Graffiti & Urban Art Features

How To: Draw graffiti letters

In this tutorial, we learn how to draw graffiti letters. When you are drawing these letters, you will want to use as much imagination as you can. Make sure to add in your own personal flare to give each of the letters a special touch. Now, you will draw the letters making them into a large 3D letter. Add in swirls and lines to the edges of the letters to give them a wet look and then add in shading to the side to make it look darker. Add in more shading and darker outlines, then when you are ...

How To: Draw a graffiti skull spraycan character with Wizard

The spraycan is the most important tool in most graffiti artists arsenal, and is often depicted in the tags themselves. This video from graffiti master Wizard demonstrates how to draw a skull / spraycan / pimp character with a menacing sneer on its bony face and a cane in its hand. Follow this demonstration done in black marker to improve your tagging skills before you take it to the street.

How To: Make dripping ink street art

Learn how to turn your street art alive using dripping ink in motion and some basic computer equipment. Graffiti Research Lab is an amazing resource in NYC that promotes and organizes graffiti art and artists. Hats off to these guys! This video is a great watch and you don't need to be a graffiti artist to appreciate or enjoy it.

How To: Tag your name using LED light throwies

This is a complex process, but the guys at Graffiti Research Lab have armed you with detailed written instructions and this video on how to create a night writer. This is a more complicated version of their LED throwies that allows you to catch a tag in lights. You'll never need an airpline skywriter again!

How To: Draw a graffiti style hip hop cartoon character

In this tutorial, we learn how to draw a graffiti style hip hop cartoon character. First, make a circle, then draw long triangles for eyes and a mouth plus a rectangular shaped body with very large feet. Then, draw in the arms with large hands and draw a hat on the top of the head. Then, fill in the color for eyebrows and fill in the pupils. After this, outline the character with a darker pencil or a black marker and fill in details for the outfit, like pants and a long sleeved shirt. To fini...

How To: Recycle plastic bottles and make decorative flower art

In this tutorial, we learn how to recycle plastic bottles and make decorative flower art. Start out by cutting around the cap of the bottle until the body is cut off. Then, cut small slits in the bottle until it's completely cut up. From here, you will spread these out so they are opened up like petals. Take different colored plastic bottles and repeat this process. When you're finished, you will then attach these together using heat and use them as decorative art for your wall! This is great...

How To: Draw the graffiti alphabet

To some, graffiti is an art form that can only be expressed on the streets to share with everyone around there. To others, it's nothing more than a stupid way to deface property and cause the city to spend thousands of dollars to clean up. Either way, it take a certain skill set to come up with some great looking graffiti. This tutorial will give those aspiring taggers or artists an idea of how to draw the alphabet graffiti style. Enjoy!

How To: Draw graffiti style people

This video drawing tutorial shows a technique for sketching out people in a style reminiscent of graffiti. This video lesson will provide inspiration from street art into your own artwork. Follow along with the demonstrator, experiment with the new ideas, and learn how to draw graffiti style people in a way you like.

How To: Get better at graffiti letter writing

Wherever you sit on the debate of graffiti, one thing is certain: it takes someone with a great sense of skill. There are so many different variations when it comes to graffiti or tagging there isn't right or wrong way. But people can tell when it comes off as sloppy and lazy so making sure it looks nice and clean is pretty important. This tutorial shows you how to get better at writing graffiti letters. Enjoy!

News: Trippy 3D Illusion Graffiti

Paper Donut is a collaborative graffiti project between Justine Ricaud and Alexis Facca. The French duo paint geometrical illusions as urban art (with the exception of the gallery installation below). They've also posted some detail shots that give you some sense of how it was done.

How To: Draw a simple spraycan character

Cholowiz13 demonstrates how to draw an anamorphic spray can character, which can inspire your own cartoon characters for any artistic purpose. Without using any words, Cholowiz13 demonstrates the creation of a cartoon spray can character by starting with the eyes and mouth. He keeps the face simple and adjusts the body of the spray can to show action while fitting the face. A few simple curves form the hands and fingers. But for the best expression, add shading (especially inside the mouth, a...

How To: Make a slap tag

Slap tags, or sticker tags, are faster, and less risky, than freestyle graffiti or stencil tags. You can design your slap tag, and put them up inconspicuously wherever you go. This how-to video shows an easy method for designing your slap tag, and even offers a tip on getting stickers on the cheap.

How To: Draw a character flipping his finger

Wizard is back in the house to teach us the fine art of graffiti drawing one image at a time. In this installment, he draws us one of his standard gangster figures with both middle fingers proudly raised to the viwer and some names around the side of him. Wizard's skills are so nasty, I would rock that t-shirt the character is wearing his his name on it any day of the week.

How To: Draw a gangsta character

Graffiti master Wizard spit some more knowledge at us with only his hands, drawing a gangsta figure for a viewer named HQ in his signature style, working quickly in sharpie on graph paper to create something that the more clumsy-handed among us couldn't produce with a lifetime of effort. If you think you're up to the challenge though, copying Wizard's techniques on paper will greatly improve your skills before you take them to the streets, so that when you really want to leave your mark you w...

How To: Draw a graffiti character

In this video, we learn how to draw a graffiti character. Start out by drawing two large eyes with small pupils at the bottom of them. Next, you will draw a nose and a mouth with pointed teeth. From here, you will draw the head around this and the jaw line for the mouth. Shade in the mouth and add lines to the face, then draw graffiti letters for the name of the character right underneath it. When you draw the letters, make sure to drag the letters out to make them flare more and stand out. W...