How to draw graffiti

While many people associate graffiti with tasteless vandalism, it is also an art. Graffiti means - to write, it was first used in Ancient Rome. While today the term is more loosely used, graffiti still generally denotes artistic writing or drawing. It may be done without violating the law. Over the years, distinctive styles have evolved that can be instantly recognized as graffiti, even when the writing is on a piece of paper. As with any art, there is no right way to draw graffiti, and you need to develop your own style.

1. If you live in a city, observe your living place, you will easely find some graffiti paintings. If it isn't possible, go online. There are a lot of different graffiti styles you need to become familiar with.

2. Write down your name on a paper. Most famous graffiti writers begin with making a personal signature. Leave a lot of space between letters - you will need it. Print the letters in capitals and then grab a pencil. Draw lighlty, so you could easily erase. Make your letters look like blocks ! Also put little pictures or stars inside the letters.

3. Choose a style for the name. Bubble letters are especially popular in graffiti , but there are other styles, too. You can have rounded edges or sharp, equally sized letters or some big letters and some small, etc. Once you learn the basics you can develop your own style naturally.

4. Outline the letters you have written to approximate the style you're going for. As in thebeggining, use pencil and write very very lightly, as a begginer you'll make plenty of mistakes. It will take time and a lot of patience to get the letters just right. You can make all the lines the same thickness, but you can approximate shading and a 3-D effect if the lines get thicker and narrower at different places

5. Add details as desired. Once your letters are as you want them, you can add additional details--with light pencil--if you choose to. Perhaps a lightning bolt for the dot of an "i" would be good, or eyes peering out of the holes in your "b".

Copy your drawing for a backup. Use a copier and adjust the darkness setting so that the light pencil lines show in the copy

6. Blacken your pencil lines. Use pen or marker to darken the lines drawn with your pencil. These lines are more or less permanent, so be extremely careful. Don't be discouraged with small mistakes; you can usually fix it. Say if your pen line was too thick or you were jogged and went outside of the line, just fill it in so it's 3D.

7. Add color to fill in your drawing with colored pencil, marker or crayon. Again, it's a good idea to look at examples before doing this, but really you can do anything you want. A very simple graffito (a single work of graffiti) can have only one color. You can also easily do each letter in a different color or make the added details a different color than the letters. Graffiti artists traditionally had to work secretly for fear of getting caught--many still do--and so they could carry only one or two different colors of spray paint at a time--a lot of very good graffiti is just one color.

If your graffiti turned out perfectly, congratulations. Now move on to different words and effects. If not, keep on trying. Master the simple moves first and then work your way up--you'll soon develop your own style. Don't copy other people art :) .