EarlyArt

Early is a New Zealand based web3 artist by night, office trapped consultant by day. He creates fun and quirky characters, with a focus on line art, pixel art and pixel animations. He started off in web3 in late 2021 getting caught out on the BTC going to 100k fomo, but has grinded back up in the space. Spent the first 6 months learning and vibin in the SOL NFT community to really get started in the space. Mid July 2022 started creating pixel art for projects and then got into digital line art in August 2022. He is always on the look out to jump into a few innovative projects through 1:1 art or collections.

1. You've been a member of Radar for a while now. I remember way back you were doing short video content using an AI host. Are you still making those videos?

Interesting question, the AI avatar videos I was putting together reviewing upcoming projects were really one of helping me grind for WL spots for other projects, while WL meta was running hot. Luckily, as I got a bit further into the space and started building up my portfolio with my projects, I could relax a little bit on the WL grind from a content creation perspective, as I was getting more spots through the projects and collections I was holding. Also coincided a bit with me starting to shift to creating digital art for projects instead.

2. What did you learn from those videos that eventually translated into your art later on?

I think one of the biggest learnings I took from creating those videos and content was actually more around understanding people and projects in the space as opposed to the art itself. It helped to learn how to quite quickly determine which projects and people were genuinely interested in their community versus just out here for numbers and profit. From an artist's side, it definitely taught me the importance of progress over perfection - being consistent and working on progress is better than striving for perfection and not putting anything out there because it wasn't absolutely perfect yet.

3. How did you know when you reached the point that you were ready to put something out?

It depends it bit on the purpose but generally, I want everything I am putting out to be at least clean. I know there are a lot of amazing artists in this space who are far better than me - people I am inspired by, take lessons from, and strive to progress to be like - but I don't get caught up on trying to be as good as them or matching them exactly because art is subjective and everybody has different tastes, for me it generally just has to get to a stage I can look at it, be happy it's clean and that I can vibe it as a web3 PFP/ identity before dropping it.

4. What was the first piece you put out?

The first pixel piece I put out was a bit of a degen project at the end when they were all going hot where I completely underestimated how much effort it is to try and launch a full NFT project - and that is very much why I've shifted back to just doing the art, and doing a "soft" project where it's a community focus for 1:1 art holders with a few extra perks for them.

My first ever line art piece was actually a quick fan art bit for Bell Studios who I was working with at the time.

5. Once you shifted focus, how did you eventually decide to start the Itty Bitty series you're working on now?

I think the main driver for me was as much as I like doing collections and art for other projects, it always needs to fit the project vision and character, etc so it's quite nice with 1:1 art to really create whatever I want to in the art. It also works better from a timing requirement perspective being a bit less intense with me able to go at my own pace.

6. Tell us more about Itty Bitty. What's the grand vision for it?

Not sure if grand vision is quite the right word for it but definitely got a vision for it. At the end of the day, I want it to stay focused on the art - creating quirky pixel and line art characters people can vibe with. Which is then combined with a place (discord) for holders to form a community of art enthusiasts. Then adding in perks for those who support the project and art such as custom pieces, series airdrops, collab benefits, and some WLs. The Pixel PFPs sub-collection specifically plays around with creating pixel versions of people’s favorite PFPs/ NFTs which adds quite a fun crossover element to it

7. What perks can holders of your work expect?

Hopefully one of the main perks is having a cool NFT they vibe with. But these days art itself isn’t enough (at least not unless you a very well-established in the space) so additional perks are: - Discord/ community access - WL/ airdrops for future series, editions, and the animation/glow-up tokens for later pieces of the series - WL and giveaways for other projects - Free Custom PFP/ token (for main series holders only) - NFT raffles (35% of proceeds go to a treasury wallet that will be used to purchase 1:1 art pieces and raffle them off to holders)

8. Awesome. Anything else you want people to know about your collection?

I think that covers pretty much all of it, other than a pretty open invite for artists or others who are keen to volunteer to support the project, participate as collabs, ask any questions about art, etc I'm always happy to chat and support - definitely bigger brains in the space to me but always happy to share my learnings!