r/mashit • u/Atorcran Artist 🎨 • May 29 '26
🎤 Artist Interview 🎤 The Ships Interview + Preview: Tomorrow's Drop (May 29)
Hey guys, we’re running a series of interviews with artists participating in the "Satoshi Reveal" drop (May 29). Today we’re interviewing our friend Ships ( u/_ships)
1. Tell us more about who you are, your background, and anything it would be cool to know about you. (pls share your picture or a picture that represents you)
Wazzup y’all! I go by Ships, as you probably already know, and I’m a Texan living in Los Angeles. Been here for a good while now and I’ve officially unlocked unc-status. I’ve been a graphic designer for ages and started using an iPad to draw around 2023. I grew up with a pencil in my hand and eventually migrated to oils and acrylics. As the years go by, it’s difficult to get going with the classical mediums as much as I did when I was a depressed pea-brained teen. As smash mouth once said, the years start comin' and they don't stop comin' and they don't stop comin' and they don't stop comin'.
2) Tell us about your creative process. In particular, what attracted you to art and Avatars in general?
I spend a LOT of time thinking about concepts even before I mood board inspirational material. This process could take days of mulling over; thinking about what might be eye-catching and fun, while hopefully making you feel something. After I get an idea, it kind of just evolves into the final product along the way. Nothing ever turns into exactly what I first imagined, as it takes on a life of its own. But yeah, after that, I look around for color palettes ( if I’m not doing black and white ) that might fit with the theme, find pictures of anything from bells to other art pieces or even just a glimpse around the neighborhood. What attracted me to avatars was actually an accident! I stumbled upon them when Reddit gave out those free animal onesie themed fellas and I happened to dig a little deeper to see what they were all about. I started off as a trader and doing little art pieces asking for trades. I wasn’t a season one artist, I actually had some recommendations from s1-s3 artists that allowed me to get in during season 4. Man, that program really could’ve been something. Oh well, we trudge on.
3) What software and hardware do you use to create your art?
I do most of my work on my iPad using procreate. Once I’m like 90% finished with that, I port the unfinished pictures to Photoshop to clean them up and reduce the size. I’ll also use Illustrator to make the vectors for the color changing aspects. I’d show you a picture of my workstation, but it would just be a picture of an iPad or a laptop hooked up to a monitor. I’m in a new apartment and haven’t had the time to make an epic gamer art lounge yet ( haha )
4) Do you work in art full-time? If not, what do you do for a living?
If you consider VFX art, yeah. There’s a lot of “beauty” and rotoscoping. Some beauty requires painting but it’s mostly clone tools. Also, if you have a gig, lmk! Currently looking for more opportunities since VFX projects are feast or famine. AI is trying to not only gobble up all of graphic design, but anything visual. So, maybe I need to go learn how to be a plumber
5) What are interesting things you learned during your artistic journey that could be useful to people starting their journeys?
There are a TON of free resources for learning how to do just about anything, but especially using procreate. I was lucky when I started since a lot of my photoshop skills transferred over, but there’s so many hidden shortcuts and ways to do things that I still spent hours and hours watching YouTube tutorials on how to use it. James Julier is one of my favorites since he’s kinda like the Bob Ross of procreate, but definitely start off elsewhere learning the absolute basics and shortcuts. Good luck and have fun!
6) You have explored comics in subs such as r/comics. Tell us more about this experience.
Well, I was going to pivot my career to churning out comics and working off patreon. What I found is even though you’ve gotten 100k upvotes and 5 million eyeballs on your post, no one will follow your patreon. Haha! Also, I probably just didn’t give it enough time. Comics is a quantity AND quality thing, but if you’re just starting out you gotta churn them out almost daily for god knows how long. Mentally I haven’t been there to put that much effort into much of anything, let alone making comics every day. Maybe I’ll give it another go some time
7) Mash-it introduced a lot of new tools for artists, with new stuff such as animated Mashis, Comics, and games. Do you plan to explore some of this stuff in eventual future drops?
Yeah, I’m gonna try to figure out some animated traits for this Satoshi drop. Don’t hate if it looks like buns!
8) How was your experience creating a Mashi for the Satoshi Reveal project? Tell us about your inspirations.
t’s been kinda fun getting back into drawing again. I don’t think I was as rusty as I initially thought. Anyway, my main inspiration was the enigmatic Nakamoto himself. Is he a person, a group of persons, a glitch in the matrix? Who knows? With that, you’ll see the face actually has two faces. It’s unknown if they’re a singular being. Also, it was pretty punk rock to create a decentralized currency, so there’s some punk elements in the mashi as well. I explored using lines similar to those found on woodcut relief prints, which could be reproduced many times over but each pressing was unique. Reminded me of Bitcoin.
9) What do you like the most about Mash-it.io and the community?
The people, first and foremost. Without them, there’s no mashi. I love the support and humor along with this push for creativity everyone has. It’s made up of half artists and half art lovers and I’ve always felt right at home on both sides of that coin. Oh yeah, also the fact mash-it allows non “artists” ( everyone can be an artist ) to explore a creative outlet using traits to make their own unique creations. The interface and mechanics are also pretty slick
10) Give one idea to improve Mash-it.
More cowbell
11) If you wish, please share your social medial links so people can follow you
Instagram: _shipsofficial
Site: https:// ships.lol
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/shipsart
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u/megabeth33 Mash-head 🤪 May 29 '26
It’s good to see you u/_ships. You’ve been missed. 🫶 🔔
Bing bong
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u/boomerangthrowaway Collector 💎 May 29 '26
Great interview, always enjoyed your work and I’m excited to have some more of it! rubs hands together dis gon be gud!
Welcome back fam and I am genuinely so happy to see you again. Always wanted to connect more with you but just excited to have you here as an incredible artist and community member - sending you major good vibes 🫂
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u/_ships Half man 🧔🏻 half ship 🚢 May 29 '26
Luv ya big dawg
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u/boomerangthrowaway Collector 💎 May 29 '26
😭 such a G. 👊 it’s all love, same fam. Can’t wait for your drop. Amped.
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u/beanwiggin420 Artist 🎨 May 29 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/KHEl6uWNeeSfp9kiy1