An Unlikely Crypto Creative [Interview with Fil Dunsky, Illustrator...

The “Unlikely Crypto Creative” series of interviews and stories are centered around creative professionals who have made their way into the world of blockchain and have begun to apply their practices to the new domain.

The Creative Crypto (TCC): Tell us about yourself, your (creative) background!

Fil Hive account@dunsky: Hi guys, my name is Fil Dunsky and I’m a freelance illustrator. I was born in the Far East of Russia into a family of artists. I’ve been drawing for all my life. After graphic design and arts university, I worked for about a year as a corporate designer and then went freelance as an illustrator.

For the last ten years, I have been drawing commissioned work. I would say it has been pretty successful because usually I do not have a single free day without any illustration project in a queue. Most of the time it’s 3-5 projects in a row.

I only work in my personal style and I create illustrations for advertisements, books and mags covers, websites and all kinds of packages for big brands like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Wrigley etc. I also draw portraits for private clients and sometimes pursue fun activities by creating some stickers for messengers and different game character designs.

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TCC: How did you first discover Steemit.com and the cryptocurrency world as a whole?

Hive account@dunsky: I was always interested in technologies. I love new gadgets. New mobile phones are like narcotics to me. I cannot even make a list of all the models I ever had. Also, I had a passion for coding in school and bitcoin for me was just a new interesting technology which I started to learn about a year ago. Once I’ve bought my first coins I learned of other prominent Russian financial leaders using platforms like Golos and Steemit.

Golos is very small unknown Russian fork of Steem. It’s a copy and real junk. I was using it for a few days reading trashy trending content, feeling awful. But I traced it back through its fork and found Steemit.com. I found the art community to be much bigger and more qualified here and started to follow really nice artists, designers and illustrators on the platform. Since then, I’ve gotten to know many colleagues quite well.

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TCC: What have your experiences been like and how do you think that crypto technology and community have influenced your career?

Hive account@dunsky: I was looking for mobile application or at least something to get some push notifications and found the eSteem app almost instantly. It was nice to get notifications, but the eSteem user interface was outdated. I connected with Hive account@good-karma, the developer of eSteem and contacted him with few simple suggestions on how to improve the app UI.

He liked my illustrations and asked if it was possible to use them as stickers in his application in the future. I was more than happy and said yes, for sure. If you have ever created something, you know the feeling when somebody is asking for only your help. It always feels special.

I was not aware of Steem Power that time, who is who here, and that some users have stronger upvotes because they have more Steem tokens in their wallets. But of course he did and I was lucky to meet him early on.

He started to support my posts and it gave me a really great boost of enthusiasm. I was feeling as if I was fishing. Blogging and checking if I will catch a big fish or not. I never asked him, never sent any links with a request an upvote, but he supported me even in the periods when I was not posting for week or two he wrote me sometimes asking if anything was wrong.

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Gradually I became more interested in the Steemit platform and found more and more time drawing for the eSteem blog because it was greatly rewarding, reviving my childhood fun towards creativity. When I was a boy, I had much more freedom like drawing my own newspapers with stories and illustrations on them. Here, I can do the same now. Steem started to become a fulltime job for me. Now I can proudly say I am part of the eSteem team. I cannot even imagine that just in 9 months it has brought me more than 25K USD in Steem Power and some other crazy numbers in SBD. It really was worth it.

Hive account@good-karma is a really great guy and he supports a lot of newcomers here on the platform. He is a witness also by the way, one who really deserves your vote. I am lucky to have such a friend and supporter here.

Now there are many people who are supporting me here and I am really grateful for that. Hive account@sndbox incubator is also one of the greatest projects here. I love your sense of taste, guys!

TCC: What would your words of wisdom be for creative professionals who are interested in blockchain?

Hive account@dunsky: Invest your time in blogging here. I know, your time costs a lot. Mine does as well. In the beginning, I thought it wasn’t worth it. But Steem may give you financial freedom and a job of your dreams if you stay committed. It’s always hard to start and that’s okay, just keep posting great things and do not ask people for upvotes. Do something useful for the platform. Imagine that this is a co-working place where a lot of creative professionals are gathered and you could do anything. This will be well rewarded, believe me.

TCC: What does the future have in store for Fil Dunsky?

Fil Hive account@dunsky: I am feeling that Steem is my own company. I am not the chief here but I own a part of the company. It is unique how the blockchain makes you an investor and I don’t want to sell my Steem tokens at all. I’m looking to leverage them to create a better eSteem app and even create children’s books. They are increasing in value over time and the fact you have them in your wallet can make you smart and responsible content curator. I don’t want to support trashy content because I want the value of the platform to grow bigger. I am sure my future is in Steem.

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