Meet the artist behind Fishbait

I always love to find cool little projects and this one I kept coming across this project on WAXdao site and I only finally bumped into him in the WaxAlliance discord so I had to get him and I am glad he was happy to chat so find all about the artist and the project

Hey

Hey

How are you?

Pretty good. Busy work day but that's par for the course

Oh really can you answer some questions?

Sure can

Are you long in crypto?

I've been dabbling with crypto for about a year now, but playing in the NFT space since December of '21. Starting creating NFTs about 4 months ago or so...seems like longer though

What made you start creating?

Kind of a long story but I'll piece it together for you. I've been doing amateur photography for a while now and I wanted to start showing off some of my photos. So I created xansphotofun. I started creating NFTs based off my photography. At that same time I was working on a (very simple) project for work in Inkscape. As I was learning Inkscape and figuring out how to use the different tools it provides, I decided one day that I was going to try to make a simple drawing. So I decided to attempt to draw a worm in Inkscape. That took some time...a simple worm should be fairly fast, right? Anyway so after failing on my worm drawing and redoing it multiple times, the original Joe was born. Original Joe had a much smaller head and face and you couldn't really see his facial expression so I decide to redo his head completely. After I completed Joe, (mostly as you see him now, the light features are newly added when I did the PFP drop to really focus on his facial features) I decided that he looked pretty good and I felt like he was a cute/cool looking character that I could build an entire collection around and that people would like to see and collect. At that time FishBaitNFTS were born. So I guess you could say that I got my feet wet in the NFT space with my photography but I really dove in head first when I created FishBait...and now it consumes my free time while I work on creating new artwork for my small but growing community.

What's Fishbaits NFTs all about?

FishBait originally just started as a collection of art, static and animated, that is going to tell about the adventures of Joe and friends. The primary mission is still to provide NFTS that outline these adventures. However, since it's inception, I've been working on some ways to provide a utility for FishBait for the FishBait community. Currently their is a WAX staking farm on waxdao for fishbaitnfts. (2nd largest WAX pool on waxdao at this moment) Also working on another project that will provide a utility for FishBait through a game that already exists. That utility is in the early stages of brainstorming and development but it's definitely moving in a very positive direction. I'm hoping to have that up and running within the next month. So FishBait is a collection of art with a small (currently) added bonus of utilities

When did you drop your first NFT?

I dropped my first xansphotfun NFT in March and my first FishBait in May. FishBait has always done much better than the other one. That probably speaks a lot about the target market (or my photos are terrible...could go either way).

What was it?

For xansphoto fun, the first NFT was template #453659 Country Living Sketch Effect 1. (Not that great ) The first actual drop was template #479472 San Francisco River 1. It was a free drop to try and get more people interested. For FishBait, the first template and drop were the same. It was template #512999 Promo Joe followed soon after by template #513143 Founding Supporter which sold out (only 20 mints) within 24 hours.

So are you making more NFTs on Fishbait?

Absolutely. I'm currently working on a collab with another creator that we haven't announced yet but ...COMING SOON. I have many ideas lined up. I'll be working on the next utility nfts as soon as I finish up with the collab and get it released. I also have plans to do a large PFP release of Marley and the new character that hasn't been released or even introduced yet. His name is Jerome and is the result of ideas given to me by a member of the community HakHimself (also named by him).

Oh any sneak peaks?

I have a really early sneak peak of the collab one I can share and then how about one that I plan on releasing for Halloween?

Still so much work to do on this one before it's ready.

Cap'n Joe Hook. He'll probably get a makeover prior to his release but this is kind of the base concept design

Ha ha ha so guessing a snail for the collab lol and I love the pirate . What programs you using to create them?

Not a snail for the collab. That's actually a seed that will grow into a flower when I get it animated (but now I know what I need to work on so thanks ) . It'll take some time. I use Inkscape for creating the art and then I use Gimp to do the animated gifs.

How long does a normal NFT take to create?

That's a really hard question to answer because there are so many variables. I can do a simple static one in an hour or less but when it comes to animations and building a full scene, those take me days or sometimes weeks. I'm still pretty new to creating but I do think that I've made obvious improvement in ability since I started just a few months ago but I have so much more to learn and skills to develop.

Who would be your dream collab?

I'll narrow it down though to just a few. Jonezy, skunkychunkys, and petsofclark. A couple others that I didn't name but that's because they would be willing to collab already

What has been the favourite part of doing your project?

Growing the FishBait community and interacting with the wax community as a whole. I've had the pleasure of 'meeting' some pretty awesome people.

What's been the hardest?

Advertising for myself and self promotion. That's something that I'm still learning. So many things to learn in the crypto/NFT space but I've had a lot of fun learning it so far

What does your family think of your project?

The family is very supportive of my project. My kids absolutely love Joe. They think he's the coolest worm and now when we go fishing as a family we no longer take 'worms' we take a tub of 'Joes' fishing.

What's the long term for the project?

That's a great question. I do have some ideas in my head but they're not really fleshed out yet and I don't want to make any promises that I can't fulfil for my community. So long term at this point is just to continue to grow the FishBait community and continue finding new ways to offer a utility for my collectors. I want to be able to provide a value to the NFTs that I create and I feel that the more utilities I can add (or be added to) is just adding value to my collection for the benefit of the community. I know that's kind of a general answer but I think that's the best I'm willing to give at this time.

What do you like to do to unwind?

I love to go fishing and hiking and just generally spending time outdoors whenever I get the opportunity.

Tell us something random about you?

Random? Let's see...I also coach high school wrestling (you know...in my spare time)

Hmmmm lol. When the next drop?

I don't have a date yet for my next drop yet. I don't want to rush anything with an announcement date and then release something that I wish I had done better later.

Where is the best place to keep up with the project?

Best place is on Discord and to a lesser extent Twitter.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/xannash

Discord: https://discord.gg/35Us6MSFVZ

Where can we buy your NFTs?

https://neftyblocks.com/c/fishbaitnfts

https://neftyblocks.com/c/xansphotofun

Any chance of a competition for the readers?

Yes. Let's do 3 packs from Xansphoto and 3 packs from my Fishbait galactic123

Brilliant man before we finish is there anything you would like to say or add?

Thank you for spending the time with me. I appreciate you

Your welcome

So guys to win a pack of each of his projects check the line below

https://twitter.com/Crackers832/status/1567269431633395712?s=20&t=QUlXepAZsnfRXsPs6RJWKg