Drawing Fantasy Ramen

Fantasy ramen bowls is a digital art project made for NFT trade. Together with a developer we set up this project to experiment with new blockchain technology, multi-layered illustrations and generative art.

Based on 772 hand drawn illustration layers, our generative algorithm creates over 2 million images, layer by layer. Every image is unique and randomly put together. 

Hand drawn, digitally generated.

Project type
Illustrations

Keywords
Experimental
Graphic Design
Generative art
NFT

Japanese style illustrations

Inspired by journeys to Japan and popular culture in the crypto-scene, we decided to create Japanese style drawings of ramen bowls, with clean and simple lines and planes. Since ramen bowls can have all sorts of bowls, toppings and details, this turned out to be a perfect theme for our generative algorithm.

Different layers

Every image consists of the same 36 layers: background, table, bowl, topping, et cetera. And every layer has fixed coordinates, so the algorithm can put them on top of each other in the same place in every image.

Fantasy figures

Normally, ramen bowls have pretty standard ingredients. But this is fantasy ramen! So why not add Godzilla, a geisha or bonsai trees to the bowls? I drew hundreds of different layers imagining all kind of iconic Japanese toppings and ingredients.

Defining color palettes

Having all illustrations done, I now started exploring typical color schemes from Japanese graphic design. Soft colors originating from common ink and blockprinting techniques give the illustrations a more authentic feeling. Hard neon colors remind of modern Japanese cities and technology. A rare golden palette creates extraordinary shiny bowls and toppings.

Generative artwork

The generative algorithm needed some tweaking and refining, but finally put together 10.000 unique images from all possible combinations of bowls, toppings, backgrounds and colors.