What I mean is that I will talk you about my very first time. No, I don’t mean that first time, but the first time I published a piece of digital art I made and mint as cryptoart.
Crypto what? I know, I know. The word sounds strange, but I suggest getting use to it, because I will refer to it a lot in further posts.
However, to give you a clue about it; to create cryptoart, you will use a new technology that represents what I believe a revolution to digital artist’s and collectors alike.
In other words, now you can prove originality and ownership on a piece of digital art (preferably that you created), and you can make it collectable. Better said, your digital work now can have value to collectors. Pretty awesome, right?
The technology behind this? Blockchain. O more specifically, NFT (none fungible token) which is a smart contract, that create an encryption, a block in the chain (or token), after some conditions are met.
What? I know. Too much geek words here. But I confess when I discover it I was so excited to learn about it because of all the implications. Maybe more excited than the first time I learn how to use a condom (long time ago.)
Please, bear with me. I’m still digesting about as well, and will share more as I know more about it. Pinky promise!
For now, I can tell you there are platforms that allow us, the artist and any not technical people, to use this technology to create a token without any need to code or any knowledge in the matter.
Here I will mention only the one I used for my first time, Opensea which is the world’s first and larger NFT marketplace. To vist their sire please click here.
“Wealth”
Here is the piece I made for my first NFT, my first cryptoart.
I thought to call it Wealth. The name came to me after I finished it. When I started it, my vision only included the lips, attached to a frame by some kind of melted fiber or substance.
Wear, right? I promise I just drink coffee, nothing else.
But that’s the beauty of doing art, the freedom to express what you feel at the moment, and let the audience find or explore their feelings about it.
While making it, all other elements came to me. For instance, the metallic gold frame, with circuits embedded around it, the colors, the light.
Then I understood that this piece could mean wealth, mainly, because it remains me the favorite assets wealth people invest into when economic crisis come, such as: gold, silver, precious metals, real states and now cryptocurrency (specially bitcoin).
The experience
I couldn’t contain myself to feel eager and excited when I started the process to mint my first NFT. First I search tutorials about how to do it and all of them refer to this process:
Create a wallet (to deposit and receive cryptocurrency). The most recommend wallet is MetaMask.
- Deposit or buy Etherium (the cryptocurrency to use), at least 100 USD. Why? Because mint a token (piece of art) has some fees, can go from 15 to 80 USD (or the equivalent in Ether) depending on the time and the busyness of the network traffic.
- Choose the platform where you want to create your token. I did choose Opensea.
- Once your token is confirmed, congratulations you own your first item, register into the blockchain network, and nobody can’t undo that. Now you can sell it.
A note about the fees. There exist new technology that will come to replace the current Etherium network for this matter. That means the fees will be cheaper or zero in some cases.
I know all the previous sounds very strange, and not easy for beginners. Bear with me for now. I felt the same way when I heard about this subject the first time. Later I will share a video I used to start my learning.
Learning from failure
Now I want to talk about my first auction. I choose Opensea for my first platform, because it seems the easier option to me. Though, other platforms exist out there, some of them with unique features, but the majority works similarly.
The token creation cost me around 97 USD, ouch!
Maybe because I did it on Sunday afternoon, not sure. Still, Opensea say that they charge the fee only once, for the first time you create a token.
I confess that I don’t know if that means “one time per item” or “one time at all” with no more cost on future creations. I will let you know when I mint my second piece.
Once the process finish, I had the ability to sell my art there. And I published it as an auction. But, the auction expired already by the time I created this post, and it finished with no bids or offer made. Nada!
So, what happen?
The following list what I believe I did wrong:
- I publish the starting bid price too high. I will say the equivalent in US dollars of $2,700 USD or 1 Eather (the cryptocurrency used for the token). That price was inspired by several examples I saw along the platform. Artists who sold their creation from few hundreds to millions of dollars. Yes, you read it right, millions of dollars. But, as a new or not known artist myself, that won’t happen for me, yet. So, I should start with lower price next time, right?
- Give the auction a short time. When I started the auction, the duration was set in five days only. Don’t ask, I just remember to be so excited and push the button, hoping for the best. Silly me!
- Start the auction, before making any previous promotion, nor having my website ready. Yes, I didn’t have anything, nor even this simple website ready, and realize that after I list my auction.
- Giving a poor description to my item. Just two sentences. And without any deep meaning or explanation about the file that the new owner would receive. No wonder why nobody interest on it.
The reward
Well, I think not everything was lost. First, I learn a lot. And been upfront with you, the process is not as smooth as it could be, but I have faith it will be soon.
Also, when an auction expire, you have the option to start it again or just list the same item with a fixed price. And that won’t cost you any new fee, I already prove that. If you have curiosity about my token, you can visit the page by clicking here.
In addition to the previous mistakes list, I can add a tip for you; don’t publish the high resolution work out there. Instead, create a lower resolution version to show to the media, add a watermark and maybe the title within that image. And maybe, add in the description the final size and format the buyer will get. Remember, you look to give value to collectors.
Closing
So, there you have it. My first blog post, my first time saying something I care or feel excited about to the world, my first experience creating an NFT…
My first time!
And as every first time, there are errors to be expected, right? So please, if you feel inspired to create your own NFT, do your research first. It is a relative new field with huge potential for digital artist and collectors, but also with some frustrations on the way.
I hope this post helps in any way. If you like to leave a comment below, which also helps to see if the discussion plugin works as expected. LOL!
Until next time!
