While NFT technology definitely is exciting, what truly makes enter.art a place to revisit again and again, is the wonderful artists that inhabit the marketplace. An artist who for sure has made his mark on enter since he joined the launchpad last November, is Kner aka Sevastianos Ntzokas. With his extraordinarily vibrant color schemes and soulful characters, he has taken the community by storm with his collections Inner Circle and Pyramon. His collections have an emerging collector base, and we're especially excited about Kner's interesting take on creating utilities that connect creator and collector in a whole new way. Ever heard of the creator who let the collector decide on the theme of the next artwork? 

Since the very beginning, we've had a feeling that this is a guy beaming with creativity and drive, and we were recently immensely proud to exhibit some of his works on NFT CYP in Cyprus as a part of the enter.art collection. Today, we have gotten the opportunity to ask Sevastianos a bunch of questions, revolving around everything from his creative process and favorite mediums, to how his journey of entering the NFT space has been. Let's jump right to it!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

I was born and raised in Agrinio, a small city in Greece. As a child, I was obsessed with comics, video games, and most importantly card games. So growing up I always drew my favourite characters from various comics like «Garfield» and «Donald Duck», or monsters from «Yu-gi-oh» and «Magic the Gathering». I then moved to Athens to study graphic design and throughout the last years, I’ve created several comics, animations, and paintings, and worked on many video and board games. All these led up to today where I’m currently working as an Art Director and 2D Artist for mobile games among other things.

What inspires your creative process?

I always get inspired by video games, movies, music and of course other artists that have a really unique way of creating. But the actual spark to get me down to work would be after a lot of introspection, I might get a faint idea of what I want to create, (which is always changed as it is being worked on) and then I blend that with my influences, personal taste and a bit of nostalgia for the artwork I used to look up to as a child.

Pyramon #1 - Frenzy

What mediums do you prefer to work with?

Both traditional and digital. Lately, I’ve been using mostly digital mediums, like a pen tablet and software like Photoshop. But I’ve tried almost everything, like pencil, charcoal, inks, markers, spray paint, oils, acrylics and so on. My favorite traditional mediums are pencils, inks and alcohol markers.

We’d love to hear more about your Pyramon collection. How are they created and what are the utilities? 

Long story short, I wanted to create my own collection after seeing how things work in the NFTs space. I was first exposed to Ethereum as a cryptocurrency and got inspired by it to create these Pyramid-shaped monsters. I really liked the idea of creating unique monsters and not algorithmic random creations. Also, I still love card games and I wanted to make Pyramon look like a collectible card. Of course, the name is inspired by Pokemon.

When creating the collection I really wanted to give something back to everyone who bought a Pyramon, so I created the «Imaginarium». A place on our Discord server where each buyer has the ability to «imagine» a new Pyramon. They suggest how they’d like their own Pyramon and I create a new one based on that. Of course, they can then buy another Pyramon and repeat the process. So in this way I thought of giving back to the buyer the joy of participating in the creative process of the collection and also knowing that this unique Pyramon is part of them as well. As the collection will keep growing, there are some thoughts of creating a card game as well.

Pyramon  #12 - NFTART

We’d also love to hear more about your Inner Circle collection!

Inner circle is really special to me. I started creating these balloons that represented my emotions and feelings way before I learned about NFTs. So each balloon is a personal reflection, let's say. After learning about NFTs I thought I’d make them available for others as well because I believe we can all relate to a feeling we’ve experienced. It is a collection that won’t be updated as frequently as Pyramon because I really have to be in the «mood» of going back there and trying to depict my feelings. For now there isn’t any utility other than the inner connection the owner will share with me over each emotion.

Joy

How did you get into NFTs?

Well I’ve known about NFTs for about 2 years now, but only began actively occupying myself with them for the last 7 months or so. I was lucky to have a friend who helped me with the technical stuff  in the beginning, but after that I decided to start exploring more and more because I also see it as an opportunity for me to reach even more people with my artwork.

What have been some of the biggest challenges for you in the NFT space? Do you have any tips for new artists wanting to take the step?

Well certainly the technical stuff that is necessary in order to begin with crypto was a bit confusing at the beginning. But I think the biggest challenge is to overcome the overwhelming idea of «Wow, what is happening here? Apes? Pixels sold for millions? What am I doing here?» .

At first the whole NFT world seemed meaningless to me and I felt that my creations didn’t belong there because I didn’t produce 1,000 designs a day or my artwork isn’t AI generated. Not that there is something wrong with that, it just isn’t my cup of tea. But after searching and being exposed to some amazing artists, and actually seeing this as an opportunity for every artist to find their audience (I know it’s not easy) I slowly started to like the idea of being able to «connect» with an owner of an artwork I made, even if it was digital and never printed.

Split - Available on the second-hand market on enter.art

You’re a busy guy with both NFTs, video games and comic books in your portfolio. When and how did you decide that you wanted to go the full creative route? 

That’s actually something that happened by itself. But I think it is the fact that I can’t work only on one thing, I always like to change mediums, and I get excited when I find new ways to create.

What made you choose to join the enterverse, and how has your experience been so far?

After a long search for a place to showcase my work as NFTs I stumbled upon enter and the Discord server. Everyone was so nice there and I got instant help from the team of enter to help me set up my artwork, so I’d say it’s the community and the people that made me stick to enter. I’m really happy that there is a positive community like this and so excited about what the enterverse future holds.

Keep an eye out for more amazing works from Kner across the enterverse and Web3 - you're in for a treat! 

https://www.enter.art/artist/kner

https://twitter.com/knerntzokas

https://www.instagram.com/sevastianos_kner/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGQEXj9vxwbo4YPWo2XjFrA?

https://knerart.wixsite.com/website

https://www.artstation.com/kner