Being a newcomer to the NFT world can be overwhelming, especially for creatives who have spent all their lives creating physical art.
Beyond the interconnectivity, security, and control NFT offers artists, there’s so much more to come that no creative should miss out on.
NFTs exploded in popularity in 2021, with an estimated market value of $40 billion. Such an explosion resulted in a shift in the digital art space that has always been inevitable.
Turning your real art into NFT is not much of a big deal, and we’ll walk you through how to do it successfully.
Can I Get Value for My Art?
Ideally, value, as regards any type of art in most cases, is directly proportional to rare the artwork is. How unique and fascinating your NFT ends up being can be the difference between making an exponential amount in sales.
Moreover, choices and trends matter greatly when dealing in the NFT space. The buyer community often decides how valuable a piece of art is. For example, your artwork might be the real deal offline, and when you digitalize it, it does not get the traction you thought it would.
Physical Artwork Types You Can Digitize
Physical Artworks are of different forms, and some artists haven’t hopped on the NFT train solely because they are unsure if their artwork can be digitized.
Although, the type of artwork you create and how valuable it is has a lot of influence on what you can expect to earn from it. Keep context in mind when planning to digitalize an artwork, as it helps you keep a lid on your expectations.
It doesn’t even matter if you don’t have the artwork ready yet. Here’s a list of several art types you can introduce into the NFT marketplace with ease;
1. Painting
If you’re an artist who uses brush strokes on canvas to create real art, then the NFT space is for you. No matter the painting type, you can turn it into an NFT by following the steps we’ll discuss later.
Painting requires a lot of effort, and if you know how to create unique masterpieces, you’re in luck. There are many ways your uniqueness can generate money in the NFT world.
2. Sculptures
Sculptures are two- or three-dimensional representations of shapes or figures carved with wood, stone, metal, or plaster.
They are generally high effort and high reward as a lot of time, skill, and sweat goes into getting the desired shape you wish to mold. If you are a sculptor, get your tools ready and develop something unique that can get you to value for your energy.
3. Photo
Art can be whatever we say it is, and many photographs that tell remarkable stories have been sold as NFTs for excessive money.
As a photographer wondering if you can make money with your photographs, all you have to do is put your camera and skills to work, and the rest can be history with time.
4. Display Frames
Graphic artists that use editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, MS Paint, CorelDraw, or 3D modeling tools can also sell their art as NFTs.
All you have to do is create the art, print it, and frame it to make it sellable as physical art.
In addition, it helps develop a unique idea for your artwork or collection and morph it into a type of content that’ll turn heads and grab attention.
Benefits of Digitizing Art Into NFTs
The question on most artists’ lips is whether the idea of selling real art into NFTs is even worth the struggles involved. Because, in all honesty, having a piece of art you’ve struggled to create poorly in an NFT marketplace can take its toll on an artist.
However, the advantages cannot be overlooked. Here are a few examples of why digitalizing your physical can benefit your career.
Uniqueness
NFTs are non-fungible tokens, meaning when you own an NFT, it belongs entirely to you. Its uniqueness makes it one of the most crucial new technologies that can bring artists and collectors value.
The significance NFT provides for your art also reflects how all the information that proves the authenticity and ownership of the digital asset is contained in the NFT.
Self-sustainability
The decentralization of NFTs allows artists to easily create, promote, and market their art as digital assets. With NFTs, the playing field gets leveled, so non-mainstream artists won’t ordinarily be able to reach buyers due to the unavailability of a gallery or physical marketplace that will help legitimize the transfer of ownership during a sale.
Security and Control
You have a more significant amount of control over your digital asset. If you successfully turn your physical art into NFT. Additionally, they are incredibly secure, and all transactions are carried out transparently.
Since the blockchain transaction is permanent, there’s hardly any chance that someone can replace your asset with a counterfeit or have it damaged or lost in transit and lose out on your sweat.
Steps to Digitize Your Physical Art as NFT
Step 1: Open a Digital Wallet
Even after creating the artwork, whether physical or not, you still have to spend money on promotion and the like. So, opening a digital wallet where you can store cryptocurrency to pay for gas fees when minting your NFT is essential.
You can open a wallet on digital wallets like Coinbase, Trust Wallet, or MetaMask and load it with any amount between $50 to $250.
Step 2: Convert your physical art to digital form
Taking a picture of your artwork is the second to last step in turning it into a digital asset. You can use an iPhone or a digital camera because the photo has to be in jpeg or png format.
Most NFTs are 1080px (HD), which is all you need. The size you’ll use depends on the physical art, and the device used to take the picture. Different NFT marketplaces have their file sizes limit, so you might have to adjust.
Step 3: Upload to an NFT Marketplace
OpenSea, Rarible, Mintable, Foundation, and KnownOrigin, are some examples of NFT marketplaces you can mint your digital art. Since you’ve already set up a smart wallet and funded it, it’ll take less than the 5-minute to mint your NFT.
All you have to do is upload the image, pay the gas fee and start selling your physical artwork as NFT. Keep in mind that it’s cheaper in the long term to use your smart wallet to create a collection in the marketplace you want to use.
Paying gas fees and marketplace fees might cost you initially, but once your collection is up and running, things get more straightforward.
Conclusion
NFTs have a unique, almost forgery-proof signature, so your artwork is safe. As an artist, launching NFTs can be the difference in helping you get your art in front of more people than ever before.
You also get absolute ownership of your assets, so that transfer of ownership when making sales goes very smoothly.
Minting NFTs can be less complicated if you follow the due process we’ve laid out. The important thing is to look for innovative ways to ensure the uniqueness of your physical art to get maximum value for your work.