Draw Graffiti: Learn How To Draw Graffiti Step By Step

Graffiti is a visual practice of expressing oneself through writing letters or drawing pictures on the wall. It is accepted as an art by some circles but considered as vandalism by some others.
When we consider the shapes plotted in the walls of the craves in the ancient time, we can say that this way of expressions can go back to the primitive ages. But the impetus for modern graffiti as the art of drawing on the walls was the hip-hop youth subculture which appeared in 1970s in the USA.
How To Draw Graffiti Step By Step
Today, this art is used not only by hip-hoppers, but also by many other people who are called as writers. Thus, graffiti has developed into a real graphic art of writings on the walls which requires a great deal of imagination, planning, and effort. When drawing graffiti requires going through the following steps:
  • Sketching
  • Planning out characters
  • Selecting colors
  • Selecting surface
  • Outlining
  • Filling in of colors and ornamentation
By doing all these work, the graffitists who define themselves as street artist, aim to communicate their feelings and ideas to the public. They also regard their art has the mission to beautify the community by adding aesthetic with their colorful designs and messages.
A vast majority of graffiti artist prefer to hide their identity, but instead use nicknames and add symbols and interesting pictures to their signatures which can be numerical symbols and logos. Over the time, the dimensions of the letters used has been grown and the inner side of the letters has been filled with figures. Unique writing styles with special color preferences has been emerged.
How To Draw Graffiti Letters
Bubble lettering and tagging are the two most popular graffiti styles among the beginners. In bubble lettering round letters resembling merging bubbles are used. Tagging is putting tags as signatures. On the other hand the complex graffiti styles are wild style implying tangled and illegible letters which can only be read by the writer.
Developing an individual style is the most important thing for gaining respect of other writers in the world of graffiti. Without your own style, it is really hard to attain recognition.

Miss Van's Art - The Original Graffiti Girl!

Graffiti has gone from vandalism to high art - and Miss Van's graffiti art is at the top of the charts! Featured in museums around the world, this Graffiti Girl's pictures sell for thousands of dollars!
Miss Van is a graffiti artist that has been around the graffiti scene since 1991. Born in 1973, Miss Van has been working on her craft since 1991, when she turned 18. Vanessa Alice Bensimon was born in Toulouse, France and has been in love with the art form since she was a child. Currently, she tours the world. Miss Van showcases her artwork in many countries and promotes her craft to as many people as she can.
In 1993, she finally discovered her unique techniques and her preferred medium. She is well renowned in the graffiti world and is an iconic figure for women across the world. When Miss Van hit the scene, she paved the way for women artists in France. Her medium is acrylics. Her style is very cartoonish and charming. Soft features of well rounded women are frequent themes. As is common in Europe, a lot of her paintings of women are in the nude form. This is because censorship and nudity are not as taboo for art forms as they are in other nations..
Most of these figures are of women in various moods or stages in life. There are many websites that offer Miss Van prints for reasonable prices. They will ship to various parts of the world and are a great way for someone to familiarize themselves with the wrok of such a great artist. Wall paintings of Miss Van's work can be found in many places in Toulouse, but she has been hired to paint other areas as well. Currently she showcases her art in a gallery. Her website will show times and places for the viewings, so if you wish to meet the artist and view her work up close and personal, there might be a viewing near you!

 

Knowing the Street Arts Better

When the walls become canvas, the street arts are born. Often known for its notoriety as unsanctioned art, this form of expression has shaped the direction for visual imagery in more ways than one. It has showcased thoughts of the common man and brought out his views on to a public platform. It has demonstrated the unlimited possibilities of art, once thought limited only to the elite and restricted to some mediums. The street arts differ for different nations, showcasing each country's individual social, economic, political and moral ethos. And over the period of time, these images chart the direction different countries are taking. In this article we will try to understand street art in its varied forms, how it has evolved and what its future could imaginably be.
Tag style graffiti
The basic signature of a graffiti artist is known as the tag style. Here the name is written in a simple or special style that the artist uses to sign his or her works. These tag style graffiti works can commonly be seen on many walls. While simply a signature, this may also contain hidden messages if the artist intends so. Some artists also use fire extinguishers filled with paint to tag on high areas, otherwise unreachable.
Bombing
Also known as throw-up, this form of street art makes use of one or more colours on multiple surfaces of an area. Another form of bombing is yarn bombing. Similar to bombing, this style involves the usage of plenty of yarn to create art pieces. Artists are thus often well-versed in the craft of knitting and putting together the yarn in a range of styles and design. This form of graffiti is usually employed to an existing piece of pop art to give it more style and appeal.
Hollow graffiti
This form of graffiti is also popular as outlines or shells. As the name implies, here only the outlines of the picture take precedence and no fill is used.
Piece
Of great interest to art lovers and graffiti artists is this form of work. A piece refers to an elaborate work of graffiti that involves complex pictures and depictions. Three dimensional effects, colour transitions and a range of effects are made use here. As this work takes plenty of time, it is often done in a legal manner. A well executed piece earns the artist plenty of recognition, more so if the piece is located in a hard-to-reach location.
Scribing
Also known as scratchitti, scribing refers to the creation of graffiti that is hard to remove. This is done by scratching or etching graffiti on to a surface. Sharp tools like keys, knives or drill bits are used to achieve this. Most artists in scribing are well versed with the knowledge of what items can etch on which surfaces and provide what effects, making this form of art rather interesting, as long as it is not illegal.
Stencil graffiti
This is another popular form of graffiti portraits that became popular with Blek le Rat. Cut outs from cardboard, plastic or even paper are used to replicate images quickly and easily. Beginning from small images to life size ones, stencil graffiti has gained extreme popularity over the years.
Those mentioned above are just a few of the popular means graffiti artists use. While works may often be illegally done, they leave behind indelible impressions of the community and times it lives in. To enjoy the street arts today, one however need not go just to subways. Canvas is an accepted surface too and many artists provide great pieces of graffiti that can be displayed at home or office.

Graffiti: The Evolution of Wall Art

Graffiti is evolved from a delinquent street activity to art. Although in many circles, this may still be debatable, in today's popular culture graffiti is recognized as an art form. In addition to wall murals, graffiti covered furniture, pictures and wall murals are elements of urban home décor.
The Origin of Graffiti
The word - Graffiti - is the plural form of the Italian word "grafficar" which means: drawings, messages, scribbles, patterns, or wall writings or scratches. Its origins date back as far as cave drawings in prehistoric times, on walls and monuments in ancient Egypt as well as ancient Greece.
The graffiti that we know today first surfaced in the late 1960's in New York City. At this time teenagers would write their names and street number on subway cars. This was known as "tagging" the way many youths were able to gain recognition throughout the city. Later on the trend was found in Philadelphia where the names "Top Cat" and "Cornbread" were well known throughout the city.
When spray-paint entered the picture, the art of graffiti evolved into colorful graphics. With these new tools gave way to more creative collections of forms, style and color were implemented on the streets. At this point graffiti was divided into two groups: the taggers and the artists. Taggers who lacked the artistic flair would use multiple colors and change their style in order to stand out amidst the colorful collages that were starting to cover the streets.
Those with a more artistic flair were able to use more complicated styles in their tags such as painting straight letters to look as though they are 3D. Artists would also produce large-scale multi colored productions with known cartoon characters in addition to the artist's brand or name. This is the point where graffiti evolved from simply writing or scribbling one's tag to a more creative and form of imagery.
Graffiti Art Today
The forms of Graffiti have evolved over time which includes a variety of techniques young artists can learn in order to produce specific styles and patterns. Graffiti serves a dual purpose of conveying a message as well as an aesthetic- fix for run-down fixtures in the community.
Today, more and more Graffiti artists are commissioned to create wall murals inside and outside of homes and community buildings. Some artists have even adopted the Graffiti art technique on canvas for home decoration.

 

Light Drawing - How to Do Light Graffiti

One hot new trend in photography is a technique called "light drawing" or "light graffiti." You've probably seen it in photos, videos, print ads, and even TV commercials. The process basically involves using long exposures in a dark area with a digital camera and LED or other light sources.
Unlike typical graffiti, this technique isn't illegal and doesn't cause property damage. It's essentially another form of time-lapse photography.
Before you start, make sure you have a digital camera that had manual settings. Some smaller/cheaper point-and-shoot cameras don't have this option. You'll need to change the shutter speed so that it stays open longer. And as stated previously, you'll need a light source (LED, flash light, glow stick, etc). A tripod also comes in handy because the camera needs to stay still while taking the shot.
Change the settings so the ISO is 100, the shutter is open to the widest aperture, disable the flash, and the exposure should be 10-30 seconds. You will also want to set a timer so you have time to get in front of the camera.
Hit the button on your camera to start taking the picture and get in front of the camera with your light source. If you set a delay, you might want to wait until the timer is up if you're drawing something specific (like letter, for example). When you're ready, start waving the light source around to "draw" your graffiti.
As you move around, your body will end up being a blur or ghost like figure in the actual photo (if at all). The light source will create streaks of light. You can draw shape, letters, and other designs. Just use your imagination and experiment with it.
One technique you can try is having another person stand perfectly still in the photo while you draw around them. You can point the light source at your face or other objects to create interesting reflections in the photo.
It's a lot of fun creating light graffiti in public because nobody will complain about your "drawings." They only exist in the photograph. You might even get some strange looks from people who have no idea why you're waiving a light at a camera!

 

Graffiti As An Art Form

Graffiti is a term used to describe drawings or writings on a wall or public place. It is commonly seen in subways, alleys, or other forms of public property. Some people consider graffiti as vandalism, while others insist that it's art.
While it's true that graffiti is sometimes used as a weapon of subversion, it can actually be an immensely positive form of artistic expression. Crude graffiti sometimes involves cheap barbs at symbols of authority, or even vulgar messages. But sometimes graffiti can be a force for change. For example, shreds of the Berlin wall contain graffiti that expresses the feeling of the post-cold-war generation. Many of these artists have no experience of the wall except through history classes. They have no real concept of the pain, suffering, and sacrifice that the long slab of concrete represented. But they do have feelings about it, and these feelings can be understood by analysing the graffiti on that wall.
Another example of positive graffiti is the concept of reverse graffiti. It ranges from using your finger to write 'wash me' on a dirty car to scraping images into a dirt stained wall. The concept was popularized by street artists, and is sometimes called grime writing, dust tagging, or clean advertising. Commercial entities use it for guerrilla advertising. These artists suggested that instead of cleaning the accumulated dirt on public surfaces, they should simply modify it. They did this by using chisels, wire brushes, and other tools to scrape images into the grime. The images were mostly themes from nature like trees, animals, and fish. The clean patches of concrete contrasted the dirty patches to make calm, serene pictures.
Graffiti as we know it began in the 1960s, and mainly consisted of images painted on public walls using spray cans. The art is considered illegal, because permission was not sought. Today, some commercial companies hire graffiti artists to decorate their property. It is used as a form of advertising and sometimes promotes social causes. This form of graffiti is more easily recognized as art because of its legality.
Some argue that placing images on public walls is not necessarily a bad thing. From as far back as the Stone Age, people painted animals and other motifs onto rocks and cave walls. We generally assume that these paintings were done on the cave dwellings of the painters, so that wasn't necessarily graffiti. The walls were private property and were painted with the permission of the owners.
But others argue that very fact that graffiti is illegal proves it's an art. Many underground movements have produced some of the greatest art, and this is especially true in the music world. This argument is built up by mentioning the time factor. Many graffiti projects are done at night, because the artists don't want to get caught by the authorities. Yet despite the time limits and the darkness, they are still able to produce immensely beautiful and intricate images. The ability to create such fine work under so much pressure is the mark of a true artist.

Man Cavern Art - Learn to Make a Graffiti Bank (Super Easy!)

Man cavern art is absolutely about to the man who occupies the cave. For some, it may beggarly a few admired posters befuddled up but for others the way the man cavern is busy is a absorption of the man himself. Nothing beneath than something air-conditioned or something that will be talked about continued afterwards anybody has larboard the cavern will do. One affair is sure, decorating for the Cavern accept to be Quick and Easy and of advance fun. The easiest way to do it, is accept anyone abroad do it...but it still has to attending good, the man cavern has a acceptability to uphold! One of the easiest means to adorn those bald walls is to actualize a graffiti bank which can be created over time (memories in themselves) and anybody who enters the cavern can help!
Learn how to calmly actualize a graffiti bank for the cavern that will become legendary:
HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1. Supplies for framing graffiti bank breadth (optional)
2. Acrylic (spray acrylic if you are absolutely daring) & assorted admeasurement brushes
3. Large markers
4. Whatever abroad you can anticipate of... (like old newspapers, pictures, old calendars etc)
5. A brazier or air-conditioned box to abundance it all in
Framing the graffiti bank is optional, although sometimes it is a acceptable abstraction to set boundaries of area things can be put afore the assemblage starts drinking, just saying. You can even do multiple, abate areas of "wall art", maybe even accord one to the girls who you accept to let in because they fabricated the food. You apperceive you don't wish them messing up the "real art".
Now go advanced and alpha "tagging" the cave...be creative, let your acuteness run wild, just bethink who may be visiting the cavern at some after date, the ladies, approaching man cavern trainees. Your best bet is to accumulate it apple-pie but still accept fun. Maybe you can accept a anatomy with a atramentous blind if you can't ascendancy yourself.
You can accept an official graffiti bank affair or just actualize the bank as you go, it's up to you. Bethink to just accept fun with it, what is put on your bank will ultimately admonish you of the abounding fun times you had in the Cave. And the acceptable account is, is that it can consistently be corrective over if it needs to be.
You can even accept TWO walls, one a "Serious" bank and one the "Drunk" bank and again accept fun aggravating to adjudge at any accustomed moment who should be announcement which being where. This is absolutely traveling to accompany some fun memories in itself!