrong with other animals not wearing any clothes anyway.
Boxhead (Dropping this June 1st week)
All Boxheads are born with a soft glowing skull. Nobody knows why the creator thought that was a good idea, tho. At an early age, they are taught to create clay pots and bricks. When they reach adulthood, they would build a cube-shaped oven-like brick structure which they would use as a helmet for their skull to protect it from being accidentally squished.
Shrooom (Dropping this June 1st week)
Shrooom likes to fly real high up above the skies towards space and other galaxies. The others enjoy watching him running circles on the ground acting as if he is actually doing it. He loves to eat and loves to sleep. Nobody knows how he is able to fund his lifestyle.
Hyde (Dropping this June 1st week)
Hyde is a mischievous devil born with a creepy face. He tends to scare the others whenever he meets new characters so he decided to create a mask so he can hang out with everyone and somehow make them feel at ease. He still takes off his mask whenever he’s with his closest friends and while doing all other essential stuff like pooping.
COMMON CARDS (7 Characters)
Exo is an entity made out of pure radioactive nuclear energy. She didn’t have a physical body before. But after being able to warp herself through different worlds, she learned ways on how she could manipulate the energy and build herself a body. Her head on the other hand is too difficult to convert so she just made a forcefield to contain the energy and keep it intact.
Puffy is a dog-like character made out of a soft solid cloud. Although she can float like a puff of cloud anytime she wants to, she prefers long walks and is always excited to play fetch. She is the perfect cuddle buddy. However, when she turns grayish for seven consecutive days, it’s advisable to leave her outdoors. She is known to wet the bed like a thunderstorm does when you accidentally left a window beside your bed open.
Lurk enjoys playing tag because of his advantage of being able to fly. However, he hates playing hide and seek because he is always in a constant moving motion and would not stay still even while hiding. He is also pretty talkative and can be a bit irritating at times. His friends still enjoy his overall energy and love having him around every time there’s a hangout.
Fluff (SOLD OUT by ygg_crypto)
Fluff happens to be the friendliest among the group. Some of his friends tend to worry because Fluff doesn’t know the difference between a friend or a foe. He treats everyone with unconditional love and kindness. Fluff is s good friend but Fluff pretty is dumb and I think you know that already.
Beaks (SOLD OUT by eneftees)
Beaks hated being called twitter bird and would attack anyone with its razor-sharp claw if ever anyone even mentions the word tweet. Beaks is a crazy-ass bird.
Bushy (SOLD OUT by 0xb1…cc7f)
Bushy is a quiet and well-mannered member of the group. Nobody knows what Bushy is thinking because Bushy never talks. Bushy enjoys writing in the third person. Bushy is the coolest nonetheless. -Bushy
TBear (SOLD OUT by RocketBoy)
TBear is the most peaceful among all. She enjoys chilling in the garden reading her favorite books or binge-watching her favorite tv series. She likes to hang out with her friends during the weekend especially when they are up for a spa day.
REWARD PIECE — A bonus card containing all of the characters in the Inkvadyrz collection. It can be unlocked by owning at least of the legendary cards and nine other cards.
When we asked Lei what the collection represents, he said it shows how far he has come in his art career. According to Lei, the twenty characters in different scenarios reminds him of the challenges and situations he encountered in his journey.
Inkvadyrz is indeed a product of an artist’s skills, creativity, and ten-year journey. We at Ownly are happy to be part of Lei’s journey this year through this collaboration and we hope to bring more attention to the life and creations of other Filipino artists in the future.
For now, collectors can support Lei by checking out the whole collection here: https://opensea.io/assets/ownly
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