Collstro

Collstro is a self-taught 21-year-old artist from Sweden. He has been drawing for as long as he can remember but didn't take art seriously until about 2019. That's when he mainly did pinup-style artwork for clients featuring female characters from popular games or anime. Fast-forward to January 2022, when he got his first gig as an NFT artist, which also ended up being the start of his pixel art journey. Since then he has made a lot of improvements and already has 4 pixel-art collections under his belt.

1. What made you start taking art seriously in 2019?

It's hard for me to remember now but I think I unironically did just wake up one day and be like "Alright I want to try and get better at drawing". So I went to my computer, picked up my old drawing pad, and drew some horrible female bodies without any knowledge so that I could gauge how much I needed to practice.

2. Keeping it family-friendly, why did you decide to start with the female body?

There's honestly no weird answer to it. I think the human body no matter gender has a very beautiful shape and flow to it which makes it my favorite subject to draw. And for whatever reason I found the female shape to be especially interesting to try and capture. I also did a lot of figure drawing classes when I was a bit younger, I think that might have influenced me to be interested in drawing people.

3. How did you go from that to discovering the NFT world?

I'd been in crypto for about 6 months before joining the NFT space last July, so I got a bit of exposure to the community. But it wasn't until one of my favorite YouTubers Seatin announced he would be making his very own NFT collection that I bought my very first NFT. It was through Seatins and Unicris' community that I got my first job making a collection, which ended up being in pixel art, which I had never done before.

4. How did get them to offer you the position?

I was approached by a prominent guy in the community who was interested in making a collection with someone and needed art done, so I just offered that someone to be me and somehow got the position. It made me very happy to land that gig, even though I haven't made a lot of money at all from doing NFT collections. Any amount of extra cash I get helps a ton as a broke student.

5. For sure! And on that note, you recently launched your first auction on Exchange Art. What's it like watching an auction for your first piece, and then the reaction when you see it sell?

I was honestly very nervous, but I decided beforehand that even if it didn't sell I wouldn't feel bad about it. I'm so excited about this new collection that I would have just continued releasing them until someone actually did purchase one. I think this is the best mindset to go into 1/1 art with. But fortunately 5 minutes before the auction ended it was scooped up!! And I think other artists can relate that the happiness didn't come from the money amount (it was like 7$), but rather from the principle of someone liking your art so much they would be willing to spend money to get it. Nothing beats that!

6. Tell us more about your new collection. What's it about and what makes you so excited about it?

The reason for wanting to create The Knight Order was first and foremost to make my debut as a 1/1 artist in a meaningful way that would allow me to try and push my limits. The collection is in and of itself the largest pixel size I've ever worked with before (128x128) which comes with its own challenges. I've gotten a lot of comments from people that they really like the knight designs so I feel like I'm on the right track. Worth mentioning though that this is a 1/1 collection 100% focused on art/animation with the main focus of creating a fun community with people who enjoy and want to support my art.

7. How did you choose knights?

The idea actually came from TurntUpDylan when he commissioned me for some concepts a few months ago. I just loved the idea of knights and felt it hadn't been done that often, so I went with it.

8. Do you have a goal (or goals) for what you want to accomplish with this collection?

Not that much more than I mentioned above. Try my best to start my 1/1 journey, improve my pixel art during the bear market, and create a nice simple community of pixel art enjoyers!

Follow Collstro as his journey continues!

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