The Blog
Technology
How Do I Get an NFT?
I know for a lot of you, my previous post did not make a lot of sense. For me, when I first heard terms like NFT, Minting, ETH or Ethereum, my eyes glazed over and I stopped listening, thinking I was never going to understand those concepts. That is why I’m writing this post. I want to try to break things down so they are easy to understand and help you on your collecting journey. Everything will be explained (Below) in the context of my “15 Years Later…” project.
To get started you will need to get a MetaMask account. Metamask is the crypto wallet that you will use to purchase the NFT :) There are two ways to install Metamask: 1) a browser extension or 2) a mobile app. For instructions go to this page and scroll down to the heading “How to install MetaMask" or follow along on the video below.
Once you have your Metamask account set up, travel over to nft.igorandandre.com.
- The first thing you will be asked to do is “Connect MetaMask”.
- Click that button and MetaMask will ask you if you want to connect.
- Hit “Next”, then connect.
- Put your email address in the email form and click “Join Allowlist”.
That is it! You are officially on our allowlist.
You’re probably thinking “great, but what is an allowlist and why would I want to be on one?” Well, in our case, people on the Allowlist get to mint 24 hours before the general public. Since minting is done on a first come, first served basis, getting to mint first will help the likelihood that you can get one of the NFTs from the collection before they sell out.
Minting is simply the process of converting the artwork into an NFT and purchasing it at the same time. When anyone mints an NFT in the collection, it is revealed for the first time, and can then be viewed by everyone. Everytime you mint (purchase) I’m giving you the commercial rights to the NFT art that you minted for as long as you own the NFT. The reason I say “as long as you own it” is that you can sell your NFT or give it away to whomever you want. If you sell it or give away the image, the commercial rights go to the new owner.
You need to add funds into your MetaMask wallet before July 20, 2022, if you're on the allowlist.
On or after July 21, 2022, you need to have funds in your wallet before you try to purchase.
To mint and buy and sell this collection, the currency is called Ethereum or ETH.
The cost of a NFT from the collection is 0.08 ETH, but you will need to have more than that available
because of a thing called gas. Think of gas just as a fee for processing a transaction on the Ethereum network.
To deposit ETH into your MetaMask wallet, you can try the buy options directly within MetaMask.
If those don’t work try the tutorial below. Do steps 1-3. 👇
https://www.tryreason.com/blog/the-best-and-easiest-way-to-buy-an-nft-in-2022/
For the “15 Years Later…” Collection there will be two minting phases. Phase 1: Allowlist Minting begins Jul 20, 2022 9AM PT (12PM ET / 4PM GMT). Phase 2: Public Minting begins Jul 21, 2022 9AM PT (12PM ET / 4PM GMT). Like I mentioned earlier, it's first come, first served, until sold out, so getting over to ( https://nft.igorandandre.com/15-years-later/Minting) as early as possible is a good strategy.
If you are still wondering what an NFT is, it stands for non-fungible tokens, which is another way of saying it is a digital asset. In the “15 Years Later…” Collection, the NFT consists of the art and the commercial rights you gain. The NFT world is still very young but has so much potential. I’m excited for this next chapter in my life, and have some exciting dreams for this project and future projects in this space which I look forward to sharing with you in the future.
I hope this post is helpful and not overwhelming. Feel free to message me any questions/issues
you have or if you need help in any way! You can get a hold of me multiple ways: post a comment (below),
or private message me (below), Comment or DM on instagram or twitter.
As always, thank you for all of your support!
NFT
15 Years Later… | NFT Drop
I have been looking forward to this day for almost a year. I finally get to tell you what I’ve been working on since last October. My Genesis NFT Collection! Last year I had multiple close friends reach out to me and tell me I should do a NFT collection. They thought it was a perfect fit because of my art and web development background. I am so glad they did, because I had more fun working on this collection than I’ve ever had making anything else. I also fell in love with Web 3 in the process. It made me so excited for all the future Web 3 projects I’m going to be a part of. My brother and I are wanting to launch our storybook on the metaverse, but that will be a little farther down the line. My skills aren’t strong enough for that undertaking yet. Scroll below to read about the collection.
I started this collection on the 15th anniversary of starting The Character Sketchbook. For those who don't know, The Character Sketchbook was a project I started when I first set out to become an artist. I drew in that book everyday to chart my improvements over time. With the 15th anniversary of that project rolling around, it caused me to reflect on the last 15 years. The old drawings reminded me of the fire, joy, and excitement I had when my artistic journey began that had since grown cold. I wanted to approach this collection with the same heart and mindset that I had when I began the Character Sketchbook.
Each of the 5,475 portraits represents one single day of the last fifteen years, and the characters’ emotions and expressions represent a small piece of the rollercoaster that the time has been for me. The collection goes through three art style stages, Ink Drawing, Partial Color, and Full Color, representing my actual progression throughout the years.
The portraits are unique and programmatically generated from 731 hand-drawn traits. The collection consists of four characters and the three art style stages mentioned above. Some of them might be rarer than others, but all have their own charming qualities that make each special.
Rarity evaluation
- Traits have different levels of scarcity
- 50 of the NFTs have their token id number hidden within the portrait
- Hidden traits: There are some other secret, unlisted traits that must be discovered via observation. Happy hunting and collecting.
The Portraits are stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and hosted on IPFS. Purchasing an NFT cost 0.08 ETH.
- 5,475 unique tokens
- You get commercial usage rights over your portrait so you can use it however you like
- High resolution (2250 X 3000) with tons of beautiful details
- Digital Passport into our future projects, and perks which will only be available to those who own a 15 years later NFT
I want to always give back to you as a thank you for believing in me and my work, and I’m always open to ideas on how I can do that, especially in this project. If you have any ideas please let me know.
Allowlist sign ups start today, but a few friends let people know a couple of days ago and a few hundred people have already signed up. To those of you who have signed up already, thanks! I can’t wait for you to mint this collection. I hope you love it as much as I do. All sign ups and minting will be done on nft.igorandandre.com & secondary sales on OpenSea.
Sign ups and minting will require you to have a MetaMask wallet set up, and you should have more than 0.08eth in your wallet because of gas fees.
If you don't have a wallet yet, it is really easy to set one up. Follow this link to get started. --> Getting Started With MetaMask.
If you have any questions feel free to comment or direct message below. If you direct message, me I will respond by email so make sure you use a valid email so I can get back to you.
I would be eternally grateful if you share this Collection with people you think will love it. I’m just getting started in this space and really appreciate your help. Thank you!
P.S. Special thanks to Katie Rodgers for all the feedback throughout the 9 months of drawing and for contributing some of the background art.
Art DBNG
Water Gilding – 24k Gold Leaf
There is no sugar coating this… Water Gilding Gold Leaf was extremely difficult for me to learn. There are so many variables and stages.This project was the first time I’ve used traditional water gilding techniques. The learning curve was very steep. I learned so much through the process, and I’m looking forward to my next water gilding project. This Time-lapse was shot over March and April 2021. The Music was written by my good friend, the talented Tim Frost (links below).
The next video will be coming out soon. It will be on the oil painting process.
Thanks for following along with this piece over the last few years. It has been nice taking the time to get it right. I hope you enjoy it.
Tim Frost
Site: https://allthingsfrost.com
Also get out his Tony Hawk & odin Collaboration on youtube: -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjV05AVfIW4
This Video is the second in a series. view the first video here.
Art DBNG
The Carving | The Day Boy & The Night Girl
In February 2020, as the world shut down, due to the pandemic, I decided to learn how to carve. I purposed to go out side each day and spend a few ours carving. This video was filmed from February 2020 – July 2020. This piece made me fall in love with carving. It was hard exhausting work. I was lucky if i could get in anymore than 3 hours a day. Most days I felt like the carving would never turnout right, Little by little the relief came together.
The music is “L’abandon” by Alexandre Desplat from the movie, “Coco avant Chanel”. I highly recommend this album.
Art DBNG
Quarantine, Carving, & Social Break
This year so far has been a pretty strange one (under statement I know 🙃). When Quarantine started, I took a massive break from all social media. I’m currently still on that break. Not sure when or if I will go back. It’s been a super refreshing time, which made me realize life has been whole lot better without it. I’ve mainly been spending my days painting and carving. Yes carving… haha over the last few 5-6 months I’ve been carving a little bit a day. I’ve really enjoyed it. Two weeks ago I finished carving the relief of the, “The Day Boy and Night Girl“. I’m currently preparing the wood for gilding and to be oil painted. I filmed a timelapse of the carving that I will post when the video is done. My computer is painfully slow (I’m trying to save up for a new one) so I can’t promise the video will be up anytime soon. And though I’m taking a social media break I’m not taking a break from people 😉 So, please comment or dm me below. I love hearing from you. I hope you are doing well and thank you for your support.
DBNG Fairy Tale
The Day Boy & Night Girl
I started this piece 2018 with a really raw thumbnail sketch (see below). A few months later I tried to develop the concept more for a few weeks and felt like I didn’t have the skills to pull the drawing off. Fast forward to the start of this month, I finally felt up to the task. This piece is inspired by the 1882 fairy tale novel “The Day Boy & Night Girl” by George MacDonald. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. It is one the most magical stories. I loved the idea of depicting moment of when day crosses over into the night. I had such a clear picture of what i wanted, so I kept redrawing this piece till it felt right. I’m planning on carving a relief/oil painting of this piece. I really hope you like it.
I created a limited edition print of the piece. If You’re interested click here to check it out. 😉
Volume 3
Character Sketchbook 201
Good Afternoon! Shoot, i think all the late nights caught up to me today! Ended up over-sleeping by a few hours today, so i’m playing catch up right now so i have to make it short, because i’m trying to finish up a painting for you all… Hopefully, have it up tonight! :) Today’s post is the first mixed media drawing out of Volume 3 of my Character Sketchbook. I really like how volume 3 was turning out… i need to start back working on it again. The photo was from one of my all time favorite fashion photographers, Steven Meisel, and it was from his “Amish” editorial for Italian Vogue which is one of my favorite photoshoots. I hope you like it, and hope you’re having a great day.
Inspiration
Ammon’s Horn
Happy 2020! I’m happy to start this New Year post with an inspiration Friday post. If you are new to the blog, the way Inspiration Friday works is I pick a song that inspires me, then as I’m listening to the song, I find images that I feel fit the vibe of song. It works as a visual essay inspired by a song. This month’s song is Ammon’s Horn by the Honey Trees. I hope it inspires you.
Images Sources: 1. Hedi Slimane Diary, 2. Lillian Bassman & unknown Source, 3. unknown Source, 4. Alain Delon& Romy Shneider, 5.unknown Source, 6.unknown Source
p.s. if you are viewing this post on bloglovin make sure to click through to be able to see all the images ;)
Character Development
Character Height Chart – WIP
For the last few months I’ve been working trying to finish all the character design for “Lost in the Crowd“. It’s taken me a lot longer than I thought it would, but I’m starting to make a lot of progress on it. I thought I would post my progress. I was working on the background the for the last few days. I only have 5 out of 23 characters done. I was trying to get all the characters done before January. My plan was to submit this project for Adobe Creative Residency Program. I wanted to live in Tokyo, Japan, for the next year to write and begin drawing “Lost in the Crowd”. That is still my goal. After reading the adobe application, I was pretty bummed that I couldn’t submit the application cause I don’t qualify on two of the pre-requisites. So right now, I’m kinda scrambling looking for a different artist residency program. If you know of any I would love to hear ;). The sad thing is, I feel like this project is perfect for the Adobe program. Thanks to Katie Rodgers for telling me about the program.
Art
The Panel Girl
This piece was quite the experiment. It took me several months to get the colors and textures right. The concept was cutting up my portaits of Rasa Zukauskaite, Laura O’Grady, and Tanya Dziahileva and putting them together to make one face. I used oil paint and oil pastels on nine individual one foot canvases. It was really difficult to replicate those portraits, but I’m really happy with how the textures turned out. I wish you could see it in person.