DonkeyPunchDRxFYC's blog: "Graffiti: Finding your signature "

In Rare Form

Why are we attracted to graffiti? It is unique and has its very own genre of artform, yet is it also a never-ending challenge being a graffiti artist. The art is very misunderstood and can be hard to get full support based on the fact that some of the general public still views it as being destructive. Graffiti artist want to re-interpret the world in their own design, while giving back to their communities, while trying to build a reputation and self-esteem to progress to the next level. A good masterpiece to a graffiti artist is summed up into three parts: the character, the lettering and the background.

Graffiti "characters" are something that will not be found in the comics section of a newspaper. The easiest way to understand graffiti based characters is by searching for them under "Urban Cartoons". Since graffiti characters are similar to cartoons, the artist don't have to worry about anatomical perfection, that is the difference between "real" and "abstract" characters. Artist tend to use characters of their own involving a certain element of fashion with things like bandana's, ball caps, beanies and spray cans. Artist may even sometimes use popular mainstream cartoon icons such as Bugs Bunny to make their art piece stand out, so that it can help deliver a specific message, or it can make a political or social statement. Characters are the first step into giving your piece a sense of personality.

  Next is where a graffiti artist would add in the lettering and depending on what style they have developed can show how far they have progressed as a graffiti artist. "Bubble letters" are relatively easy to make and simple to read and a good start to any graffiti artist as to where "Block letters" can help develop basic 3-D and are a little more difficult because the lines need to be straight as possible. "Semi-Wildstyle" is a step down from "Wildstyle" but is more clear to read while using arrows and connections to make the letters flow with harmony, as to where "Wildstyle" is nearly the master level of graffiti and legibility are no longer the main focus. Here, the artist style and execution is vital. Only those who know the style, mainly experts, can read it and identify the artist.

Finally, after adding in the character and lettering, it is time to add the final, but very essential piece to the puzzle, the background. The artist can bring either total success or total failure and therefore it is key. There are many ways to go about the background. An artist can leave it blank or make addition things like bricks, city skylines, landscapes, clouds, and abstract. The ideas is to give the letters and character their proper surrounding and making them pop, while choosing the right colors to contrast or compliment the rest of the picture can also make or break the whole piece.

So remember, the next time you plan on playing around with a blank canvas or in your sketch book, that there is a wide variety of characters, lettering and backgrounds to be played around with to help you develop your very own creative graffiti style. Today's graffiti art is more accepted around the world and not thought of as another gang-tag or being destructive. It is influenced by the work of creative individual worldwide in areas as diverse as graphic design, photography, advertising, illustration, fine art and even multimedia and technology.