{"id":11623,"date":"2023-04-22T17:03:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-22T17:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=11623"},"modified":"2023-04-22T17:03:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-22T17:03:44","slug":"from-snl-and-the-tonight-show-to-sothebys-nft-creator-bryan-brinkman-cointelegraph-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=11623","title":{"rendered":"From SNL and The Tonight Show to Sotheby\u2019s:\u00a0 NFT Creator Bryan Brinkman \u2013 Cointelegraph Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script>\n<p>From working on <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em> and <em>The Tonight Show<\/em> as an animator to now having more than 1,000 collectors of his NFTs, Bryan Brinkman is an example of how a digital artist can thrive in ways never before possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Best described as a digital pop artist with an emphasis on animation, Brinkman\u2019s fans include high-profile NFT collectors such as Pranksy, J1mmy.eth and WhaleShark. He has also been featured at Christie\u2019s and had fractionalized art of his put up for auction at Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScroll\u2019 by Bryan Brinkman. (SuperRare)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrior to NFTs, I spent 15 years working in various industries such as fashion, MTV shows and animated television series. I\u2019ve also worked a large chunk of my career on late-night TV shows like <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em> and <em>The Tonight Show<\/em>, which revolve a lot around humor,\u201d Brinkman says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen NFTs came along, animation finally became a medium that could be quantified and collected. It immediately clicked with me. There are lots of branches you can do as an animator, but this is the only one that allows you to truly be independent and in control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn its simplest form, I describe myself as a digital pop artist, but I also think mixed media is a term I use as well. I like to mix 2D and 3D as well as play around with different mechanics and forms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brinkman also understands how to market his work and build community \u2014 essential ingredients for an NFT artist today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think about dividing your time into thirds. Spend one-third of it making art, and spend another third working on marketing your art, whether that be making cool teasers or videos talking about your art, or maybe writing Twitter threads about how you made it. That stuff is very important. Then the final third is spending time in the community, learning from other artists, talking to other artists, just connecting in general,\u201d Brinkman states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned from many of the artists who came before me, whether it was Sarah Zucker, Coldie, Josie Bellini, Alotta Money, Hackatao, Matt Kane and a host of other OGs out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read also: <em>The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-influences\"><strong>Influences:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Brinkman draws inspiration from many styles and artists, but animation is at his core, and he studied it in college.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Don Hertzfeldt<\/strong> [American animator, writer and independent filmmaker, best known for animated films <em>World of Tomorrow<\/em> and <em>It\u2019s Such a Beautiful Day<\/em>] is a big one. He influenced me with a lot of his short films that are simply brilliant. <strong>Bill Plympton<\/strong> [American animator and cartoonist best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short <em>Your Face<\/em>] influenced me with his work ethic and how he was able to maintain an independent animation artist lifestyle for all these years. I think he\u2019s nearly 80 years old now,\u201d Brinkman states.<\/p>\n<p>Brinkman also cites pop artist <strong>Keith Haring<\/strong>, an American graffiti-inspired pop artist, and NFT artist <strong>Killer Acid<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Keith was able to ride the line between pop art and commercial art in a way that still kept his integrity. I also have to shout out Killer Acid, who inspired me to join the NFT space. He was a very early SuperRare artist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeace Sign Dude\u201d by Killer Acid, animated by Patrick Passaro. (SuperRare)<\/p>\n<p>In fact,<strong> <\/strong>\u201cPeace Sign Dude\u201d by Killer Acid is still his favorite NFT in his collection. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cJ1mmy.eth actually owned it, and he offered to give it to me as a gift, which was incredible. It\u2019s now my never-sell grail gift. Pretty cool story because it\u2019s the artist I discovered NFTs via and it\u2019s my collector who first supported my career, so it\u2019s my most special NFT.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read also:<\/strong> <strong><em>Become a hot new NFT artist via the \u2018soft shill taco method\u2019 \u2014 Terrell Jones\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Notable sales to date:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cBetty\u2019s Notebook,\u201d a collaboration with Async Music. This world\u2019s first programmable music NFT made $375,000 in sales. (Async Music)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFlywheel,\u201d an edition of 15, from the \u201cCTRL\u201d collection. CTRL was released on Nifty Gateway Curated on Sept. 16, 2022 and sold out, grossing over $100,000. (Nifty Gateway)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExplode.\u201d Sold at Sotheby\u2019s off-chain for $75,600 on Oct. 26, 2021 to Pranksy. (SuperRare)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYearn.\u201d Secondary market sale for 18 ETH ($58,400 equivalent on the date of sale) on Aug. 23, 2021. (SuperRare) <\/p>\n<h2><strong>Hot new NFT artists to watch\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Brinkman is a prolific NFT collector himself, with a reputation for spotlighting and elevating other artists:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alimo (<\/strong><strong>@alimofun<\/strong><strong>)<\/strong>: Best known for curvy post-pop imagery, highly saturated colors, vibrant hand-drawn letters and worlds inhabited by figures arranged on flat tonal surfaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Alimo does really beautiful landscapes that are very simplified and kind of pop art. The colors he uses are very soothing. I\u2019m a big fan of the stories he tells with surfing and snowboarding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ykha Amelz (<\/strong><strong>@ykhaamelz<\/strong>): Indonesian artist who specializes in 2D. She combines her inner-child nostalgia and chaotic mind into a vibrant universe populated by a family of cartoon characters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Ykha, I think the world she\u2019s building is extremely fun. It\u2019s sort of like a mixture of skater artwork, but then she has all these characters that go from scene to scene and tell a story. Visually, it\u2019s eye candy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jisu (<\/strong><strong>@JisuArtist<\/strong><strong>) <\/strong>\u2014 Korean-American illustrator based in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Jisu, her work has these harsh angles on faces, but there are lots of colors and almost like a glitchiness to it. I\u2019m a big fan. I think they\u2019re really cool. All three of them are crushing it. I imagine they\u2019re all going to be big names eventually.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read also: <em>Breakdancing medic\u2019s NFT auctioned at Sotheby\u2019s \u2014 Grant Yun, NFT creator<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Process:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cBreezy\u201d by Bryan Brinkman. (Nifty Gateway)<\/p>\n<p>Brinkman takes the process of making art on the blockchain seriously, as there\u2019s a record of the work forever, he points out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt usually starts with sketches. Sometimes this is done in physical form on a sketchbook, or sometimes it\u2019s Procreate on an iPad, but it unusually starts with thumbnails \u2014 which goes back to my background in animation, where you start with storyboards,\u201d says Brinkman.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI usually think small initially and then decide if it is an idea or an opinion and how I convey that visually. Not everything has the same deeper meaning, but usually, there\u2019s that thought process I go through, and then I refine it. From there, the process of building kicks in, and I\u2019ll use some animation software as I start building the pieces and it starts to evolve into its own thing. There\u2019s a lot of layers of refinement and tweaking required as well as getting the timing and motion to feel right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce it becomes an animation, I then need to decide, is this going to be a video with audio or an animated GIF? Should it be tall, or wide, or square?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFinally, I\u2019ll give consideration to how I think it\u2019s going to be displayed, because everything\u2019s on the blockchain forever. I think about building things for TV screens because that\u2019s going to be how people look at this stuff in the future. It\u2019s a lot of different steps along the way, but each of those steps can have a totally different detour that turns the work into something totally different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read also<\/p>\n<p>                            Features<\/p>\n<p>The Lizard People Invented Bitcoin: Crypto is a Hotbed for Conspiracy Theories<\/p>\n<p>                            Features<\/p>\n<p>Crypto Crimes Rated: From the Twitter Hackers to Not Your Keyser, Not Your Coins<\/p>\n<h2>The <strong>NFT space is missing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>For Brinkman, discoverability is the missing piece of the puzzle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to find artists. We need sites that allow you to see artists and new artists. We need to create algorithms that show you other artists that are in the style you might be searching for,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrently, it\u2019s all word of mouth and based on influencers on Twitter, which is fine, but it\u2019s still a very curated way of doing it,\u201d says Brinkman.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think, for better or worse, artists need liquidity on their secondary markets. To that degree, maybe some sort of universal artist bid mechanism where I will buy any piece by this artist for X amount of money. That way, there\u2019s always a low level of liquidity like you\u2019d see in places like Blur.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome artists might say that\u2019s a terrible thing. I don\u2019t know. But there is that problem right now. When you buy art, it\u2019s hard to get out of it if you need to in a pinch. I think if there is that, that will attract more people that might see it as more of a liquid asset than a long-term investment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBull Run\u201d by Bryan Brinkman. (Nifty Gateway) <\/p>\n<h2><strong>Royalties debate<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Since the explosion of Blur over the last four to five months, the royalty debate has been a hot topic. Incentives to use Blur to receive future airdrops have been a significant driver in OpenSea\u2019s market-share hit.<\/p>\n<p>Blur does not recognize royalties, which was part of the value proposition for NFT artists in the early days when the narrative was that creator royalties would be paid in perpetuity via a smart contract. However, royalties are actually captured at the marketplace level, and many artists have been understandably outspoken about missing out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realized very early on that creator royalties were a social contract, not a smart contract,\u201d Brinkman says.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Read also: 4 out of 10 NFT sales are fake: Learn to spot the signs of wash trading<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople would trade my SuperRare one-of-ones and not pay royalties. So early on, I knew not everybody was going to pay royalties. So, how do we look at this situation? I think some of it is an incentive question.<\/p>\n<p>Brinkman says that if there are secondary hubs where everything is listed, there is discoverability and royalties are paid, then \u201cthat\u2019s going to be the place where you go to buy art, and that\u2019s where artists send people. I believe 70% of people will just go there and buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou pay a premium because they have everything in one place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen there are going to be these people that are going to go off and try to find the best deal. Maybe my 70\/30 prediction is off, but I think there\u2019s always going to be the dynamic of ease of accessibility versus avoiding royalties.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Links:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Linktree: linktr.ee\/bryanbrinkman<\/p>\n<p>Twitter: twitter.com\/bryanbrinkman\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Website: bryanbrinkman.com\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe<\/p>\n<p>The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a<br \/>\n        week.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"author__name\">Greg Oakford<\/h2>\n<p>Greg Oakford is the co-founder of NFT Fest Australia. A former marketing and communications specialist in the sports world, Greg now focuses his time on running events, creating content and consulting in web3. He is an avid NFT collector and hosts a weekly podcast covering all things NFTs.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tFollow the author \t\t\t\t\t\t\t@GregOakford<\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/snl-the-tonight-show-christies-sothebys-nft-creator-bryan-brinkman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From working on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show as an animator to now having more than 1,000 collectors of his NFTs, Bryan Brinkman is an example of how a digital artist can thrive in ways never before possible.\u00a0 Best described as a digital pop artist with an emphasis on animation, Brinkman\u2019s fans include [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitcoin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11625,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions\/11625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}