The post Original Pudgy Penguins Artist Finds ‘Freedom’ With New Berachain NFT Collection appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Antoine Mingo left his role of concept artist for popular Ethereum NFT collection Pudgy Penguins in early 2023, due to creative differences with leadership. Now, he’s leading the art for a new NFT project called Burrrs on buzzy layer-1 network Berachain, giving him the creative freedom he’s craved since entering the industry. The Washington-based artist picked up the Pudgy Penguins job in 2021 via gig-work platform Upwork, back when founder Cole Thereum was at the helm of the collection. After a brief consulting gig, Mingo went on to create 8,888 NFT profile pictures for the Ethereum project, right as the NFT market saw explosive demand. To his surprise, his artwork was a smash hit. Work started to flood in for Mingo, who had previously only worked in the Web2 world but was now being approached by tons of Web3 projects. He kept on as an artist for Pudgy Penguins, even after Cole Thereum controversially emptied the project’s treasury and was booted from the project in 2022; the IP was later purchased by entrepreneur Luca Netz. But creative differences soon bubbled to the surface.  “[My style] just wasn’t clicking with them. Even the simple things, like the flippers,” Mingo told Decrypt. “Just little creative differences like that.” The artist pitched his own vision for Pudgy Penguins, wanting to take inspiration from Cartoon Network show “The Amazing World of Gumball” in the way the animators mix 2D and 3D. But the new leadership wasn’t interested, so Mingo left Pudgy Penguins in early 2023. “I think you could see it in the art, honestly. If I was to come out with a shirt, and you look at a comparison of what’s on the Pudgy website, or on the Pudgy Twitter, there will be a difference,” Mingo claimed. “It’s not a very hardcore difference.”…

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Filed under: News - @ February 21, 2025 12:26 am