Welcome to Hive Pearls! This project envisions to bring forward the talented hidden artists on Hive, and to give them a place to show their potential and passion while they share a little bit about their lives.

My name is Matheus @hollowknightgod, I am your host. I'm a dreamer, in love with both art and people, and after some time here on Hive I had the idea of combining both into a project that would benefit the community, the artists and myself.

Today we are going to be talking with my favorite artist in the blockchain space, and I can proudly say a dear friend, Steven @japex1226. Steven is one of the most kind and hardworking people I ever encountered and I'm very happy and satisfied to have chosen him to create this lovely image that you see as the thumbnail of Hive Pearls.

If you are not acquainted with his work, I'd encourage you to stay and check it for yourself while we have a chat.

Hive Pearls #1 - japex1226

Matheus: Welcome Steven, how are you today?

Steven: I’m doing great bro! Thanks for having me here in your interview @hollowknightgod. This is a bit out of the blue and sudden, but I’m very excited to have this conversation.

Matheus: Thanks for coming, and before we start diving into your works you might give us a little introduction of where you live, your name and age, and how did you find Hive.

Steven: I came here on Hive with the name japex1226 (japex - this is what my DOTA2 buddies call me and 1226 is the date of my anniversary with my girlfriend) but my real name is Steven Simblante. I’m 26 years old. I live in Philippines specifically Cebu City.

I just happened to follow Splinterlands on Twitter and I saw their post about a Splinterlands Art Contest. I just clicked that link and redirected me to Hive Blog. Fortunately, I’m glad that I can login using my hive keychain in Hive blog. And that’s the beginning of my Hive journey.

Matheus: I'm curious...How old were you when you started drawing?...and by that I mean, not just drawing childishly but when did you realize that you really enjoyed and it had a place on your heart?

Steven: Honestly, I’ve been interested in anime since I was a kid. I don’t know what exact age, but I started drawing way back during my grade school years. When I got into Highschool was the moment I discovered my will to pursue arts. I managed to join the school's publication as an Editorial Cartoonist. It’s a lot different than what I used to in drawing anime. By that time, I was more dealing with political views and stuff to be the theme of my submissions.

Right after that, when I was about to enter College, I wanted to enroll in a Fine Arts and Animation course, but sadly that was way out of my financial capacity. The tuition was too high and that led me to choose another course that best fit my finances and I have chosen Bachelor of Science in Graphics and Design.

That was a good choice though. I learned a lot about Photoshop and other adobe software that focus mostly in editing and designing.

Up until now that I am already employed, drawing is still part of my vibe and I really enjoy it a lot. When I have vacant time I just scribble and draw something. This drawing has become my hobby. It’s fun to create something. I enjoyed drawing and took it heartedly since my Highschool years.

Matheus: From back in the days, did you have any favorite anime you used to draw? And do you still draw anime style art?

Steven: Yes! I am a fan of Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece.. I do read manga online when I'm not so busy but I have little pauses as work comes very fast now a days. I don't do much of anime style right now. I have been transitioning my art style to fit in my crypto journey very fast!

Monkey D. Luffy by japex1226

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Matheus: Do you have any old drawings of the little Steven to show us? I'm sure we'd love to see how it all started.

Steven: Actually, I didn’t have a camera or mobile phone when I was a kid so I don’t have a record of my drawings when I was little. When I was a kid, I drew on paper and notebook which also serve a double purpose at that time. Specially when my mom needed to have some paper to light up a fire. Basically, my mother burned all those drawings when she cooked our food. Hahaha, because we used woods to cook our food, she needed some papers to start up the fire.

But I could show you some of my old drawings that brought me so much fun when I was doing it. But I’m not a little Steven when I made those arts. Yet, I still consider these as my old drawings because they were made before I started in digital art. These are drawings on paper. I have here some doodle drawings, marvel character, anime character and I also want to add my girlfriend in caricature style.

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Matheus: They are beautiful, and the amount of detail in each of them to be done by hand.... it's incredible Steven.

Steven: Thanks a lot! I enjoy drawing a lot and there are lots of artists as inspirations out there.

Matheus: We can clearly see how versatile you are too. We see more cartoonish drawings, a little childish doodling, Deadpool from Marvel and some anime too. Do you think you have developed a style , or something particular that you like about your art by now?

Steven: I think I have my own style already in creating art. But I think I might change it for the coming projects I have right now. I kind of love the artwork style of Skyweaver. After seeing it, I want to replicate it for sure. I bet you have been familiar with that game already.

Skyweaver's Artwork

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Matheus: I have been playing it for a while, and it's a fun game with a beautiful art just as you said it, and it's fascinating to see all these games growing and at the same time many artists are getting hooked by them, bringing forward many interesting pieces of art. Yourself is an example, you have been hooked by the Splinterlands Art Contest and your first drawing here on Hive was Alric Stormbringer, and in your second post, which was your Hive Introduction, you got contacted by @flauwy who asked you to work for him in an art piece. To receive such a proposal, just having arrived here on Hive, that must have been absolutely crazy. What was your reaction at that time, and how did the interaction with flauwy go?

@flauwy's comment on Steven's Hive Introduction Source

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Steven: You know what’s funny thing about it bro? I really didn't know how to react in that moment. I also didn’t know @flauwy at that time and he approached me asking if I could do some commission artwork. I didn’t know what to say. I was just honored. The first interaction that we had was when I entered a book cover contest held by @elamental. Without really any knowledge about Hive, I just came in here without any referral from someone as well. So, I really didn’t have any idea of what I was actually doing. And then, I posted my third blog The King of the Forest, my entry on the book cover contest. That’s the time @flauwy commented, I couldn’t forget what he said. That is to never use leofinance tag for a non-financial topic. Thankfully, this man corrected me. He is so kind and I considered him to be my very first friend here on Hive. Then he commented on my second blog, about my introduction here on Hive and ask me about commission. That’s also the time I joined NFT Studios and 1UP discord. There we had our conversation, and that is where I knew him. He introduced himself, I also found out that he created the monster-curator, I just thought it was another user on Hive. There he told me of the character he wanted me to design. He owns the rights to create one of five boss monsters in Splinterlands and so he wanted me to design a Boss Mushroom Monster, inspired by his 1UP Mushroom Mascot. But before he proceeded, he asked me how much that commission would cost? And man, I replied "It’s up to you sir". I would gladly accept it. Hahaha yes really, I didn’t know how much a commission would cost. I have never done that thing before. I merely posted my drawings on Facebook and never did this for a living. This thing is only a hobby for me and I’m also not a professional to be commissioned but it was a good thing that it happened. Now I have something to look up to in the future. That’s probably the start of my journey with @flauwy. He's funny and loves to goof around, the feeling of a 21 years old boy hahaha he doesn’t want to be called sir by the way. But he is a very great man indeed, every time I have some questions, he simply answers it and really dig in to the details for you to be able to understand. We talk so casually maybe that is because we have personal things outside work to attend to. He’s a friend and probably a brother, and that is it bro that’s how the interaction went.

Alric Stormbringer by japex1226 Source

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King of the Forest by japex1226 Source

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Matheus: Not long after this you posted another entry in a Splinterlands Art Contest. This time a Djinn Oshannus, and that would later become an NFT in the Splintertalk marketplace. Tell us, how did that happen?

Steven: Honestly, I don’t have any idea how that happened. I also question myself how did my art got picked, where in fact if you view all of my artworks done for Splinterlands Art Contest, I don’t even have an art that is placed among the top 3. Unlike other artists, they have landed on top 3, and I believed they would have an edge to be prioritized and held the highest authority to be an NFT in the marketplace. After that, I thought maybe the person saw something about my Djinn Oshannus art. The true beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. And I also can’t judge anyone for their art and I don’t complain for anything. I just enjoy what I’m doing and I am very grateful to those people who put my art on that place.

Djinn Oshannus on Splintertalk NFT Marketplace Source

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Matheus: Let me ask you a little bit about the your process. In general how long do you take to create an art piece, and I mean, the whole process of sketching and brainstorming the ideas until you reach the final product.

Steven: I love to talk about my process. In every art that I post, I always give details on how I created my art piece. In general, I usually work from 8-11 in the evening, subject to change, sometimes I go all the way until 1am dawn. Splinterlands Art Contest is very challenging, within a span of one week how will you be able to deliver a good quality art. I really have a limited amount of time because weekends are for personal stuff, so I try to finish an art piece in 4 days if I could so that I could post it on Friday (Philippine time).
Most part of my preparation such as looking for references and sketching is on Monday. Finalizing of my sketch and adding some base colors will be done on the next day. On Wednesday, the coloring of my art would be near to finish. While on Thursday, rendering of my final art piece is on its way and probably the day with most time spent in doing it. Sometimes this is the time where I could also work beyond the average hours and would probably end at dawn so that I could post it on the next day. And on the next day, I feel like I am a zombie going to work. Heheh. I also use my break time at work to compose and post my art piece. And that is it for Splinterlands Art Contests.

For commission art, I would probably finish over 2 weeks or more for that.

Matheus: During the process where do you usually go to find inspiration?

Steven: In every piece that I do, I really have my girlfriend as my inspiration. She is the one who pushed me to enter the contest. The very first to believed in what I’m capable to do specifically in art. In fact, I do love making my girlfriend as the subject in my art piece. I have several art pieces done for her. But if you are pertaining to a place where I find inspiration, I usually browse images from the game called Hearthstone. Although, I’m far enough to that level of art, I find it as an inspiration maybe someday I could also do something like those.

Matheus: After your work with flauwy, you've won a contest for designing the PGM mascot for @zottone444. As I am involved as well in the PGM project, I couldn't be more happy with the result for our mascot, so tell us a little about this drawing and the whole PGM experience so far.

Steven: For the PGM Mascot I just gave it a try, but not expecting to win knowing that I don’t have any idea about the token itself. Also, I didn’t know what to make just by looking at the token design only. Token design is round, green and black with (>) design at the center. I just based my design in the token itself. I only had the idea to make a robot design because of what @zottone444 said, it is a play gamer. Giving it a bit of a bot or Ai something. I sketched a bunch of robots until I made something that I was confident enough and happy to represent it as my mascot art. It took me a night to draw the mascot and I was able to send it to @zottone444 in the discord. I also have a habit in flipping the canvass during the last process to adjust something that is not in proper position in my own preference. Due to sleepiness, I forgot to flip it back to its original position and so days later I just found out that I won the contest. I couldn’t be happier knowing that I won the contest, first time being on top of the list. Upon checking the image attached on the blog, I immediately saw that the one that I sent to @zottone444 was flipped. And so, I commented on that blog to correct my mistake and I also asked @zottone444 for his email to send the file with high resolution PNG image. I’d like to extend my greatest gratitude to be part of that mascot contest, thank you very much for choosing my art piece.

PGM Community Mascot design by japex1226 Source

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Matheus: So far we have covered the past and the recent events. What lies ahead for you Steven? Do you have a dream to achieve?

Steven: Yes, I do! Everyone has a dream to achieve. As for me, I want to be a fulltime illustrator. Hive would be my start and this is where I am able to count my level of growth pertaining to art. And someday I could be an artist of a certain blockchain game, who knows?

Matheus: I truly believe that you will reach that point Steven, and I wish you all the success in the world. I'll be cheering for you from afar my friend. I thank you for taking the time to chat about your work and your life with us. Before we leave, do you have any words for the people at home? And maybe a message for your fans on Hive.

Steven: First of all, thank you for this interview my friend. This is just awesome. And for the people and fan(s), keep on reaching your goals in life guys. Life is short and time is fast, you will never know until you hit later 40's or something then regret that you didn't live up to your goals. Also just have fun and enjoy whatever you love to do, that's the most important thing of all!

Matheus: It really is! Thanks again Steven, and I hope that people reading this post have enjoyed this as much as I did. I was a pleasure to have you here.

As for the readers, I thank you all for staying with us till the end, and bellow you'll be able to check every single Art of Steven as far as I could gather them. I hope you all have a great week and till the next episode of Hive Pearls.

Steven's Gallery

1UP Design Source

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Cartel Design Source

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Boss Mushroom Monster Source

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Steven's Old Drawings

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Crypt Mancer from Splinterlands Source

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Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece (Steven's Old Drawings)

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Deadpool from Marvel (Steven's Old Drawings)

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Steven and Girlfriend, among other things Source

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Steven and Girlfriend, among other things Source

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King 1UP Mushroom Source

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Djinn Oshannus Splinterlands Art Source

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Steven's Doodlings

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Stain from My Hero Academia (Steven's Old Drawings)

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Kobold Miner from Splinterlands Source

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Cartel Boss Source

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Mr. Blue Source

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Mr. Green Source

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Mr. Red Source

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Cartel Graffiti Source

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Cartel Alley Source

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Naga Warrior from Splinterlands Source

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Alric Stormbringer from Splinterlands Source

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King of the Forest Source

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Original Card drawn for a Splinterlands Contest Source

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PGM Community Mascot design by japex1226 Source

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Another PGM Community Design Source

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Self Portrait in Cartoonish Style

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Portrait of Girlfriend in Cartoonish Style

Support the Project

If by any means you enjoyed the program, we thank you in advance for every reblog as it allows our message and the works of the artist to reach further into the blockchain. And if you wanna support the artist, every upvote counts and the payment of this post will go integrally to the artist.

We'd love to have the feedback from you guys as this is the very first episode of this project, so comment below your thoughts and I'll be sure to think about it for the next ones!

In case you are interested in supporting this project directly, you can always contact me on Discord:Matheus "hollowknightgod"#1379

Thank you very much for your kindness!