How To Create NFT Art

The new buzzword being heard around the world is non-fungible tokens - or NFTs, as you’re more likely to have come across them.

In essence, NFTs are digital tokens that are stored on the blockchain (a digital ledger). With cryptocurrency, each coin is the same but with NFTs, each one is entirely unique and they’re a way of proving ownership over a digital file of some kind, whether that’s an image, an audio file, a video or something else entirely.

With all this NFT chatter going on, no doubt you’ve already started thinking about how you could get it on all the action. And the good news is that you don’t really need much in the way of computer and technology skills in order to get the job done, so no need to worry if that’s what’s been holding you back from creating your own NFT art.

From a creative perspective, there are all sorts of benefits associated with making digital art of this kind - but perhaps the main one is that you’ll be able to extend your reach quite astronomically, finding all sorts of new and exciting target markets and new art enthusiasts with whom you can share your work.

But it’s not just artists and other creatives that can benefit from delving deep into the NFT world and businesses would perhaps be wise to start investigating the various ins and outs of digital tokens in the near future so as to stay well ahead of the competition.

Enterprise NFTs, for example, can be used by businesses to represent ownership and track assets through software and other technology. Interestingly, they can also be used to register trademarks, manage business data and record ownership rights, so there are all sorts of ways in which companies could take advantage.

NFT art can also be created to help businesses from a marketing point of view, as well. Some of the biggest brands in the world - think Dolce & Gabbana, Adidas, MAC as just a couple of shining examples - are already knee deep in NFTs and if they’re finding success, it’s highly likely that you could too.

What have you got to lose, in any case? It’s certainly worth a try and who knows! It could revolutionise the way you do business in the future and shout to your customers that you’re at the very cutting edge of what’s going on.

But how do you go about creating NFT art? What’s the best first step to take? Read on to find out more.

Step 1. Choose your blockchain

So you’ve identified a piece of artwork or other media that you think would translate well as an NFT. What happens next? Well, first of all you’ve got to choose the blockchain through which you want to create your NFT. The most common blockchain right now is Ethereum, although you could research others like Tezos, Tron, Binance Smart Chain and Polkadot.

Every time you carry out a transaction on the blockchain, you’ll be charged a fee. These fees are known as gas and you’ll have to pay associated charges when selling and transferring any NFTs you decide to create.

Gas fees on Ethereum can be higher than other blockchains, so if you’re working to a tight budget or are just dipping your toe in the water, look to the likes of Flow, Solana and Polygon, which are on the cheaper side.

Step 2. Choose your NFT platform

Now you’ve got to choose your NFT marketplace - and you’ll find yourself seriously spoiled for choice. Of course, this is great for all you artists out there, since you’ll be able to find one that has lots of experience dealing with the kind of NFTs you’re looking to create.

Curated platforms are those where only authorised artists are allowed to mint or create NFTs - so this is the place to go for high-quality works of art. Self-service platforms, meanwhile, allow anyone and everyone to create NFTs in any kind of format they want.

Step 3. Open a crypto wallet

A digital or crypto wallet is necessary so you have somewhere to store your NFTs and somewhere to squirrel away all your cryptocurrency profits from any sales you make. Hot tip: make sure that your wallet is compatible with your choice of blockchain before you do anything else!

Once your wallet is up and running, transfer over some cryptocurrency to cover any associated fees, connect it to the platform you’ve gone for and then you’re ready to begin your NFT career.

Step 4. Create & list your NFTs

It’s time to unleash your creativity! Now all the set-up work is done and dusted, you can start to list your creations as collections on your platform, including name, description and a display image. Upload your files, give your digital art tokens a name and you’re done!

There’s also the choice to create more than one edition of the same NFT. However, bear in mind that if you want to make your art more collectible - and therefore more valuable - you may want to go for a standalone token instead.

There’s also the possibility of lazy minting your NFTs, where you don’t pay any gas fees for listing the token but the purchaser pays the platform for the minting process once they’ve bought your NFT.

Step 5. Start selling yourself

People won’t just stumble across your NFTs. You’ve got to market them effectively and social media platforms are perfect for this. Instagram may well be a great place to start, since it’s picture-led and you’ll be able to really showcase your artistic flair with the greatest of ease.

Whatever you do, don’t put restrictions on yourself. Practically anything can be an NFT, everything from memes and gifs to collectibles, tweets, music and even full-length feature films… so the only limit is your own imagination!