I remember a period at Art and Design when food related names were the craze and i was not going to let any craze that involved piecing new names pass me by. I went through several, some silly (Nosh comes to mind) and some I liked the letters (there really wasn’t any reason behind Ale) but my favorite for sure was Bubble Gum. I had such fun with these letters. You couldn’t go wrong with this combination of letters. Longer names are usually problematic for graffiti artists, they add complexity and take more time but sometimes the complexity is the challenge.
Bubble Gum, 3 “Bs” and an “L” and “E” The style options were endless. The “U” was always a letter that can morph into any style I am using so all together it was almost perfect, I never pieced any of these outlines but i had a great time drawing them.
So here they are starting with the simplest (above). I used a red Pilot Pen to outline and a black Pilot (razor points) for the shadow cutting around the red. Since the black would completely go over the red i had to cut around to get the feeling that the red was opaque, which it wasn’t. A few black chip off the shadow to the right to give the piece some weight and I know there technically should be a source for the shadow to drop from, but graffiti should rarely be technical, unless you are German, Those cats are way too technical for me!
I don’t have a title for this one, I remember wanting to piece something colorful and fun. I think the 2 arrows, one up, one down bring this piece at least one step away from a simple outline. The mini Bubble piece running down the “U” adds some complexity and style too and adds some coolness (as far as colors) into the predominantly warm colors. The hot pink 3D has shading coming from the rear and cross intersecting that are random swirly black stripes. Thick to thin as they move towards the rear. Finishing the piece is an abstract jagged pink thick and thin set of lines in the fill.
Now we get to the more complex outlines, Green Bubble. The marker of choice for blackbook piecing was almost always an alcohol based transparent ink marker, there are thousands on the market now but back then there were maybe only 1000 and when new colors were released and I got my hands on some it was like every day was Saturday! The pastel shades allowed me to use other colors aside from black to outline(and i had a huge set of water based colorful Marvy pens waiting to play!). The alcohol markers blended easily and had a confident calmness about them. Subtle styles. The Marvy pens, being water based would not pick up nor bleed into the alcohol markers, that’s why I never outlined and filled in with the same based makers, you would get a blurry mess.
The Bubble outline here I would call a semi wild style mostly because I could always get wilder which doesn’t usually mean better. I love the hook ups here especially at the 2 Bs and L part. Me E floated too far from the piece so I had to add some chips on it’s top left to compensate the empty space it left, I would correct that mistake if I ever pieced or painted this. Again the lack of tags suggests my moving away from tagging and into the piecing realm. The overall of the piece is stiff and angular with few curves, that was completely intentional. Aside from the space behind the E i really love this piece.