Exploring NFT Art On Tezos (Part 9) – Flygohr

An Introduction To Flygohr

If you have been following NFTs on Tezos, you most likely have likely encountered Flygohr (@flygohr on Twitter). In the 9th edition or our Exploring NFT Art on Tezos series, we get to know one of the pillars of the Tezos NFT community and give him space to discuss some of his ongoing projects.

Flygohr’s distinctively unapologetic punk style is decisive and his talent is undeniable. His creations range from downright hilarious to dark and disturbing. He is one of the most prolific artists in this space with seemingly boundless energy and a casually brave eagerness to experiment with new ideas.

Flygohr’s punk-charged attitude permeates his work and provides us with an unmatched authenticity that puts pixelated punk NFT efforts to shame.

On top of being a fountain of creativity and a staunch supporter of Tezos, he seems to be a down-to-earth and decent fellow. I have interacted with him several times on Twitter commenting on his work and he always has a quick and friendly response.

I feel so lucky that I have had access to so much talent and creativity that is flowing from the Tezos NFT community which is exemplified by Flygohr’s artwork. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to Flygohr and so many other NFT artists that have helped to keep hearts and minds open during these last months that have been difficult for many of us.

I hope you will enjoy this interview which helps one to better understand Flygohr’s world.

The Flygohr Interview

Please tell me a bit about yourself and your art.

I have always been passionate about art, especially comics. My parents were artists and encouraged me during my childhood, and I remember that I used to develop all sorts of comic book series and small trading card games which I would share with my classmates.

Here’s a picture of something I did when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade: it even had little games at the end, I was already lost to the craft!

Later on, I got into RPGs and fantasy art (early World of Warcraft was a huge inspiration for me, as well as the Forgotten Realms books). I went to art school, where I started picking up my first design and illustration gigs.

I had my own website before it was legal for me to drink and as soon as I finished high school I went straight to freelancing. I started doing comics, illustrations and character designs (especially fantasy themed) for a living.

I recently got into the NFTs world while they were booming, at the beginning of this year. I fell in love with the concept I was completely ignorant of, and now I’m focusing most of my endeavours on Tezos and its NFTs platform.

What initially attracted you to create NFTs on Tezos? What do you like most about creating NFTs on Tezos?

Initially, it was just experimenting, the low gas fees allowed me to make mistakes and understand the blockchain, its platforms and tools. It was the community that finally got me, I found friends and supporters in the early hic et nunc.

I initially got scared by the toxicity of my Twitter feed when I first got into NFTs. But I was looking at Ethereum, and I soon ditched it and its platforms in favor of Tezos. Don’t get me wrong, there’s amazing art on Ethereum too, but it’s also full of cash grabs and celebrities trying to make a quick load of money.

Tezos is still benefiting from its undervaluation, allowing me (and everyone else) to experiment and get a firm foot in the NFT world without worrying too much about popularity contests.

I also really liked the early, rough feel of the various platforms and tools from March and April. Now more polished experiences are coming up everywhere, but being able to tinker with the blockchain tools, getting in touch with all the people building in the ecosystem, without having everything ready and sometimes being right in the middle of innovation will be an experience that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

You have a ton of projects going on. Can you tell me about some of these projects?

Apart from minting my work on Tezos (which you can find on a specific section of my website, I’ve made a custom gallery for it), I also launched a couple of ‘bigger’ projects which are both still ongoing and very rewarding, especially in terms of community and friends.

PUNKDOE was my first real project on Tezos, a small old school punk-themed RPG built around burnable Upgrade Cards and some punk characters doing crazy stuff in the chat.

The original character cards that are needed to play were initially distributed for free, but can now be found only on the secondary market.

If you own one, you can come and play in the Adventures, which are basically a play by post tabletop RPG much like the classic Dungeon and Dragons tabletop game.

The idea came to me after my girlfriend Stefj (also on hic et nunc) suggested that I create a Choose Your Own Adventure NFT game. My technical skills are extremely limited so I couldn’t create a fancy dApp or anything smartcontract-ish, so I had to invent myself some system.

Week after week this system has been perfected, and I’ve been able to dedicate more time to this project. We are currently ending the 3rd adventure in the Discord server and one of our members is also writing a diary of the first two that will be published in the following weeks for sure.

We explored the PUNK DOE project during the Artcast fourth episode.

TEZOS PIRATES are a generative project where you buy and burn a DOUBLOON and I generate, mint and send you a pirate using the hash for the burn transaction as the seed. You can see all the pirates generated so far in the gallery, they are more than 250! Inspired by the generative projects I was seeing on Ethereum and by the amazing original mysteryfish by Shig! (a 3D fish which changed depending on the viewer), I decided to start working on my own generative project. I created all the various layers, each one with its own separate feature, and I assigned a different rarity to each layer.

I’m not exactly a coder, so I had to improvise and botch together some sort of mockup generator using some HTML and JavaScript and fill it with dummy images to make sure it was working before adding in the real drawing work. Thanks to Marchinsquare I managed to put the generator together, and I was ready to go!

I wanted to have more than just a portrait though, so I started changing the initial pfp idea to a full wanted poster thing. I added names and bounties (which are generated depending on the rarities of the various features). To give it more of a ‘limited edition print’ feel, I also printed the number of the pirate in the limited series at the bottom.

I’m happy to say that TEZOSPIRATES inspired many successful projects including the Shig!’s #mysteryfish series and orderandchaos’ Drone Squadrons.

They were also instrumental in setting up the YOURCAtz project with Stefj! The funny thing is that now most of the projects are connected, for example if you find a treasure chest in Shig’s mysteryfish you win a free pirate, and the same happens in the catz or vice-versa from the pirates.

Most recently, I started rewarding holders of the #TEZOSPIRATES with a little Treasure Hunt. This event will last a month and will include airdrops and collecting resources to build pirate ships! I’ve made a page explaining the rules, and I plan on doing more in the future.

I want to especially thank TezCorps (a community that bridges other communities built around Tezos) and the Tezos Artcast (a weekly Twitch show about Tezos NFTs), they have been extremely supportive and helped me with my projects on Tezos.

I also got lots of help from Marchinsquare and PureSpider, two amazingly kind devs. Lots of what I did wouldn’t have been possible without them. I also owe a lot to my followers and to many loyal collectors, as well as newfound friends I made in the community, both artists and not.

How do you envision the evolution of NFTs?

I think this is just the beginning of a long journey, it’ll take years but NFTs are certainly the future of digital art. I’ve been drawing since I’ve been able to hold a pencil, but this is the first time a ‘business model’ clicks with me.

Art NFTs will need to cross chains, and I believe they will. Additionally, irl museums are already starting to recognize the NFTs potential and are contacting collectors and artists alike to organize auctions and exhibitions. We’ll surely see more NFT displays in galleries from now on.

On top of that, metaverses will allow techies to scout the NFT world using old and new technologies.

Do you have anything coming up that you would like to talk about?

Can’t say too much as of now about this but I’m working on something quite big that will be released on objkt.com.

Apart from that, I’m also working on getting the origin story of my little stamp guy as an animated, NFT comic book.

If I find some time, I might also be able to release a lil VesselFlow fan art in the following weeks.

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