There’s a sale going on in the North Light Shop, which means you can get 20% off IMPACT Book titles if you order now through August 21st. Use code 81120 at checkout on titles like:

Just click on the photos to be taken to their page and checkout from there! It’s that easy!

Check out Scape Martinez in this video and all over the website for Artrageous! Join Scape and other great artists, enter the contest, and more.
 

Get copies of his books by clicking on the covers below.

Graff 2

Check out Scape Martinez, author of GRAFF and GRAFF2!

I’m bummed that Brooklyn Museum has had to cancel their Art in the Streets exhibit due to funding. It’s a shame for all involved.

On the other hand, street art is by its very nature, not something you have to visit a museum to see. I’ve always been envious of the Banksy and Phlegm and other sightings around the world, but sometimes it’s a pleasure to see what’s in our own backyards.

Shout out to our rockin’ former intern Joie de Bostock for sending these photographs in to us! These were taken in Cincinnati, and one of the writers asks the title question. I want to know your answers! Art: what is it good for?

Want to learn more about the art of graffiti? Check out these books, available from IMPACT. Click on the cover to be taken to our store.

8ft. tall homemade portable canvas!

Want to do a bit of graff practice, but there are no free (and legal) walls available?

Check out this tip from Graff 2 author, Scape Martinez:

Basically it is constructed from cardboard.
We went to a moving company that sells your traditional moving boxes, and we found sheets of cardboard that were 4×8 feet in size, they were “double ply”, so we purchased 8 sheets and doubled them up.
Meaning we ended up with 4 sheets of 4×8 board.
We duct taped the edges, all along the edges to hold the sheets together, so now they were “double, double ply” and around 1/4 inch thick.
I proceeded to duct tape two of them together along the narrow side, the 4foor side, edge to edge, to create a giant sandwich board.
So when complete it stands eight feet tall and four feet wide, easily movable, and very light.
So then I got some basic paint primer from the hardware store and laid down two coats of primer, pure white, let it dry and wa-la!
Graffiti wall to go!

Here’s a link to video of the finished project: Walls on the go!

The original book, GRAFF, put you in touch with your creative style.GRAFF 2 is here to help you find your creative soul. Is it wildstyle or bubble letters? Scape Martinez is taking the message of creativity and expression to the next level. Follow Scape on Facebook for up to the minute news!

Over on Facebook, we’re offering a chance to win a copy of Graff 2. We’re really excited about this hitting the shelves and even more  excited about the chance to give it away to one lucky reader.

Graff 2

Are you interested? It’s super-easy to enter: just drop us a comment on our Facebook that contains a link or URL to one of your favorite sites on the internet for something art or comic related. Have a great source for news or quotes? We want it. Love a particular webcomic? We want that, too! A rising star with an amazing style? Amazing Spiderman tattoos? Funny cat macros? If you think we want it, you guessed right. Hey, who doesn’t love cat macros?

I’m going to set a deadline, too– the contest will run through May. It’s a long time, but think about all the resources we can come up with!

So come on, share with us, because as we all know, sharing is caring, right?

Don’t want to wait until May 31? I don’t blame you. Check out the original Graff, for some awesome know-how, and get a sneak preview of Graff 2 by scrolling down in this blog. Or you can subscribe to our RSS feed, and have it come right to you.

Letter manipulation is a cornerstone of graffiti art. To create your own alphabet, you want to study the form and shape of each letter, then slowly push and stretch it to reconfigure it with your own style. Here, graffiti artist Scape Martinez shows us how to create a radical letter. They tend to be thick, with very little dependence on arrows and extensions. Follow along to to create a radical e.



1 Sketch the Letter
Sketch a basic letter e, lowercase and thick.



2 Stretch It Out
Stretch the letter out, elongating it to create more of an egg shape. The trick is to think outside the box. Challenge the notion as to what an e can be.



3 Tilt the Letter
Tilt the e forward while still keeping the basic integrity of the letter.



4 Remove a Section
Remove a section of the lower hook part of the e. (If it weren’t for the bar going across the letter, it would now look like a lowercase c.)



5 Drop the Crossbar
Drop the crossbar down so that it almost touches the lower mouth of the letter.



6 Modify the Negative Space
Look for the negative spaces in and around your letterform. Shrink down the opening of the e and line it up with the lower opening of the letter.



7 Step Outside the Box
Begin thinking about the type of flow or movement that can be added to the letter as a motif. This ink sketch details some movement that would add a lot to the development of this e. Use it as a guide to transform what you’ve already done.



8 Combine Style and Form to Finish  the Letter
Take the previous two forms and combine them. Keep the form and body of the basic letter, but take direction from the ink sketch, picking up the twists and turns and morphing them into the style. Drastically change the line weight all around the letter.

……