Beauty in Darkness by Elena Turgeneva.
If you follow my blog, you already know that I have showcased some pretty incredible digital artists using the cutting-edge technology of NFTs. For this research piece, I am very excited to feature an artist from the field of 3D art. Introducing … Elena Turgeneva.
But first, time for an NFT market update. And as always, if you don’t get NFTs, read this explainer first.
NFT Market Update
Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is launching his own NFT collection. Read full story here.
Fortune Magazine reports they raised $1.3 million in Ether in their first NFT sale, with covers created by pplpleaser.
Penguins, penguins, penguins are taking over!
Without further ado, let’s meet Elena!
Who is Elena Turgeneva?
“Community is…people who inspire you, support you and sometimes even help you to make it through dark days.” – Elena Turgeneva
Elena Turgeneva is a 3D character artist based in Germany, who enjoys creating characters in all variations — from photorealistic to stylized.
You can find her on Twitter and across social media and art platforms here.
A Closer Look
I reached out to Elena to get a closer look into her mind and heart, as well as ask about her personal views. Here is what she had to say:
1. How and when did you get into art?
As far back as I can remember, I was always drawing and overall enjoying all kinds of creative activities — working with plasticine, sewing tiny clothes for my toys, making appliques from colorful paper etc. I went to art school at some point, so was mostly focusing on traditional art during that period of time. Then during my university years digital art really sparked my interest — I discovered DeviantArt and was absolutely blown away by all the amazing artworks I saw there, so saved some money, bought my very first small graphic tablet and started learning Photoshop. Then a couple years later I got my first job related to digital art in a small gamedev studio. I was doing 2D art at the time, and then a few years later I started making my first baby steps in 3D.
2. Where do you find inspiration to create 3D art?
Science fiction and fantasy in all forms — it can be a videogame, or a movie, or a comic book, for example. I think video games in particular were the main reason I decided to try my hand at 3D in the first place. Sometimes other artists’ works are also a big source of inspiration for me.
3. What is the worst situation in the world today? How does it affect you personally?
The first thing that comes to my mind is definitely the pandemic — it affected (and still keeps affecting) so many people all over the world on so many levels. It’s definitely one of the biggest challenges humanity had to face and we’re all still trying to adapt and learn to live in the “new world.”
For me personally it definitely affected my mental and physical health, because I had to stay away from traveling and overall from being more active, going out, eating out, going to concerts, seeing and meeting other people in real life, going to gym and things like that.
I’m an introvert, so initially I thought those things weren’t going to affect me too much, but I actually underestimated the role and the impact of all those small things in my everyday life and how they actually help me to keep myself in balance, prevent me from overworking and spending unhealthy amounts of time in front of my PC, for example.
4. What is your biggest barrier as an artist?
Definitely self-doubt. I often experience something which is called perfection paralysis: when I have an amazing idea, but my skill level is not enough for the result to come out the way I want, I would often struggle with even starting to work on a piece. There used to be times when I would take a very long break from creating art because of that. As you can imagine, it wasn’t helpful in any way. If you keep doing something regularly, you’ll inevitably keep getting better and better at it. But if you simply stop (like I sometimes did), there’s no chance to improve your skills and grow as an artist, this is a dead end. That’s why you just have to keep pushing.
5. What was your greatest personal achievement as an artist?
I definitely think the fact that one of my artworks was used as a ZBrush screensaver by Pixologic. ZBrush is a really popular 3D sculpting software widely used in the industry by 3D professionals. Back when I started using it and saw all these amazing artworks featured there, I couldn’t even imagine one of my works was going to be selected and appear there as well one day.
6. How and when did you get into cryptocurrency? What was the first crypto that you bought?
I first heard about cryptocurrency a few years ago (and wish I’d invested in Bitcoin back then ????), but got into it only in March 2021 because of the NFT hype. My first currency was Ethereum. I bought it to be able to mint my first NFT.
7. For you as an artist, how important is community?
It is very important (in the NFT space or outside of it, doesn’t matter much). These are people who inspire you, support you and sometimes even help you to make it through dark days. And you can also give back by supporting them as well, it sometimes does make a difference. Being a part of an artistic community also is a great way to share knowledge or receive advice. Connections you make or things you learn can be very influential in your life.
8. What is your advice to an artist who is thinking of jumping into the NFT space for the first time?
Be prepared to potentially fail and don’t get discouraged by it. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, don’t flush your previous life, career and achievements down the toilet regardless of whether you succeed or not. We’re still very early into this technology and it’s not very clear if it can be a reliable and sustainable source of income for artists, because we simply don’t know where it’s all gonna be even in the next couple of years.
Dive a little bit into the technical aspect of the cryptocurrency, including security. There’s a lot of scammers in the crypto world, so be extra careful and don’t click any links sent by people you don’t trust, stay cautious.
9. If you could meet any artist in history, who would it be?
Hieronymus Bosch, David Lynch and David Bowie for sure.
10. A decade from now, what do you predict will be the role of NFTs in our world?
I believe the smart contract technology itself has a huge potential and can be applied in a lot of fields, it doesn’t necessarily have to be tied exclusively to the art context. For example, it can be a proof of ownership or rent of a car or a house. There will definitely be way more applications of this technology than we can think of now. We live in a digital era and more and more things get “digitized”, so to speak, and NFTs can be implemented very nicely into all this, basically serving as sorts of digital contracts or documents confirming and containing all kinds of transactions and other data.
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This content is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute trading advice. Past performance does not indicate future results. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose. The author of this article may hold assets mentioned in the piece.
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