I first heard about NFT art around 2019, and thought it sounded right up my alley, as I've been painting digitally for decades. I wrote the original Corel Painter manuals and I have been painting with the software ever since. But I got busy painting commissioned portraits and landscapes and forgot about NFTs.
Then in March 2021, I saw an interview with Mark Cuban talking about NFTs and it finally got through to me to create them.
I thought I would revisit my 2d abstract art that I exhibited in New York and during Art Basel several years earlier. Entitled Roller Coaster Dreams, I painted the series to illustrate my childhood dreams of highways turning into roller coasters.
I also have studied screenwriting for many years and I have always loved the abstract films of Oskar Fischinger and the process of rotoscoping, and fortunately or unfortunately, I thought I might take the opportunity to combine all this movie interest and create animations/motion graphics based on my 2d abstracts. I say fortunately because it was a passion of mine, but I say unfortunately because I didn't realize how steep the learning curve would be and how many months it would take to get up to speed with animation software.
Then, if I didn't have enough to keep me busy, I realized that most animated NFTs have sound, so, having played the violin, flute, guitar and piano at various times in my life, I decided to learn midi software and design the sound myself.
As the months went on, my NFT took on a life of its own. I started out painting the main character based on a photo from a royalty-free website. Though this is perfectly legitimate and lawful, from an ethical standpoint, it didn't seem right to me to use someone else's photo in my work. So I replaced the portrait I painted based on the photo with a portrait I created from my imagination. And while you still see my abstract art in the NFT, the character was named Lulu and became the star of the show
It's a great turn of events because Lulu will now have many episodes, creating many NFTs, always with my abstract art as the basis.
Creating the sound was a real joy. I got a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and wrote some tracks. It was another steep learning curve to overcome, but it was fun.
So the result is The Adventures of Lulu, Episode 1, Roller Coaster Dreams, coming soon to an NFT marketplace near you.
Click here to watch the first trailer, click here to follow me on Twitter and click here to follow me on Instagram.
And come back soon for news about the genesis minting of the Adventures of Lulu NFT!