November 22, 2022
Greetings once again, my dear friends and readers. I have been quite preoccupied again in the past few days. In the past few weeks, I have been exploring WordPress again. Both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress. Also, exploring the Scratch programming platform is quite enjoyable and I spend more time on it.
In the past few days, however, I have spent a considerable amount of time exploring how to turn my artworks into NFTs. I wanted to convert my artwork into NFT for quite some time now. I thought I might earn a bit from my artwork. However, I did not bother to do my research on how to do it, until a couple of weeks.
** How The Character Developed**
What motivated me to finally start my research on how to convert my artworks into NFTs came after I made my entry to Hive Ph's Pinoy Art Challenge in the last week of October.
(read: @jloberiza/my-2nd-entry-for-week)
However, while creating that entry, I learned something new... (or something ancient for that matter). I learned that before the Spaniards came to the Philippines, Filipino fighters were using some impact weapons made of a rare type of wood... the guijo (sometimes spelled gijo) or locally known as giho in Tagalog. The irony is, I found the information from a website owned and maintained by an American. At the time of writing, I am looking for more information on ancient/traditional Filipino weapons.
I continued to develop the character. I started creating drafts for a comic book in Medibang Paint. Then, while trying out an animation program I created using Scratch, I thought, why don't I make an animation for this character? So I made four variations. Four frames for a simple walking animation.
(Read: https://read.cash/@JLoberiza/project-animated-comics-thru-scratch-dfbf116e)
That's where Jijisaur (or 
I Did My Research
In the past number of days, I spent some time researching turning my artwork into NFT. Most of the videos I saw point to the Opensea platform- the most popular NFT platform thus far. However, minting in Opensea requires some gas fees to mint. In one video that I watched, the artist paid an amount in ETH which is equivalent to about $15. That's around PHP 800. Unfortunately, I don't have extra cash to pay for that amount.
Then I learned about " Mintable.App". They have this "gas-less" feature. Meaning, an artist can mint or create their NFT without paying for gas fees.
** Creating My First NFT.**
I created a new version of my "crime fighter". I wanted to make a more "cartoon-like" version of my fighter for the NFT. I may still turn the original drawing into NFT in the future.
** I Made a Bo-Boo In My First Try.**
I was excited. The instructions were easy enough to follow. I filled in the information needed in Mintable. I excitedly clicked the "List" button and signed the transaction in my Metamask!
When I checked my first NFT, I realized my mistake. There was no "Downloadable File"!!! So, what in the world was I selling? What I uploaded was the preview image only. Meaning, the file itself can't be downloaded!
A lot of questions rushed into my head.
"How do I fix this?"
"Can I add a downloadable file?"
"How do I edit this?"
I can edit the description and some of the text. Unfortunately, I can't add a downloadable file. It seems, the only solution is to delete the file... which is not possible in a blockchain!
Ok, so that was not the solution?
The solution was to send the token or the NFT that I have just minted (or created) to a certain address. This will, in effect "burn" that NFT. But it requires some payment also. An alternative, albeit, a temporary solution is to hide that NFT from the market list. That's what I did.
I realized though that I still need to fix something about my image. After editing it, I redid the whole process again.
Finally, here is my first NFT in Mintable.
https://mintable.app/COLLECTIBLES/item/Kali--Solo-Baston-1-Proudly-Filipino-made-to-promote-the-fading-Filipino-traditions/F37G7fb6UFuDtDM
About The Artwork.
One notable change in this version, aside from the thicker lines and the cartoony look, is the single round stick. Thus the name "solo baston". Also, instead of the flat hexagonal (gijo) stick, I made a more common, cylindrical "ironwood" stick. I also simplified the "salakot" for now. I will reserve the "gold" trimmed version for the future
Also, I gave him a sleeveless trench coat. This feature will be unique to this image. I might not use this coat in the future.
** The Purpose**
The purpose of this NFT art is not just to promote my work. I wanted to promote Filipino culture through my artwork. Since I love martial arts, I started with traditional Filipino Martial Arts and weapons.
** In Closing.**
I hope you will support me in my NFT venture. I will upload more, and create a series based on this character in the future.
Moreover, watch out also for more Filipino-themed NFT artworks.
Oh, BTW, is there a platform where we can sell NFTs for BCH?
** Thanks for reading.**
This article was originally posted in read.cash: https://read.cash/@JLoberiza/introducing-kali-solo-baston-my-very-first-nft-art-a4ad3705