How to Draw Graffiti

Video Transcript

"Alright folks. In this clip I'm going to teach you how to draw graffiti. Now graffiti is kind of a crazy thing in that it is really - I guess the best way to describe it is AA - abstract art, abstract modern art and there really is no way to clearly explain or define it really. You've just kind of got to get in and start working with crazy shapes and ideas and eventually you will, you know, get the feel for it, but this is basically for anyone whose interested in I guess creating a look or a backdrop for their graphic novel like if you want to have authentic looking graffiti in there then, you know, this might be the way to learn to do it. What I'm doing here is I'm just giving myself some parameters to work in. I'm going to sketch out kind of a rough, weird jigsaw kind of an outline which I'm then going to create something in later. This is basically going to be like a space of a wall. Like let's say you were to draw a piece of a wall and this is like going to be where the graffiti fits in. This is basically the outline of whatever the graffiti is going to end up looking like. So now what we're going to do is we're going to start to like sort of make sense of all this. I come in here and start to draw just like shapes and colors that make this thing kind of cling to life in a weird sort of way. It's kind of strange describing graffiti this way, but that's essentially what we're doing here. We're going to make the graffiti kind of take on a life of it's own. The way to do that is to first of all, a lot of the time the graffiti doesn't necessarily have to say anything that makes sense. It doesn't have to have any clear cut message of any kind. It can literally be just some crazy interpretation. A piece of modern art in a way. Something that somebody felt like you know expressing themselves with in a way almost. We're going to come in here and basically give this weird blobbing mass a bit of texture and some sort of clear visual scheme. It's almost like creating little snowflakes you know, and obviously within this crazy scheme there ought to be some sort of semblance of okay I can tell kind of what this is supposed to be. Like if there's no order whatsoever and it looks like just complete chaos I suppose you can do that. That's essentially what modern art is which is basically what I would classify graffiti as being, but I still think at the end of the day there ought to be some sort of pattern. Some sort of method to the madness. So yeah, basically just allow yourself to create your own little jigsaw puzzle and start to fill in the lines as you see fit. This would be really good to know, especially if you're going to be the person that ends up drawing a lot of the backdrops for your work. If you're the guy whose job it is to create the landscapes that these stories that you're going to be creating take place in, you're going to want to learn how to draw authentic interpretations of things ranging from graffiti to, you know, landscapes to, you know, different types of buildings who knows what else. So this is all very important. It's just one of many things that you'll need to know how to do. So yeah, just kind of allow yourself to get creative a little bit. Like think like someone who sketches out these things just to pass the time. Allow your mind to kind of wander a little bit and create sort of crazy fun outlines. Another thing you can do once you've gotten a rough idea of how it is you're going to sort of create this weird piece of interpretive modern art is go in and maybe add some, if you're actually designing a piece of a wall, like maybe go in and add some texture with like a pencil. I would grab a pencil and kind of come in here and kind of dirty this up a little bit just to show that you know part of the decaying kind of a wall, and kind of come in and just add a little bit of dirt. You could use charcoal. I'm just using a pencil to illustrate a point here, but you see what I mean. So yeah, what we have here is just a random piece of graffiti. A piece of modern art essentially and there you go."