“Tag N9ne” – His career and style

On March the 1st 2012, one of our Urban IMG members — Linsey, our street artists spokesperson — had the opportunity to interview one of the most prominent old school graffiti artists from the Netherlands, Tag N9ne about his career as an artist and his style.

Tag N9ne

 

Linsey: My first question for you today is: “Who is Tag N9ne?”
Tag N9ne: “My name is Tim de Groot and I am 46 years old, my stage name is Tag N9ne. I was born in Spijkenisse in the Netherlands and I am a graffiti artist.”

Linsey: When did you first discover your passion for the art of graffiti and when did you decide to become an artist in this art form?
Tag N9ne: “Well, I first started drawing cartoons with permanent markers on light poles and electricity boxes in Rotterdam around 1983. And then in 1985 I saw Style Wars which is a famous graffiti documentary and from that moment on I was sold instantly. Two weeks later I stole some spray paint and started creating my own pieces.”

Linsey: What is graffiti to you?
Tag N9ne: “To me graffiti is action art. It is full of creativity and the aspect of creating your content outside and discovering these interesting and sometimes odd places makes it extra special. Even when I paint illegal I like to paint something as nice as possible in the given time frame.”

Linsey: What do you define as art?
Tag N9ne: “To me art is anything that is creative and created properly. And of course, art has to be original.”

Linsey: How do you describe your style?
Tag N9ne: “Throughout my career as an artist, my style has changed over the years. My style back then was mainly influenced by my interests on that particular moment. Currently, my style is a combination of graffiti with street art, art, tattoo, tribal and pre-columbian art, graphic design and cartoon drawing.”

Linsey: What kind of surfaces do you prefer for your paintings?
Tag N9ne: “In the beginning I started piecing on walls like the schoolyard wall, because we used to hung out on such places every day. At that time I was too young to go to subway or train yards. On top of that no one was painting on subway- and regular trains at the time here in the Netherlands. Right now I like to paint anything, subway and regular trains, trucks, track walls, legals and canvas. As long as the paint sticks to the surface, it is fine with me. I like to paint subway and regular trains once in a while for the rush and the action. It is pure fun and it gives me the best high. Trucks and track sides I also like to paint, because the pieces last for a while and a lot of people will see them. Legals and canvas are nice to work with, because you can create more sophisticated stuff on them and try out new techniques.”

Linsey: You have been active in graffiti painting since 1985. What do you think about the evolution of graffiti up until now?
Tag N9ne: “Like everything it has two sides, a good and a bad side. The good side is that there is a lot of diversity in graffiti paintings today and there a lots of good paint brands and graffiti artists all over the world. The bad side is that the scene is divided into different sections of writers, legal writers, illegal writers, street artists and people who only bomb throw ups. In some cases these different artists disrespect each other which is too bad. In the beginning the scene was united, we were all writers.”

Linsey: Have you ever collaborated with other graffiti painters on a piece and how did you experience this?
Tag N9ne: “Yes, I have. Sometimes I paint with other street artists under a different name which is fun to do. By bringing together different people on one piece, can make that piece more dynamic, because you complement each other. I like to see a nice collaboration done with artists on the same level.”

Linsey: One of the Urban IMG goals is to is improve the overall image of graffiti and to strive for the acceptation of graffiti as a decorative element in city planning. What do you think about refining a city’s image by decorating its streets with graffiti paintings?
Tag N9ne: “It might help to make the city’s streets more attractive. Maybe that by decorating buildings and such the city will become known for its creativity and that could lead to attracting more creative people which can be beneficial for the city as a whole. New initiatives for example, and collaborations between different artists could bring forward some amazing pieces of art, the public can enjoy.”

Linsey: What do you think about street art in Rotterdam and the legal graffiti paintings in particular?
Tag N9ne: “I think that some of the street art in Rotterdam is very vibrant, because there are a lot of different influences and styles apparent in these pieces. I do not like all of the street art that Rotterdam possesses, but that is just a matter of taste. About the graffiti paintings, there are some very nice ones in Rotterdam. The legal painting near Hofplein from a Brazilian painter is my favorite. Like I said earlier, on legals artists have the opportunity to create more sophisticated pieces and this piece definitely embodies that”.

Linsey: How do you think we can stimulate the graffiti scene in Rotterdam?
Tag N9ne: “That is difficult to say, especially since now the scene is really fragmented. But, I do believe that creating more legal spots will also improve the level of graffiti paintings and thus take the art to a higher level.”

Linsey: How would you like to see the art of graffiti in the future?
Tag N9ne: “I would very much like to see more unity in the scene. It would be so much better for the sake of art if all of these artists would respect each other.”

 

Tutorial: the basics of graffiti

Despite our shared enthusiasm for street art, only a few team members here at Urban IMG have had the chance to experience the world of graffiti first hand. Keeping this in mind, our opening ceremony was a great opportunity for the less experienced among us to get more acquainted with what we’re all lobbying so intensely for. During our exciting opening day, Marc, one of our more experienced graffiti artists, did his best to familiarize the rest of us with creating some legit urban art. This allowed us to better understand what Urban IMG stands for, giving us a more realistic view of what we are actually dealing with. Seeing how we were all so thankful for Marc sharing his knowledge, we thought’d we’d post up a nifty online tutorial right here for all of our aspiring street artists to see.

Below, some of the key steps to follow should you be interested in placing your own street art piece.

Step 1
Get to know the local graffiti scene. Explore the different styles in your neighborhood, town and eventually country. If traveling is not an option for you, don’t be afraid to let the Internet inspire you. This will help in establishing a personal sense of appreciation for a certain style, which will definitely show in your pieces.

Step 2
Grab a pencil, heaps of paper and start sketching. Try applying some of the styles you’ve run into to familiar words – your name, for instance. As you start drawing, remember to use your pencil only gently so anything you don’t like can be easily removed.

Step 3
Start working on your design – what you’ll actually be putting up on a wall in the near future. Let your sketches from the previous step serve as guidance, don’t be afraid to make alterations and be artsy with your letters.

Step 4
Once you have a design of your liking, make sure you buy all the appropriate material to be able to put everything up on a life size wall. Since you’ll be unleashing your graffiti skills on a legal wall, there is a good chance you’re going to have to paint over a previous street art piece. For this, you’re going to need a decent amount of latex (wall paint), accompanied by a paint roller and tray. Make sure to buy a large paint roller that’ll smear a thick layer of paint at once, also be aware that your paint should be opaque and well covering. Buy sufficient spray cans (depending on the size of your graffiti piece) with different caps sizes. In Rotterdam, we recommend Harolds Grafik as this store truly has a comprehensive range of products. For the latex (wall paint), however, you’re going to need to hit up a Hema or Gamma beforehand.

Step 5
Once you have all your supplies, head over to your selected site. Since on legal walls there most likely will already be an existing piece of street art, begin by freeing up sufficient space for your own piece. Do this by simply using the latex (wall paint) to apply as many layers as needed for the existing piece to no longer be visible. Depending on the size of your paint roller and own piece you intend to make, this process can take as much as up to an hour. Here’s us freeing up our wall.

Step 6
Start putting the outlines of your design on your wall, leaving plenty of space between the letters. This way you’ll always have the chance to play with your letter sizes a little. Consider using graphic effects (arrows, 3D, disproportionality). Here’s what our first outline looked like.

Step 7
Once you have all your outlines nicely put up in the correct shapes and sizes, start coloring in the actual letters with the colors of your liking.

Step 8
Apply the outlines. This is the part where you need to be the most precise – since you need to exactly follow the contours of your letters. Try and hold the spraypaint can as closely to the wall as you can, using a cap that has the most narrow spray available. This should help get you very narrow outlines. For our piece, we chose to have orange outlines.

Step 9
Now you are practically all done! Take a step back and admire your piece. Try to imagine what is still missing and include this in your final touches. For our piece, our expert artist Marc saw it was necessary to add more decorations to and around the letters. This is when he came up with the idea of including ball-like shapes in our piece.

Final step
Very lastly, include your own signature(s) to let the world know who is behind the masterpiece!