In a recent post we focused on the English artist VOYDER who used 100 colors in one piece. With 23K followers on instagram, it is fair to say that VOYDER is not a secret. With a diverse skill set of graffiti through to oil paintings, he has a surprising story that helps us understand where this versatility comes from. In 2001, a then younger VOYDER first started writing graffiti. As a lot of writers, his new hobby was shared with friends, writing on things that weren’t theirs in the middle of the night. Eventually his focus turned from street bombing to full color pieces in tough spots.

The next 8 years saw a lot of practice and development for VOYDER. Painting with a crews at the time, he pushed semi wild styles, full color schemed productions and photorealism. And that’s where boredom kicked in. For VOYDER, slaving over complicated sketches, only then to transfer that idea onto a wall, was not his idea of fun. It drove him to taking distance from the act of graffiti for 2-3 years. His return saw a return to the basics. No more wild, colorful pieces. Rather stripping his works back to big hand styles with one color fill, and an outline. Occasionally adding a drop shadow. Painting in a lot of abandoned buildings, to cover the used dirty surfaces, he chose essentially chrome and black as his colors of choice. At this time there was no relying on tricks like 3D or highlights to hide a weak piece.

The Charioteer - oil on canvas and frame

Bristols quiet achiever

INTRODUCING GRAFFITI ARTIST VOYDER

This was also the time he started dabbling with figurative oil panting. A lot of time was spent sketching and painting things other than letters. His interest for the arts in general widened and his tendency to get bored was fed by the abundance of inspiration in other artistic disciplines. These days VOYDER has no restrictions on how few or how many colors to use in a piece. It can be as few as 2 colors and as many as he can transport to the site. Take a moment here to get to know the artist known as VOYDER.