How to Turn Your Digital Art Into NFTs and Sell It

What are NFTs?

NFT is a non-homogeneous token. In economics, the adjective "non-homogeneous" is often used to denote characteristics such as uniqueness and non-fungibility. In crypto, non-fungibility simply means that one item cannot be exchanged for another.

A "token" as a unit of account is basically a certificate of validity stored on a decentralized blockchain, making digital assets traceable and accessible to everyone. As such, NFTs are a unique virtual asset that can fall into any category, often in the form of paintings, videos, music, collectibles in video games, or any other type of creative digital product.

Since the rise of NFT trading in early 2021, enthusiasts around the world have been buying and selling these tokens. But how do people convert real art into NFTs, and how do they sell these works of art? is it hard? Do I need to know programming to create NFT?

Actually, these steps are very simple. To understand the main process and its details, you can refer to the guide below.

What is crypto art?

Art is the most common use case for NFTs, so it's no wonder that crypto art in the form of NFTs has suddenly exploded in popularity recently. Newfangled blockchain technology has made it possible for artists to earn tens of millions of dollars from their digital paintings. Making a fortune through artistic creation has become a reality, which has attracted many art creators to invest in NFT art creation.

NFT auctions related to digital art are causing a stir. A number of NFTs that have sold for millions of dollars have hit the headlines. In 2022, the most expensive NFT work so far is "Merge" by digital artist Pak, which sold for $91.8 million.

In 2021, "Everyday: the First 5000 Days" by artist Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, was also a very expensive auction, fetching $69.3 million.

Crypto art is associated with unique artworks created by well-known artists and sold on marketplace auction platforms, including not only popular NFT platforms, but also traditional auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Still, most of the art in the crypto space is created by unknown geniuses and newbies.

However, some NFT collectibles, including the pioneering work called CryptoPunks, or the most hyped Bored Ape Yacht Club recently, are examples of generative art. This type of art is often created with the help of various autonomous systems. The images in these popular collections are generally composed of simple image components and then combined with different elements.

How to convert your art into NFT?

If you’re wondering if you should convert your artwork into an NFT, the answer is obviously “yes, why not give it a try?” The process of creating an NFT is neither complicated nor expensive. All it requires are creative skills and a personal computer.

It's worth noting that NFTs can transform not only images, but also songs, videos, gifs, and other digital items. So, first, you need to choose an art field that suits you best. Based on this, you need to understand what skills are needed to become a true NFT creator.

For example, as a graphic artist, you need to use graphic editing tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, MS Paint, CorelDraw, etc. You can also try other methods such as 3D modeling, but this is more difficult for beginners. If you choose 3D animation, you will use 3D modeling tools such as Blender or Cinema 4D to design animation graphics and characters, which will then be converted into NFTs.

After this, you need to come up with a unique idea for your single piece or maybe a complete collection and think about what it will end up being.

Do I need to know programming to create NFT?

It's easy to create NFTs from digital art without programming. The process of creating them is called minting (mint). This process is basically the process of issuing a unique token on the blockchain. Creating NFT means that NFT is minted, similar to minting coins and entering circulation.

Through this process, a given digital artwork becomes secure, tamper-proof, and difficult to manipulate. Since this digital item became an NFT, it can now be bought, sold, and digitally tracked when resold or recycled.

For artists, creating NFTs from digital art is a new way to fairly monetize their work. On most NFT marketplaces, artists can set royalty terms at minting so that secondary sales of their creations will generate passive income for them. Artists can benefit if the demand for artwork increases, the artwork becomes famous and its value rises.

Most NFT marketplaces offer an automated NFT minting process. To get started, you need to take a few simple steps:

However, if you already have experience in the NFT field and want to become an NFT developer, you can try to write NFT yourself. To delve into NFT programming, you need to remember that the Ethereum network still has a monopoly on NFT development.

The coding language commonly used for NFT development is Solidity, which is designed to develop smart contracts that run on the Ethereum blockchain. And Javascript and HTML/CSS. Additionally, the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is commonly used to store artists' NFTs.

Choose an NFT marketplace to mint and sell your NFTs

An important part of NFT casting is to choose a suitable NFT platform. This depends on various factors such as supported file formats, crypto wallet matching, user accessibility to the platform and the price of creating non-fungible tokens (NFT), or transaction fees, which are compensation for processing and validating exchanges Fees paid for computing energy required.

There are many different online NFT marketplaces in the crypto space, each of which works slightly differently. For artists, the most important thing is to know whether the platform is curated or self-service based, and then choose the one that is most suitable for them and the most accessible.

Self-service or non-curated NFT-based platforms provide free access to all artists. To upload NFT to these platforms, you only need to register through an encrypted wallet, pay transaction fees, and then mint NFT. The most popular are large-scale self-service NFT trading marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible.

Curated NFT platforms are more selective about artists. In order to register on these platforms and start minting your artwork, you need to submit an application with all the details about your NFT collection and your previous art experience.

Another obvious downside of this kind of NFT marketplace is the long wait for expert decisions. However, due to this strict selection criteria, most of the top digital artworks are exhibited on these platforms, which gives buyers more confidence in the artists who work with these platforms. SuperRare and Nifty Gateway are among the well-known curation platforms.

Set up a cryptocurrency wallet

A cryptocurrency wallet is the tool you use to access NFT platforms, sign transactions, and manage your balance.

The most important thing to do before setting it up is to make sure the wallet matches the cryptocurrency used on the NFT platform you plan to use. Since most NFT marketplaces are based on Ethereum, they accept Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), as a payment method. Therefore, it is necessary to have a crypto wallet with some ETH on hand.

There are many crypto wallets that already have millions of users. There are many wallets with different functions, and some of them have their own mobile applications and browser extensions for easy access to blockchain-based platforms.

Choosing the right cryptocurrency wallet depends on what level of security you are willing to have. Their main types include custodial, non-custodial, and hardware wallets. With custodial wallets, users' funds are automatically stored in them by a third party, similar to how banks store funds in checking and savings accounts.

Non-custodial wallets are the most friendly and easy to set up wallets. Non-custodial wallets give users full control over the security of their cryptocurrencies, eliminating the need to rely on third parties to keep funds safe. A hardware wallet, also known as a cold wallet, is a physical device that can be stored offline to keep funds from being stolen even in the worst-case scenario when someone's computer is hacked.

How to Sell Your NFT Digital Art

Selling NFTs is likely to be your ultimate goal of minting NFTs. Most NFT trading platforms offer such a feature, allowing you to choose a selling method, or choose to set a price for the NFT when it is minted.

Fixed-price sales and auctions are the two main ways NFTs are sold right now. Selling for a fixed price is the easiest way, but also very transparent and straightforward. To sell freshly minted NFTs this way, you just need to specify the price at which you want to sell them. Some platforms will also ask for a royalty percentage, which is the cut you will get when you sell your work in the future, so please be aware of this.

Another way to sell your NFT is through an auction, where buyers can browse and bid on your digital artwork. Some auctions may be online-only, while others may end with a full on-site auction.

There are usually two types.

The first is the English auction, a price-rising auction in which the highest bid wins. A limited-time auction is a special form of the English auction. NFT auctions can be bid within a specified time. At the end of the auction, the collector with the highest bid wins. The second is a Dutch auction, an auction in which the price keeps dropping until someone buys your NFT.

Each approach has its pros and cons, whether it's a possible lack of understanding of the true value of a work of art when setting a fixed price, or a reliance on time during an auction. How you want to sell your NFT is up to you.

Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.