Who are you?
I am Sh!g – UK based web-developer and NFT artist.
When did you start programming?
I have been doing art since I was a child. I never stopped being interested, when I was probably about 13 – we used to mess about in BASIC on the school computers.
10 print “You suck!”
20 goto 10
😉
When did you start making art?
I’ve always messed about with drawing and stuff – I would constantly doodle, although I don’t know if that counts as art. I’ve always experimented with procedural drawing and web stuff – but before H=N I never really finished anything.
What inspired the blind box and generative nature of mystery fish?
I love the KidRobot vinyl stuff and I really wanted to capture that vibe – but I wanted to make something that was personalized to the user somehow. Flygohr had the idea of the token burn and it was just the perfect idea – as soon as he told me he was going to do it I said “I have to steal that idea” – the burn transaction hash was the perfect thing to create a unique item because it was completely random and instigated by the user – so the NFT is only created that way because they burned it when they did. Great artists steal.
What has been your favorite randomly generated fish so far?
#194 Maximus Danger – three-eyed with incredible colors and Danger as a surname! perfect. #76 Zachary Strontium is another great three-eyed fish – pink, green & black – incredible colors for a random fish .
Tell us a little bit about the art-o-matic project.
I wanted to let collectors participate more in the experience of creating an NFT – I like the idea that although i’ve dictated the shapes and constraints but i have absolutely no control over what gets minted 🙂 I’ve seen some hilarious seeds when I browse them. It’s a great feeling when people enjoy your art as an experience and I think people are having fun with art-o-matic.
You have done pretty incredible in sales so far. What has been your secret?
Sales have definitely increased recently – I’m not even a tiny spec in the rear mirror of p1xelfool or Jjjjjjohn for reference though 🤣 I think if I’ve done anything right it’s to try and push the medium – I’ve been drawn to NFTs because they present a living canvas – so your art doesn’t have to look the same tomorrow. I’m lucky to have found an audience that it resonates with 🙂 Self-promoting on twitter helps as well – I know we all hate doing it but I did stop for about 3 weeks and in that time I sold nothing at all – engagement with the community is really important.
What are the future plans for mystery fish and art o matic or even just shig in general?
In the immediate term I’m trying to finish the Mystery Fish in hats special edition, so people can burn some red tokens – then there will probably be a Mystery fish Halloween Edition 🙂
I can see myself using art-o-matic to drop a few limited runs of art – I don’t think I’ll do another run of 1000 though – it takes me a lot longer than mark the habibi to sell that many 🤣
There’s a lot of stuff I figured out for art-o-matic that leads into future mystery fish stuff. I’m looking at smart contracts at the moment and trying to figure out how I might make a breeding mechanic work nicely.
The mysteryfish website needs some love and when I get time I’m adding an avatar generator – I start a lot of projects so there’s always a few in progress… its finishing a project thats hard.
What is your current dream goal?
To make enough money doing this that I can quit working full-time and do art experiments instead.
Are there any artists on Hic Et Nunc we should checkout?
The artists I feature the most in my collection are my favorites including
- Qubyt
- thisisarobot
- stefjillustrator
- flygohr
- thr33som3s
- _orderandchaos
- aebrer
- egglion
- miguelgarest
If you weren’t making NFTs right now what would you be doing?
I’d probably be trying to make a web-based game.
Anything Else?
Not that I can think of – thanks for the questions 🙂