Making street art with Sinna One
On the 24th of September, we had an interview with muralist, street artist and facilitator Sinna One (aka Daryl Bennett) as part of our Arts Council England funded Artist Workshops with Voice series.
Interview with Sinna One
We interviewed Sinna One and he had some advice on making street art and told us about how he got into art in the first place.
What got you into street art?
I've always drawn, always loved drawing, always loved art. I remember when I was younger reading these books from the library about graffiti art. It was those books - really seeing this insight into art that was being created on the street, a brand new thing. At the same time, I was also watching a lot of cartoons. I wouldn't say I started graffiti at such a young age, I was sort of dabbling in it. Later on, when I was living in South London I met a group of assorted artists including muralists and graffiti artists. From them, I got inspired to go out and paint on the street.
How would a young street artist get commissioned?
It's just about putting your stuff out there. With a group of artists in London, we went to legal spots to practice our work. In terms of getting commissioned, a lot of it is word of mouth. Sometimes you have to go and knock on doors and see if you can get commissions. A lot of artists start with stickers to put their stuff out there. Sometimes nerves about people seeing your work can hold artists back, but you've got to start somewhere. Get your work into a gallery or start your own space. The great thing about street art is that you don't need a gallery, the street is your art space.
Have you got any other advice for emerging artists?
Just keep drawing. Draw in your sketchbook, find a safe space you can paint in. If you’ve got some outdoor space then set up some cardboard or some boards and make sure you’ve got bin bags set up to protect the walls. Basically practice, practice, practice.
Drawing graffitti with Sinna One
Daryl led a workshop on how he draws his signature character, the Sinnabot.
Darryl started the workshop with a demonstration on the wall in his home studio. He showed us how he makes his signature robot on the wall in his studio, starting with a stickman (or capital letters if you’re doing word-based art). Then he moved onto creating the basic frame/shapes around this pre-established skeleton. Then, he added details, like changing the eyes to reflect how the light will hit the painting.
After this, he showed us his drawings on paper. Again the basis of this was taking simple shapes and working detail into them. It’s the exaggeration of these shapes beyond human or realistic proportions which gives that cartoony style.
Daryl demonstrated and talked us through how to draw the following shapes to create a Sinnabot:
An egg-shaped head
A pear-shaped torso
Semi-circle ears
Circles for eyes
Rectangle eyebrows
Circles at the shoulders and elbows
Avocado-shaped hands
Square/circle fingers
Rectangle-shaped joints between the legs and body
Wide pears shapes for legs
Beyond the basic shapes, there were other details like drawing the ground beneath this robot or its shadow. We were shown a variety of iterations that Daryl made on his original figure, ranging from a monkey to an astronaut.
Sinna One’s art
Sinna One (aka Daryl Bennett) is a street artist and a muralist based in Brighton, living and working in the city for nearly 15 years. He works predominantly in spray paint to create murals and street paintings. There are definitive influences from graffiti and street art in his work, his style and the techniques he adopts to create art. A love of cartoons, music, nature and sci-fi also trickles into his work.
In the last ten years, he has worked with youth and community groups to offer workshops in spray paint and creating murals in community spaces. Some of the people he has worked for include - Brighton Dome and Festival, Prince Fatty, Royal Blood, NHS Sussex Partnerships, Audio Active, Brighton Youth Centre.
Bennet’s art can be found across Brighton, ranging from BT street cabinets to the walls of ping-pong tables. His work is heavily inspired by hip-hop and comics, going for a more cartoony style.
More artist interviews and workshops
Thanks to Arts Council England, we're excited to be offering you a whole series of artist workshops. Join us as we interview creatives and then hand over to them to run a workshop! Perfect if you're doing Arts Award and need to find out about an artist's work and career.
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