The Doodle Mysteries
Reconstructing the Hashmask doodle background
Hi 👋! If you are new to NFTs, please read this lovely introduction by Danielle (NFTignition).
Hashmasks is an NFT project that features a collection of 16,384 unique NFT artworks depicting characters wearing various masks. They also have distinct background styles. The main traits, including body type, mask type, background, any items they are holding are well documented and can be easily explored on platforms like rarity.tools.
But the Hashmasks are more than just the sums of their traits, they have secrets. 🤫
As a constant doodler and Doodle Theorem fanatic, I was instantly attracted to the doodle background style. The third mask from the left in the image above is an example. I noticed that this background style had various configurations and some of the doodles are more zoomed in. I wanted to know if they somehow fit together to reveal a bigger doodle.
My first step was to find out how many different configurations existed. I used rarity.tools to filter by “Doodle Background” and started to visually inspect row by row looking for uniques. I should probably note that I am very good at remembering and recognizing patterns so this was really fun!
I looked through 1,850/5,538 masks and only found 6 unique doodle orientations (if you find more please dm me). For some reason, I thought there would be over 50 so to keep track as I conducted my search, I printed each new orientation to help me memorize the patterns at the top. It didn’t take long to find the 6, but I didn’t know if there were more so I kept going for a bit.
Next it was time to find out how the masks connected together. I used InDesign to add the 6 images and play around with their orientation. Most of them fit inside one of the detailed backgrounds with the other detailed background positioned slightly below. Note how the 4 zoomed in masks are all rotated 90 degrees clockwise, it’s important for later ;)
I was hoping that the doodle was bigger, but instead 4/6 backgrounds are contained within one. I was still curious about what the doodle looked like without any masks in the way. I decided to try and isolate it so I looked for masks that had few obstructing features. I found the ones below and made their backgrounds transparent using Photoshop to help align the doodles.
Using Adobe Fresco, I started with the 2 detailed doodles, removed the masks and kept going layer by layer to reveal as much of the doodle as possible.
Eventually I ended up with only a few missing sections (outlined in green below). I searched for various body and mask types to help fill in the missing pieces.
Eventually I was able to extrapolate some of the missing doodle lines by connecting lines that were obvious. Finally, I had a pretty complete doodle!
So once I had this I went down a rabbit hole of staring at all of the prominent and hidden drawings in the doodle. My last step was to add color to create some contrast. So Viola! Here is what the final doodle background looks like! Can you find the house?
I used my completed doodle background above to create my final entry to the Hashmask Art Competition. It’s called Building Blocks. It shows two blank Hashmasks as the foundation for the project dropping grains of color. The grains can be viewed as both, building blocks and remnants. After all, our community has the power to both build and destroy.
Outer Lumen
she/her • NFT Collector/Artist • Browsing shill channels since March 2021 • #NFTWomen • Follow her on Twitter!
