NFT art has become pretty hyped recently as many artists have begun to see the potential of experimenting and making money from their creations.

Eksentrika recently spoke to Alvin Koay, an artist and technology enthusiast who has been producing some pretty exciting works of art and digitising them into NFTs.

We spoke to understand how his career in the arts began and on ways artists can create and make money from NFT art. Alvin also generously shared some solid advise on what are some platforms you can try to mint and sell your NFT art.

For someone who does not understand NFT art and how to create them, this feature on Alvin might answer many of your burning questions.

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Hey Alvin! You’re among the few Malaysian artists who’ve been producing NFT art. Can you share when and how you got started?

I am a self-taught physical artist who creates contemporary artworks as a hobby. Most of my best physical artworks are not for sale as I am the most ardent collector of my own art.

However, I would also want people to appreciate my works and at the same time, profit from them too.

When the NFT boom started, I knew that I could have the best of both worlds by keeping my favourite physical works for myself and selling only the digital NFT versions.

At the same time, I was very much an investor in crypto, and coming from a technology background, I fully understood how blockchain and its implication on art.

I also noticed that by digitising my artworks, I could also create different versions of them. For example, I would animate some works and even add original music to them to bring out their emotional strength.

The first time I stumbled into the world of NFTs was when I read how Beeple sold his digital artwork for US$69 million. During the early days of NFTs (beginning 2021), I realized that many artists were selling their NFT art for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. That definitely piqued my interest and I instantly deep-dove into it.

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1. What are some of the tools artists need to create NFT art?

You would need a good camera or large-bed scanner to digitise your work for physical artists like me. Then by turning them into digital versions, you will need to mint them into NFTs in marketplaces like Opensea, Rarible, HicetNunc, SuperRare, etc.

“Minting” means documenting the digital art onto a blockchain and this gives the “proof of provenance” (certificate of authenticity) that cannot be changed or edited forever. It works somewhat like an immutable digital smart contract that cannot be altered.

Each of the above-mentioned marketplaces uses different blockchains like Ethereum, Tezos, Polygon, etc. You will need to study some of these as the cost of selling, minting, or transferring the NFTs can be very high, depending on the blockchain one uses.

For example, on the Ethereum blockchain, the “gas fee” (transaction fee) of any transactions on the ecosystem fluctuates and can go up to be very high. However, Ethereum is the most used universally, and high-end buyers are generally found collecting NFTs in this ecosystem.

You would also need to own some cryptocurrencies and have them stored in your e-wallet. Each crypto is a token to be used for transaction fees within the blockchain of choice. Every time an NFT is sold, you will be paid in the cryptocurrency that it is minted on. You will then need to transfer the cryptocurrency from the NFT sale into your wallet, and convert them into fiat currency using an exchange. This way, you can cash out the fiat currency into your bank account as real-world money.

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2. How can artists create NFT art?

NFT can be created from physical art (see above) or digitally using photoshop, apps, etc. You can digitally draw artworks on an iPad and mint them as NFTs too.

At the same time, you can also animate the artwork, include music, turn them into 3D models or make them interactive.

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3. Where can artists sell their NFT art and how can they create a demand?

NFTs are actually smart contracts written onto a blockchain. Within the contract, you can include anything that proves that it is created from its originator. Anything that is written onto the blockchain cannot be changed forever.

In fact, an artist can also include the physical art, on top of the digital one, into the NFT contract. Some will additionally add a downloadable hi-resolution file for buyers to physically print out the artwork. Some will even ship the actual original physical works or a signed reproduction copy to the NFT buyer.

Generally, being a contract per se, an NFT can include anything but most people associate it with artworks because NFTs took off from the world of art.

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4. What are some dos and don’ts when it comes to creating NFT art?

One of the most important things is to be ethical. Do not use other people’s artworks and claim them to be your own for reselling. An artist needs to build out her reputation and if she sells copied works, then no one will ever trust her again to buy her works.

Another thing is not to mint multiple editions of the same artworks in different marketplaces to extract the most profits. If a buyer buys a supposed single edition artwork and later finds out that there is another edition in another blockchain marketplace, then it will totally devalue the buyer’s investment.

An artist needs to always be aware of copyrighted works too and not plagiarize other artist’s works.

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5. Is NFT art safe for the environment?

These are non-issues as the negative impact is just isolated to specific non-eco-friendly blockchains. For example, the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains currently use the “proof of work” technology to mine their cryptocurrencies. This method harms the environment as a huge amount of energy is needed for mining.

However, these days, mining for cryptos has moved to use solar energy or environmentally-friendly means, because of the flak mining received recently. At the same time, the NFT marketplaces have also proliferated on many newer eco-friendly blockchains that use the “proof of stake” technology like Polygon, Tezos, and Binance Smart Chain. These newer blockchains have totally no impact on the environment.

At the same time, the major blockchain, Ethereum which most of the NFTs are currently using is upgrading to the “proof of stake” technology too. When this happens the issue of negative impact to the environment will be a thing of the past.

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6. What are some of the benefits of NFT for artists and creatives?

As mentioned earlier, NFTs are actually smart contracts written onto a blockchain. It is also non-reversible and decentralized as no particular company or government is deciding or has authority over it. It also gives proof of authenticity and provenance to its original creators.

Anything can be included in the smart contract i.e: insurance, finance, art, properties, music, etc.

As in the application for artists and creators, the major thing is that creators can earn royalty fees off their works in all the future generations of resale. Generally for physical artists, the primary sale of artworks benefits the artists directly the first time of a sale but all future resale will have no future profits for her.

With NFTs, it is a game-changer for artists and creators.

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READ MORE: 5 Malaysian Artists Share Their Story On Minting Their First NFT

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All images were supplied by Alvin Koay. 

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Follow Alvin Koay here. If you’re a creative who wants to be featured, get in touch with us here. 

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