How to Draw Hip Hop Graffiti Art

Strut your skills on the streets with your own graffiti.

Hip hop graffiti appeared in New York in the late 70s, and during the past decades the art form has entered popular culture and design. Hip hop graffiti art is generally located in urbanized areas where people define themselves by their signatures and paintings on the walls of buildings. The key to becoming a true hip hop graffiti artist is being original in your style and getting your name up as much as possible. While graffiti is associated with vandalism, it is also an art form that is accessible and can be creatively explored legally in certain situations.

Instructions

1. Open your eyes to the streets and familiarize yourself with the different styles of graffiti. Search the Internet; research and learn about the history of hip hop and how this art form came to such prominence.

2. Choose your name wisely, as it is an important part of creating your graffiti identity. It is best to start off with your own name or a nickname. Think about what looks good on paper and how the name sounds. Once you are happy with the name, pick up a pencil and a piece of paper and write your name in capital letters. Remember to leave lots of space between the letters as you will be adding funky designs later on.

3. Experiment in pencil with your letters. Try adding shapes and sharp corners to your letters, bubbles and arrows. Enlarge your letters so they form symmetrical shapes compared with one another, and keep exploring shapes and forms until you are happy with your sketch. Don't worry if you are not happy at first; obtaining your own style will take time.

4. Define your lines with a black marker, and erase the pencil marks from the piece. Thicken the lines of the letters and emphasize the boldness of one side to add a 3D effect. For example, thicken the right-hand side of all the letters about 1 cm to add a 3D border.

5. Pick a variety of colors and experiment with your fill. This is the inside of the letters that needs to be colored in. Traditional hip hop graffiti usually contains two or three colors. What a lot of artists like to do is a fade; this is where you blend two colors into one. You can also try painting each letter a different color. Doing the fill is where you can let your imagination wander and add a vibrant personality and style to your piece.

6. Add last-minute details to the sketch. Add a shine to the letters. Draw a line of shine on the opposite side of the 3D. You could try adding stars to certain corners of the letters, or hearts and lightning bolts. Finally, draw an outline around the whole sketch.

Tips & Warnings

• Graffiti is about practice. Sketch all the time to improve and develop your own style.

• Don't be afraid to experiment with your letters and make mistakes.

• Don't copy other people's artwork; it can get you into trouble.

• Remember that graffiti is illegal, so in public places you always need to obtain permission to display your work.

References

• How to Draw Graffiti
• How to Draw Things