Today we were lucky enough to be joined by UzziFX, an experienced UK digital artist who specialises in photo manipulation and stunning illustrations.
Uzzi, thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us.
‘A night into the cosmos’ is a breathtaking art piece that will be used on ‘The Lost Knights’ single cover, truly remarkable. How did you first get into creating digital art?
My first experience with photo editing started in 2009. I joined a group on flickr, remember them? The group used to set weekly themes where we would submit our macro photos relating to the theme. Flickr used to have an explore page which every photographer dreamed of their photos to be seen on. This motivated me to keep contributing to the group. I was always looking to find ways to make my photos unique and set them apart from others. This led to me trying photo manipulation techniques with online photo editing software like PicMonkey. I slowly found myself enjoying adding surreal elements to my photos.
Then came the era of fast smartphones which had amazing photo editing apps. I started using various apps and started making surreal art. By then Instagram started to take off and I found myself posting a piece of art nearly every day.
Although I had a Macbook pro at the time I could not afford photoshop so I opted to edit on my phone instead.
Your work primarily consists of highly detailed digital art that takes influence from many different genres making it truly unique.
What are your inspirations? This could be artists (NFT or non-NFTs), TV shows, music, or any random thing on the internet!
When it comes to inspiration, I would say that my art has a heavy influence from sci-fi and horror movies. Although I have never found pleasure in replicating scenes exactly, mainly because I liked to explore my own creativity and vision.
I was also a big fan of the series X-Files which influenced a lot of my early art.
In recent years I found film director Ridley Scott’s cinematography absolutely mind-blowing. Especially the otherworldly landscape visuals of the movie Prometheus.
I also had a lot of inspirations from the artist Robert Jahns on Instagram. He goes by the username ‘noise7’.
How has NFT art changed your life?
As of early 2021, my Instagram page reached 7k followers and I started to receive commissioned work. I was pretty happy making the odd bit of cash on the side while I carried out my day job in public services. But as I started to understand more about NFTs I realised I could potentially make a steady income by making my art available as NFTs.
Since March 2021 I have already earned around $800 dollars in NFT art. Whereas I was scraping $150 dollars a month on commissioned work.
The surprising factor that has changed in my life because of NFTs is finding so many friendly NFT artists on Twitter. I am amazed by the community they have built. I have made so many meaningful connections with people which I could not achieve in the past 11 years on any other social media platform.
Regardless of my success as an NFT artist, I will always find myself supporting the NFT community and enjoying the wonderful art they have to offer.
What is your work process from idea to finish?
When I create photo manipulations I find myself looking for free stock images on websites like Unsplash. I would scroll endlessly until I found a photo that looked interesting to me. I would then imagine what sort of surrealism I could add to the image. I like all kinds of photography but the images which I like to work with are mostly of the sombre mood.
The next part of the process is to find other images to blend with the original image. Once I have, I use the Procreate app on my Ipad pro to cut images and start blending. I would then digitally paint in highlights and shadows to add a more realistic appearance.
Finally I would make further adjustments on Adobe Lightroom, such as colour, light curves, sharpening, and noise reduction.
For the past 3 months, I have also started digital illustrations on my iPad with Procreate which I’m enjoying a great deal.
I don’t start with sketches as most illustrators do, I tend to jump straight in using different paintbrushes.
Cryptocurrencies and NFT have been dominating the world news for the past year thanks to the meteoric rise of Bitcoin, Cryptopunks, and of course, the famous Beeple $69M NFT purchase. What are your honest thoughts on the cryptocurrency and NFT space right now?
I am very new to the NFT scene, I only was made aware of it in early March this year. I received a random discord invite to a group about NFTs via Instagram. I then saw the news about Beeple selling his art for $69.3m which really got my attention. This is when I realized that the crypto blockchain could change the financial lives of artists like myself.
I believe NFTs are here to stay and there are endless opportunities for all types of artists to partake. I also believe NFTs will revolutionize the way brands and entrepreneurs choose to make other business ideas.
As an NFT artist, it has really helped me get close to famous influencers and celebrities such as Paris Hilton. I also have a few collaborations in the future with famous influencers and companies.
I think artists have a wonderful future ahead with the opportunity to work with people they have never dreamt of working with.
What are your other passions besides creating art?
In my spare time, I like to weight train at the gym, which is something I am looking forward to getting back into once the Covid situation starts to come under control.
I also like watching football and I’m a big fan of the Arsenal football club in England. When I am not watching football I play alot of Fifa on my Playstation.
This is something CoinBurp asks new starters in the company as part of their Q&A interviews that get posted on the blog, but the answers are always great! What TV show or movie are you ashamed to admit you love?
My guilty pleasure is watching the British soap drama ‘Eastenders’. Most of my friends think I hate it but it’s not true shh!
One particular movie I like watching which I’m ashamed to admit is the romantic comedy ‘When Harry Met Sally.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for us. The CoinBurp team can’t wait to see you grow as an artist!
Post some links to where people can find your artwork and social media accounts. Also, feel free to shout out anything else you wish.
https://www.instagram.com/uzzifx/
Important Information
Cryptocurrencies are generally not regulated and investors do not have access to recourse or compensation schemes such as, for example, in the UK, the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Investing in cryptocurrencies can be high risk and investors should carefully evaluate their appetite for risk and their understanding of trading cryptocurrencies prior to entering into a transaction.
