RYDE — Red Edge

RYDE is an original graffiti lettering drawing in ballpoint pen and graphite. The word is drawn as a structure rather than written as a sign: the four letters open up into ribbons and planes that overlap without hiding each other. Where one form passes over another, the line beneath stays visible, so the sheet reads as a drawing of transparent volumes. Legibility is held back on purpose. The eye first takes in rhythm and tension across the page, and only then assembles the word.

The drawing works in three registers. Black ballpoint sets the structure: firm contours, and dense cross-hatching where the forms turn into shadow. Caran d'Ache graphite gives the soft grey modelling inside the planes, so they seem to bend and twist in space. Red ballpoint is used sparingly, along chosen edges, as a second contour: it marks the front faces of the forms and separates the layers from one another.

Ballpoint cannot be erased, so the sheet keeps a record of every decision, down to the faint construction lines left in the white of the paper.

The work comes from graffiti writing, where letterforms are developed on paper long before they reach a wall. Here that study becomes graffiti art on paper in its own right, closer to an architectural drawing than to a sketch: the letter treated as a form to be built, lit and shaded.

• Artist: Alexander Yashyn
• Year: 2026
• Size: A3 (29.7 x 42 cm / 11.7 x 16.5 inch)
• Medium: Black and red ballpoint ink, Caran d'Ache graphite on 190 g/m² Italian Bristol paper.
• Edition: 1/1
• Authentication: Includes a signed Certificate of Authenticity (COA).