There exists thousands of artists creating daily around the world. Moreover, the contemporary art industry expands quickly in both urban and rural environments. How many forms of street art do exist?
According to a UNESCO report published in 2018, “the creative economy is made up of cultural and creative industry sectors that generate annual revenues of US$2,250 billion and global exports of over US$250 billion.” How much money does the urban art make yearly from those amounts?
Today’s article will inform you about the different techniques and styles that we have seen in the streets on the previous years:
Check our favourite forms of street art!
Similarly to what happens with many other alternative travellers, Cooltourspain team members love discovering cities through the different forms of street art. There is nothing better than exploring the suburbs by bike, or photographing murals while walking around downtown areas.
For many enthusiasts, there exists an invisible hunting game. The more artworks you see in the streets, the more you get addicted to it. You just want to keep on discovering new artists and tagging them on Instagram!
Here is a list with the two techniques that we find more appealing, the ones which we consider better connect with the audience. Either because of its hyperrealism or due to its repetition, they’ll surprise you!
1-. Muralism, changing the urban landscape
Artworks painted by muralists occupy the first position in our list of favourite forms of street art. They do it not only because of the artwork itself, but also because of the magnitude that involves creating these beautiful mural decorations.
While some artists work with cherry pickers (also known as scissor lifts), other skillful performers descend over the walls with a rappelling technique. Ain’t that a professional graffiti service?
What’s true is that painting a canvas of such sizes involves creativity, as well as a clear control of the 2D dimension. Did you know that artists first sketch the characters over the whole mural and then they start adding color?
2-. Sticker art, ‘bombing’ the city
The second item in our list of favourite forms of street art is the sticker culture. It expands through all continents thanks to private individuals who share their illustrations with other fellow artists by mail.
Stickers usually represent a character/logo/symbol although artivism is among our group picks. We define this term as a cultural movement which focus their attention on people who are marginalised, ignored or erased by society.
For instance, the image above represents the artwork created by Stickerman at an urban art festival held in Castilla y León autonomous community. What you’ll observe is a combo made up from collaborations with other graphic designers.
3-. Plastic, ceramic and other forms of street art.
The creativity that some artists use while performing in the streets is incredible! For example, you will find recycled plastic used by the Portuguese Bordalo II, who creates 3D artworks.
He uses scrap materials to draw animals and other figures in walls. Furthermore, Bordalo uses a drill machine to hang those elements in the murals for years. Haven’t your checked his website?
What really gets our attention is that he claims to have used 62 tons of plastic since 2012. Could you imagine if that waste ended up in the international ocean waters?
What are the main forms of street art?
If you are preparing a street art essay, writing a post for your blog or you’re just interested in learning because of personal interest, you should know that there exists other forms of street art as well.
To follow up the latest news related to the global urban art communities, we would suggest you to join any of these private facebook groups:
4-. Stencils, created with plastic or hard paper
The stencil technique is another great example of different forms of street art. To create them, artists use plastic or paper based layers. It’s as simple as using any given image, adapt it with Photoshop and then print it. Lastly, you’ll use a box cutter to trace the figure you want to represent.
Additionally, we would recommend you to keep on investigating about who are the most relevant international stencil artists. For example:
- C215 (France),
- Banksy (United Kingdom),
- Shepard Fairey alias ‘Obey’ (United States)
5-. Is Graffiti one of the forms of street art or not? What do you think?
What’s the difference that exists between graffiti and the other forms of street art? Would you consider the former as part of the urban art movement? Whether you think it’s vandalism or not, Cooltourspain team members observe it as modern art.
In order to create them, ‘writers’ use spray cans over a previously painted walls. Colors will differ according to the artist’s taste and there also exists several lettering techniques:
- Throw-ups,
- Wild style,
- Bubble graffiti,
6-. Paste ups, whether from natural or artificial glue
Last but not least forms of street art corresponds to a paper based creation. Artists usually use hard papers over 90 grams, sticking them together. The bigger, the more difficult, but above all the difficulty comes on where to paste up artists hang their artworks.
It is common to observe them on the top of businesses’ front doors, or even in the street corners. Which ones would you say are the most active ones in your hometown?
Madrid’s most famous paste up artists are as follows:
- Bloo & Titi, a tiger figure
- Wolf, space invader alike elements,
- Will Yakome, representing native Indian Americans
How does Cooltourspain observe the different forms of street art?
We love them all! Furthermore, we create our own designs during our free time. Cooltourspain team members are proud to support emergent talents and follow the most renowned ones to keep our interest alive!
Who are your favourite artists? Write a comment below!
Leave a Reply