Meet the artist behind Fiendandfoes

I meet this artist through the Wax Alliance Discord the artist goes by the name AsterKore she is Australian her work is really cool and is trying to include more animation in her NFTs as she goes forward check out her journey and how she creates her work .

Hey

Hey

How you today

I'm great and you?

I am good just working away . Will you do much work on the project today?

I worked on some WIP's and released one of my new NFT's for the collection

Oh brilliant so what brought you into the crypto world?

I think I had heard of bitcoin initially, then I got into Ethereum for a while what made me buy ETH in the first place was the whole gamestock/robinhood saga I saw on some news. I found it cool that the power of communities with a cause can create change. So that made buy some Ethereum and other crypto. Just because it's a cool idea. Just as an investment or trading. Then one of my friends got out of prison and I hadn't seen him in a while. He told me about NFT's because I did a lot of art so I started reading more about it and now I make my own NFT's

How did you come across WAX?

Well because I was already holding some ETH I first started on Opensea. The thing that put me off were the gas fees and the traffic. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy making the art. I can't remember which podcast I was listening to but they were talking about games on WAX such as Alien Worlds and it being a more accessible way of minting multiple NFT's. I think they also spoke about the community being supportive and not having gas fees enabled users to gift NFT's and share more things with each other. That was more my vibe, so I stuck with it and find it way more enjoyable.

What is the idea behind your project?

I've always naturally gravitated more towards dark art. I doodle all the time and it's usually a monster of some sort, or something creepy. So I wanted to do a series of dark characters. I had never really done a lot of digital art previously. One day I got a call asking if I can teach digital technology at a school, and part of that was teaching game design. One of the projects I had to teach involved creating pixel art and a game. I got really into it and started drawing more pixel art in my free time. I wanted to translate my usual art style into a pixel medium and I really enjoyed the results. That's how I started my Fiendandfoes collection.

When did you launch the project?

I think around May 2022

Was that on Wax or Opensea?

That was on Wax it was Nosferatu

How did the community react?

Umm. I didn't have twitter or discord or anything so I wasn't really connected to any sort of community. So my stuff was largely unnoticed. I am a fairly shy and private person so it wasn't until I had minted a few more that I actually started interacting with the community and I was surprised to have my work quite well received and had a lot of positive comments. I am really glad I started connecting with people on the blockchain more and started supporting other projects as well.

Would you say you have a community for the project now?

Yeah the Wax Alliance

How many NFTs have you dropped on wax since launch?

I have 9 different characters and 1 short animated "psychotic" episode. 104 NFT's in the collection so far

How do you create your NFTs?

I use Pixel Studio on my touchscreen laptop with my stylus. The characters are usually inspired by something in my life, for example I found this cool lake and bushland on the edge of an industrial area near my house that is just gorgeous and a little bit sketchy. I go jogging there at night with my friend. I recorded a lot of the frog sounds and atmosphere after the sunset and we found a lot of mushrooms about. That's how Shroomer and the animated episode came to be. Some pieces that didn't take as long I am not completely happy with so I have learnt to pace it.

How long does it normally take to create each NFT?

It takes me about a month. I will draw the overall image/idea over 4/5hours, then step away from it for a while to work on oil paintings or screen printing. I keep going back to work on it to further refine it which takes the longest. I would love to time myself to see how many hours are actually put in.

Wow that some amount of time . Do you have a favorite?

My favorite is the animation. It took me an incredibly long time, and I was learning to use the animation features while doing it and made so many mistakes which forced me to essentially rework and redraw each frame to get smooth movement. But the effect is pleasing. Especially the hand with the teapot. When I am ready to do another episode I will have more foresight and hopefully the process won't take as long.

Have you a done any collabs yet?

Not yet. I haven't really sought them out though until I am more experienced in my craft. I learn something new each time.

Who would you love to collab with when your ready?

I honestly don't know

Are you NFT collector?

Yeah, I don't own heaps but I have some of Breadcritters pieces, thelostmasks, Pixtalgiawax and Antylerworld. I am hoping to buy some more sometime.

Do you have a favourite artist or do you just collect the NFTs you like?

I just collect the ones I like, the ones that speak to me the most

Of course . What has been the best part of doing your project?

Developing a consistent theme and playing with colour to give the characters a 3d look in such an inherently flat, pixelated medium. Giving my characters life and putting them out in the world . They're dark characters but they're friendly. Like you have to make friends with dark parts of yourself. It's a worthwhile process

What's been the hardest part?

Probably promoting myself and being more active in the community. I struggle with that in general... it's a bit intimidating. But you know, art means a lot to me and I just recently quit my day job to do it full time so I guess it's time to embrace all that comes with being an artist.

When will be the next drop?

Today 04/10/2022.

Any sneak peaks?

This little lady is in the works. She's a blue vampire witch with a moon in the background. I want to give her some more love before I bring her out.

Will she be animated?

I'll think about it. I wouldn't mind if she showed us a bit of fang action.

Sounds good . What you like to do to unwind?

Spend time in nature or eat something delicious.

Tell us something random about you?

Hmmm I have a health science degree I don't really use and I love to do tie-dye and I just made the worst tasting soup I don't know how I stuffed that up.

Lol I love a good home made soup .

Yeah I had such a craving and all I have now is disappointment. At least I have good crusty bread.

Where the best place to keep up with your project?

https://asterkore.com/ or on my socials @astergram_444 on instagram on twitter https://twitter.com/AsterKore

Where can we buy your NFTs?

You can find them on AtomicHub

https://wax.atomichub.io/market?collection_name=fiendandfoes

Any chance of a competition for the readers?

Yeah! I'd love to giveaway my Vampire witch, I will release 10 NFT's of her so perhaps if your readers Retweet and follow both our twitter accounts when you post the interview they could get a piece of the action? Does that work for you?

Happily so before we finish up is there anything you would like to add?

Thanks for reading and supporting my art. Crackers you're a legend. Thanks for the interview.

Anytime

Check out are competition below

https://twitter.com/Crackers832/status/1577236375643881472?s=20&t=omfCHopbka0bdOHUZzB9ug