20 Arcade, Video and Computer Game Graffiti Artworks

Graffiti art is often an expressive, albeit illegal, way for street artists to express their opinions on social and political affairs. However, sometimes graffiti artist create fan art of celebrities, movies or computer games. This street fan art is simply a way of expressing appreciation for characters that have become a part of the artist's life.

Classic Arcade Games in Graffiti Art

Classic arcade games like Tetris, Space Invaders and Pacman have memorable, pixellated characters or objects that frequently find their way into graffiti fan art. The pixels can be created out of paint, tiles or painted squares of materials such as cardboard or wood.

Above: Fan art graffiti of the arcade game Tetris, made using colorful plastic packing crates.

Above: This gaming graffiti piece uses craft mosaic tiles to create a pixellated image of the alien characters from the arcade game, Space Invaders.

Classic Video and Computer Games in Graffiti

Besides arcade games, there are a number of classic computer games that have found their way into street artworks. Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, Lemmings and Worms were a staple diet for gamers back in the late 80s and 90s. With the advent of gaming consoles, gamers could play their favorite games from the comfort of their own homes instead of going out to an arcade.

Above: These tile mosaics show Mario from the popular Nintendo game, Mario Brothers, in a classic, pixellated style.

Above: This piece of street art uses beer coasters to create a pixel image of Link from the Legend of Zelda.

Above: Lemmings painted on a bridge over a busy road way. Several lemming graffiti pieces have popped up around the world, usually on bridges over freeways and highways. The artworks are often accompanied by the phrase, "Hello Lemmings!"

Above: A classic Worms character greets pedestrians from a street corner. The game's graphics changed drastically with the introduction of Worms 3D.

Recent Games

The current gaming industry focuses heavily on graphics. Computer games and console games now have highly detailed scenes and characters that present new challenges for game playing graffiti artists. Spray paint, however, can create a smooth, 3D effect when used by a skilled graffiti artist. Luckily there are many games that use a cartoon style for their characters, making a graffiti rendering of the characters easier for street artists.

Above: Graffiti artworks showing characters from Street Fighter.

Above: Commissioned graffiti depicting an image from the video game, Halo, followed by an artist's interpretation of a Halo character.

Above: Samus Aran, the bounty hunter from the video game series Metroid.

Above: The Sony Corporation commissioned several graffiti artworks to advertise their new product, the PSP. The googly-eyed cartoon characters are each holding a PSP.

Above: Bioshock graffiti art

 

Above: A spray-painted 22nd Century vehicle from the game R-Type

 

Above: Large graffiti piece of Starcraft's Typhus, smoking a cigar. Artists' mediums like spray cans and air brush canisters allow for a soft, smoky effect.

 

Above: Grand Theft Auto graffiti

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Graffiti: Art or Vandalism?

A look at the different forms of graffiti, and what constitutes as art, or mere vandalism.

Modern Graffiti comes in many different forms, from the scrawled message in a public bathroom stall to the spray-painted murals boasted on subway walls. The simplest form of graffiti is scrawled message; “Sally loves Peter” or “James woz here.” Many regard these impromptu writings as vandalism, as they lack artistic merit, yet the point of graffiti is to send an expressive message to the reader, whether it is a political, social or personal view.
Some graffiti is used as a territory marker, called “tagging”. These can often be seen on street corners, street signs and suburban walls. It is simply a signature of the person who is laying claim to that area as being in their territory.

Stenciling is a popular form of modern graffiti, and is often used to convey political and social messages to the viewer in a pictorial form. A famous stenciling artist is Banksy, with his provocative and thought-provoking work that can be appreciated as more than just mere vandalism, as seen below.

Graffitti artists commonly utilize spray paint as their medium, using different size nozzles to achieve broader or more precise lines. However, some graffiti artists choose to use brushes or sponges, sometimes combining all three in their artwork.

Modern graffitti does not require that a certain style is used. Cartoons, caricatures and portraits are often used to convey a message, with decorative text styles and interesting uses of perspective.
Modern graffiti is true street art, appearing overnight on walls, in subways and on buildings. Graffitti artists often paint their murals illegally, working under cover of darkness with a team of sentries to watch for law enforcers or pedestrians. Because of the controversial material contained in many murals, graffiti is now considered to be a form of resistance art, in rebellion against common public beliefs and government laws. This example is of a statement made by Barack Obama, as expressed by the graffiti artist.

The ultimate achievement for many graffiti artists is to create their work in places that are dangerous to get to, or difficult to paint on. Spraying a piece on the side of a train, for example, is quite an achievement, as trains are often under close guard, and have a slick surface which causes the paint to run.

As with all genres of art, there are amazing graffiti artists, and those who attempt to be amazing, but fall far short of their goal, and end up being mere vandals.

However, there is a lot of amazing graffiti out there, and many graffiti artists are now being commissioned to decorate buildings and offices. As an art form, it requires not only technical ability, to use the tools required, but creativity and personal opinion.

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