How to Graffiti - First steps

How to Graffiti, as with most art, requires that you find and copy existing works. This may sound like plagerism (stealing other peoples work) but it's not. It's simply learning by example.


The best place for this is to simply take a walk around your town. If you live in a small town or village, take a trip to a city. Any decent sized city in the world will have Graffiti (it's universal!). Check it out, see the different styles, try and work out how they've done what they've done and the techniques behind the art. If you look close you'll be able to spot where the same guy has done more than one piece of work (most people will tag all their work somewhere). Keep in mind that if you're new to Graffiti you should be checking out the simpler stuff. 2D works and line art, usually just one colour. This will give you a starting point that you can copy then eventually adapt to your own style.
Don't feel stupid taking photos of graffiti, it's a great free resource.

The next best thing is the internet, although it's not up close and personal, you can find many great pictures and designs to learn from. Again you want to search for the simpler works. If you're serious about learning how to graffiti and taking it further, you can find (like I did) some really good books on how to graffiti and other subjects at Amazon and other sites.

Almost all graffiti artists start out with one design that they repeat over and over til they get it perfect. Almost always this is a tag. A tag is just what you call yourself. Experiment with different tags and letter designs til you get something that feels right. After you have a basic 2D line design, you can begin to take it forward and bulk it up.