Using digital collages and paintings to create signature NFT work.
Gabriel Quadros works for the music industry. He specializes in creating cover Art, NFT specifically making album cover art, and varied work for the NFT market. His art is a combination of digital collage and digital painting.
Q.
How did you start creating digital art?
Gabriel Quadros: Well, actually I’ve always liked editing for a long time, but when it became something really serious in my life and I started to focus only on that, it was a difficult time that I went through. I was responsible for taking care of my grandfather, who was very sick. I left my old job to take care of him at home.
During this period I decided to create an Instagram page to post and create digital collages, as a form of distraction through everything that was going on. I started doing my arts without pretension, but when I met other similar artists, I noticed that there was a market that could make my old dream of living doing this come true.
Q.
How does your Brazilian heritage play a role in creating art?
Gabriel Quadros: Brazil is a country with a very rich culture, very varied, we have several cultural mixtures in our country, this undoubtedly influences my path of creating art in some way. But I think what most inspires and leads me in some way to creation is that in our culture, we always keep in mind that despite any difficulties, and believe me, in our country, they are many, we never give up on our goals, even without realizing it when I was younger, it was always in my blood.
Q.
What is the creative process for creating NFT art?
Gabriel Quadros: It’s something similar to my natural process to create art, I start by separating the material I will use, sometimes I discard everything I separated and start from scratch, sometimes I make more than one piece using things from the same material, I look for my basic inspirations are mostly from movies and tv series that I Love.
I make a good coffee to go with it and sometimes I spend hours or days elaborating the piece, I change it many times, sometimes I finish a piece in a few hours because the idea appears clearly in my mind and I just need to let it flow.
Q.
How does the evolving art market influence your art creation?
Gabriel Quadros: In a way, the market doesn’t change the basis of my art, which undoubtedly affects the most is the question of the changes that this brings to the platforms I use to publish my art, that is, as the algorithm changes a lot, I notice that I need to adapt. Whether it’s adapting my art to something like animation so that I have video content to post on platforms, or interacting more constantly with my audience.
But the market, in general, does not change the roots of my art, it makes me have new ideas to ace them.
Q.
Where does your unique artistic expression and perspective come from?
Gabriel Quadros: I’ve always been inspired by movies to create my art, since childhood when I was drawing, movies, series, graphic novels, games, and music. This is still with me today, I love putting references that sometimes only I know in my arts, I like to put a deep meaning in most of my pieces. I keep subliminal things in my arts, it even influenced my pseudonym ‘The Mist.
I thought of two things when I created this name, in the fog of cold days, I live in the southern region of Brazil, specifically in the state of the Rio Grande from the South. Here it is quite cold in winter, the climate is covered by fog and this has always been a great inspiration for me, the climate, the green of the trees and foliage on cold and rainy days, the moss, the trees. And the other meaning for this name ”The Mist” would be an abbreviation of ”Mystery” this is ”The Mystery” because it is an element always very present in most of my art.
Q.
What is the process that you use to create digital collages?
Gabriel Quadros: It usually starts with an idea coming from something I love, for example, d, director David Lynch’s films, they are a great source of inspiration for my art, with the dream or nightmare aesthetic, or both mixed, surrealism, after suggesting This inspiration, I start to separate the material, I usually use photos available on the unUnsplashebsite, which has a large collection of images, and I start to cut and elaborate little by little what I’m feeling and imagining.
Q.
How do you come up with the concept for an NFT?
Gabriel Quadros: The process for an NFT is pretty much the same as when I make a digital collage, the difference is that I observe a lot the style that is on the rise on the sites where I publish my NFT, for example, if I notice that more colorful is in high, I try to develop a more colorful piece but that but the inspired by my basic premise that I use for other arts in general.
“Brazil is a country with a very rich culture, very varied, we have several cultural mixtures in our country, this undoubtedly influences my path of creating art in some way.”
Q.
Which digital tools do you use to create your distinctive digital art?
Gabriel Quadros: Well, that’s them, Gimp which is open source software available for the Linux system (yes I love Linux). Also, I use Photoshop and as I make art with my smartphone, I use some apps for that, one of which I use it often called GlitchLab. I also use an application called Photo Editor, only available for the android system, and also to make some adjustments with brushes, I use Infinite Painter, for animations I use Pixaloop.
Q.
How has the NFT creation impacted your creativity?
Gabriel Quadros: Not much has changed. I just pay attention to some details before releasing a piece exclusively as NFT, but in general, I haven’t changed my style to adapt to the NFT market. I think there will always be a niche for my style of art. Sometimes changing the style too much can be more harmful than good, at least that’s what it seems to me from what I’ve seen.
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