Meet the artist behind KryptoKumas

I came across this artist durning the week I loved his work but was struggling to get attention from the community so I shared his profile on twitter but now we got to get a meet the artist dine check it out .

Hey man how you ?

Hey Crackers, I am good my friend thanks for having us!

Anytime . So you having a good day ?

Its been a great day here in Western PA in the US. How is Ireland today?

Good very chilled day . Do anything exciting today ?

Thanks good, chill is always something we should take the second to appreciate in our fast moving digital era! So respect! We did actually, today we reached our 150 followers goal for Krypto Kumas, and have applied for the Atomichub whitelisting. Also working on the assets for our entry into the Nefty Blocks Halloween Pack. Pretty exciting day for us Kumas.

Oh nice so you have been busy enough today so what brought you into the crypto world in the first place ?

Yes pretty busy for sure. About 2017 is when I entered into the crypto world, my uncle who is a pretty big "end of the dollar" kinda guy and began bringing any family members that would listen to him, into the space. I put maybe $300 into BTC in 2017 and then hadn't looked at my Coinbase app for 2 years or so. By Christmas of 2019 i had turned a 3,500 profit and knew that our world was changed forever. Also the same reason I was tipped off about the NFT world maybe about a year ago.

Ah when did you start looking at NFTs ?

Not until this year sadly, Funkos NFT release is when I finally got on board with a wallet for NFTs for I am a physical collector of Funkos with over 250 pcs lol

Oh wow I was collecting funkos for a while myself still have a few somewhere . Oh any pics of your pop funko collection ?

And when you started collecting NFTs did you have plans about launching a project ?

Wow, small world. Yeah it's a slight addiction, but also a pretty lucrative community to be in. My whole life i knew I wanted to be an artist and had began to learn anything I could like Blender3D, 3D printing, Video game design using many if different platforms. So didn't start with intentions of creating NFTs, but it was kinda reaching out to snatch me up so to say. LoL

How did you decide about what your project was going to be ?

I knew I wanted something a bit more PFP-style approach on WAX, it didnt seem like there was many larger market approaches to projects. Im a big fan of Japanese culture and was raised on american mangas and the cute-style art of properties like Hello Kitty and TokiDoki. KUMA is a Japanese's given name that means "BEAR". I'm a major pop culture enthusiast, but love coming up with original characters, So Krypto Kumas is kinda where it all came together with cute costume kumas. lol

So was wax your first option for minting your project ?

Yes Wax was my first option for minting the project, I hadn't really even understood the processes it was going to have behind it, we kind of grew and adapted when we first released on 9/28/2021 cause i had never experienced being an artist in the NFT market until then.

Ah so what was the first NFT you minted ?

I had made a collection prior to KryptoKumas called VAMPIRE ZOMBIE NINJA and made a few mock up trading card style NFTs for it, but in the end had burned the results, with just testing the market.

Can I ask why you you burnt it ?

I believe I still have the template and could mint more, and still have the collection with plans to revisit it some day now that I understand how to organize a bit better. I think I had felt like I didn't have the knowledge and know-how yet to take it where I wanted it to go. And felt the 3d models crossed with the digital 2d art was a bit much to chew off for a newcomer in a space I hadn't known yet. So I went back to the drawing board, studied the market and came up with a plan. And that's where KryptoKumas and tokuma village were born.

Ah so was it fear of it failing ?

A Little bit of that, and a little bit of having OCD and didn't want to see something showing up in my inventory, that i felt wasn't worthy of what it could of been. lol...Vampire Zombie Ninja is my original character and designer toy brand I came up with back when I was like 18, and I am now 31. I definitely have plans to revisit the collection strongly. Just hadn't felt the asset was well designed enough.

Awh I understand so what was the first minted on this project ?

I think the first templates I came up with were the kuma stickers cause I knew I wanted to start light. Then I followed up with the Kumas themselves....The common (Krypto Kuma) came first, being it was the base temp for my design of the rest of them. The 4 costume kumas like Jason and Captain Kuma, and then the three Original (Robo-Kumas) came after. And then its been a roll since then.

How many have you created since ?

28 so far since last month .

Wow what has been your favorite ?

It has to either be the Robo-Kumas or The Zombie-Kumas, I had began to learn how to use my color work as what made one more rare than the other, and started taking that into consideration when counting out the mints I wanted, to add, to have the rarity over one another.

Can we have a pic ?

Of course... Are fav lately has to be out very first gif Kuma.

Which we consider our "Collectors Edition" and there only available thru blending.

Oh I love that . How long does it take to create ?

Some of the less complicated ones usually take maybe 5 mins on concept sheet's, than 20-30 mins for the digital art. I think MEGA-KUMA and the POWER-KUMAS took the longest, for the constancy of the reference material. They at whole took mayb 2 hours.

What programs you use to create ?

For the KryptoKumas, I use paint.net it's an open source program. And sometimes use the PicsArt app on my mobile device for other artwork and mock ups for the Kuma's.

Have you done collabs yet ?

Our Collab with you and Meet the Artist will be our first shot at a Collab. And we are excited for many more to come across a lot of the great collections on WAX.

Oh the first will always be the most nervous . Who would be your dream collab?

Really hoping to snag a future Collab with the upcoming Virus Busters. We think they have a similar structure with their story telling abilities and there website and design work is some pretty top notch stuff in my opinion on WAX and we have been in talks with President Buster on the possibility's of just that.

I have been trying to get an interview from them lol .

I told him about you and suggested he be your next interview just last night! lol that's funny . High hopes man, high hopes lol .

Thank you . Are you a collector on wax ?

I am a collector on wax, some of my favorite wax products are Digital Ducks, Cryptbananas, Olivermorph1, Bunnyon world and Pixel pop heros and a bit of the Funko stuff. As much of a Funko guy as I am, I always had an obsession with independent stuff more than the mainstream collectibles .

Ah so whats your biggest collection in your wallet ?

Cryptbananas I own 21 pcs, with Digital Ducks behind that owning 11 pcs, and I am also a gold quack badge holder.

Nice . Have you looked at any other blockchains for your NFTs ?

I have been talking with some crowd sourcing pages for the possibility of shifting to something bigger like Opensea, but I think we are gonna stick strongly with wax and do our best to use the kumas as a popular PFP-style property similar to graffittikings "cryptokids". And at this point I think we are just going to wait for the coinbase NFT market, and just keep the kumas pushing on wax until then.

Ah that's good to hear so what you think has been the best lesson you learnt creating your project ?

That you never know how much people will love what you have to give until you release it to the public, and to organize a plan first and then execute with respect to your fans and community. And to never stop working, Keep your head down and work hard! I am a full time, stay at home dad of two kids, boy and girl with an at home tech support job. So I'm lucky to be able to remain so dedicated so closely to he kumas. But I honestly get maybe 3 1/2 hours of sleep a night....If YOU don't take YOU serious, than no one will!

I know the feeling about the sleep 5 hours is like a whole night sleep . So how do you like to keep your community up to date ?

Mainly we have been focused on our twitter to on-board collectors and followers, but our discord will grow and evolve as we begin to grow on twitter and more attention can be focused on our discord....we are also looking into purchasing a domain name and site that can be the "command center: for sign ups, whitepaper, and roadmaps.

But twitter is our go-to for updates and notifications.

https://twitter.com/KryptoKumas?t=PB25r3pJ1IO1Vvb-E9nvPQ&s=09

https://noise.cash/u/KryptoKumas

Your community and the backing provided by you and your great platform, have given us close relations with a lot of WAX community that we hadn't been prior too.

That's what I am here for . Where can we buy your NFTs ?

.https://neftyblocks.com/c/kryptokumas1/marketplace?sort=created&order=desc&page=1&is_transferable=true

AtomicHub: https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/collection/kryptokumas1

So where you from ?

I am from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania here in the states.

Tell us something random about you ?

Something Random? I have a love for color pallets and saturation in any artwork. And my favorite Artist/Creator is Genndy Tartakovsky. The creator of samurai jack and Dexter's lab.

What you like to do to unwind wen your not creating ?

Spend time with my two kids watching some new movies were into, meditating, and listening to Joe Hisashi, a Japanese composer of all the Studio Ghibli music

Cool . When is the next drop ?

Other than the upcoming Halloween-Kumas for the nefty blocks drop. We are looking into tokenizing what we call the "kuma-fruit" that will go hand in hand with 1WAX and act as our "token" in the village, which will feed kumas and provide new things thru blending, like special gifs of existing kumas, and allow us to continue to gamify Tokuma Village. Hoping to have the drop for the "kuma-fruit-token" up by next week.

Oh brilliant so something to look forward to. So you have created a beautiful NFT for the readers so how can they get there hands on it ?

The exclusive NFT Collab with "Meet the Artist" is exclusive to the readers .

https://neftyblocks.com/c/kryptokumas1/drops/53656?key=5K9sdrV1HVA6bEVp9VfkAogzUxTH1TVMwUukcmsvMC9KprAWxLD

So before we finish up is there anything you would like to add or say to the readers?

I just want to say a special thanx to you Crackers, and for anyone thats looking to get into the NFT community, and become an artist. Now is the time, this will be as big as the internet itself one day. We will speak to our kids about how this shift had created a whole new economic structure and the metaverse will be our future. If you are a fan of the Krypto Kumas and own even a single Kuma. I consider you family, and we take care of our bears! Appreciate all the love for Tokuma Village, Thank you very much to you all for this opportunity.

Its been a pleasure and hope to see get your whitelisting very soon.

Please check him out on Twitter and on Noise.cash .