LuciferJones

I wanted to know if there was anyone who liked to tag or was into graffiti art.

I've been a fan of the urban arts for about a year now and I love this side of the entire hip hop culture and I immerse myself into it as much as possible.

I've done a few throw ups here and there, but I want to be able to get into the meat of the art, I wanna be to do the trains like Cope2 and other graff artists, but I can't get a handle on it, I've tried to develop my own style and I've tried to create it, but what I lack is the capability to put that on paper or on a wall.

I see was I want to write in my mind, but when it comes to working that out on paper; much more difficult.

I'm hoping to start this as a taggers thread and also and a way to show your art and to get up in whatever form you attempt to get there.

PS: if anyone has any goods guides or videos that just shows how a tagger starts outlining his/her tags, then that would be much appreciated.

doodlebird

the DVD for Scratch 2: All the Way Live has a cool bonus feature with shepard fairey ( http://www.obeygiant.com/ ) that gives a super quick over view of where, when, and how to get your posters/images up.

as for the train stuff, there's an Art:21 video series put out by PBS with a segment on barry mcgee.
check it
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mcgee/index.html#
and click on the "writing on trains" link on the left for a tiny taste.

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doodle

clavus

Check out Banksy

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

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LuciferJones

thanks for the tells, if there's any others, i would still like to know of them.

-Ever-

Seconded, Banksy is cool.

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skier

Just as a heads up lucifer if you want to piece on trains you better be sure that you've got your can control down and your shit straight. The vast majority of tags stay up for years at a time on cars, and you're putting your name out to the whole continent. Thousands will see your work, good or bad.

If you want a good place to start, check out the http://www.12ozprophet.com forum

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Pacifier

Yeah, what clavus said

Banksy is so far the only "streetartist" is really like.
But I also like his "museum art"

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cellophanedeity

We actually did an entire lecture on street art in my lit class.

I'm a big fan of street art, though I'm not huge on taggers. Toronto has some good stuff around, and I hope to one day contribute it. I've already even cut my designs, I just haven't sprayed them yet. Too scared.

Ah well. Good luck with this!

skier

Decided to contribute some more to the thread.

There are two key aspects to your tag- Letter structure and Flow.

Your letter structure should be considered the foundation of your style. The important concepts to keep in mind are the quality of your letters, their consistency, and their uniformity. The only way to achieve good letter structure is practice, and lots of it. Remember those books you had in grade 1 that had the dashed line right in the middle? Use the same principle with lined paper to achieve good letter structure. It takes a lot of boring practice and work, but it's what separates great handstyles from the crap.

Second is form. It's how your letters join together, and how to avoid wasted lines and terminations. When you get it right, curves from one letter will be significant in the next letter. Straight lines will make a statement that fits in with the rest of your word. They will all combine together to create an underlying theme, a flow, through your word; whether it be sharp, round, smooth, exaggerated, or whatever you can think up. This is the creative; the part where you alter the letter structures you've learned into something new and different yet still somehow recognizable and right. To me, this is the "art" in graffiti. It's the unique and special you put in to make it your own.

hope this helps

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"Asking a bomb squad if an old bomb is still "real" is not the best thing to do if you want to save it." - denim

LuciferJones

Wow, this is fantastic, thanks for all the info skier; I'm already registered on 12ozprophet, been on it for a while, its a great place to look at the styles.

I checked out Banksy and well.....he's interesting, I definitely like his style

doodlebird

skier's right when your dealing with letters.

i like a signature that isn't letters at all.
this one's pretty sweet.
http://www.pureevilclothing.com/evilmatosismovie.html

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doodle