Is Graffiti An Art?

Graffiti is a medium. It is like paper,canvas or pencil. You can use things to make art or you can use those thing to make a grocery list, it's all up to you and what you choose to express using those tools.

A lot of artist today and in the history of art have done graffiti (Kith Harring and Basquiette pops into my mind right now), with Swoon selling pieces to Momma and Shepard Ferry, Fail and Banksy having huge shows (as well as a lot of other artists that are a little less known but are getting there), I don't think that this is ever a question - street art, is art.

Does that means that every person who write their name on the wall is an artist?! not really, just like not everyone who write a grocery list in an author. I think that has to do more with the intention of the artist then with the medium they work in.

Graffiti Art Doesn't Just Mean "Sprayed on Walls"

Graffiti art has a loose feel about it. There are no strict rules to creating graffiti art, except a few distinct characteristics that always make graffiti art appear stylish. Let's see what those characteristics are.

First, graffiti art are usually loose forms. But these forms are usually just clear enough to represent what they're supposed to represent. The shapes are loosely created, and the subjects overlap one another in a rather random manner. Highlights are applied to the image if needed but again, these are loosely applied.

Second, texts are usually visible, and drawn in an embossed manner that gives a 3D impression. These texts usually form a few words or a short phrase, and makes up a part of the entire graffiti artwork.

And finally, graffiti art is usually created with a wide variety of colors. Bright and luminous colors like red, orange, yellow, green and blue are preferred. There's little or no intention for color harmony and the goal here is to create a dazzling array of colors that draw attention to the graffiti art itself.

Due to these characteristics, it's no surprise that we see so many teenagers being drawn to graffiti art. But once you recognize these characteristics, you'll also come to understand that it's not all that hard to create a piece of graffiti art, even if you know little about drawing.

For a start, you may want to look up some tattoo images to use as reference images or to draw inspiration. Images like skulls or roses make great subjects for graffiti art.

Once you have your image ready, you'll need some magic markers as well. Try out the same image using different colors and see which end result you prefer. You may also wish to add in some texts.

Glittering markers make an excellent drawing tool for graffiti art. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with these markers. And don't forget, never draw on public property without permission!

Excellently Executed - The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers

The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers has successfully compiled a who's who of writer's writers in a format that looks so legit, you'd swear you could feel the grooves in the pages left by pencils and pens... as authentic and realistic as possible, there are even a few blank sheets to get up yourself! I even tried to peel the sticker off the inside cover!

Way before there were all these electronic networks, there was piecebooks. And within the confines of the book's covers, writers explored styles and studied up on the art. With that in mind, Sacha "SHR" Jenkins and David "Chino" Villorente have compiled dazzling pages from the real sketchbooks of graf legends like Zephyr, Lady Pink, Dondi and Sane for Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers (Prestel).

"Piecebooks are also used to collect work from other writers we respect/admire," says Villorente. "There are very few items a writer might buy at 14 years old that they'll still be purchasing and passing around at 41." Through close attention to design detail--simulated duct taped spine, illustration proportions and texture over 200-plus pages--the two have triumphed, where most have failed, in capturing graf's authenticity in book format. --Mass Appeal, Issue # 51

Before it hits the wall, graffiti is often painstakingly planned out in a sketchbook or piece book. Well-worn and dog-eared, these books are passed along from artist to artist as a way of sharing ideas and offering instruction. Here hundreds of drawings, most of them never before published, are reproduced on uncoated paper to resemble the pages of an authentic piecebook. Bold and beautiful works from graffiti history s most important sources or seeds Zephyr, Dondi, Daze, CRASH, Lady Pink, T-Kid, CAP and Ghost, among others represent a dizzying array of techniques.

The authors, former graffiti practitioners themselves, offer biographies of the artists and an introductory essay on why piecebooks have become such valuable historical records. Fans of graffiti will find this an irresistible inside look at how their favorite artists perfected their talents.

Graffiti Alphabet of the Palm Pilot

One of the more compelling features of the Palm is its ability to recognize script from a stylus (or pen). Although the Palm is not yet smart enough to recognize your handwriting, it does have a script of its own which will allow you to enter data quickly into any Palm application. Such "graffiti" writing occurs on the lower third of the Palm (between the icons mentioned in the previous section). Note that this area is divided by two bold arrows into two unequal parts.

If you wish to write alphabetic characters, you must do so on the left section of the graffiti area; numeric characters are entered on the right section. This distinction is noted on your Palm by the icons in the lower corners of the graffiti area. These icons, however, perform a function of their own.

By tapping either of these icons a keyboard will appear on the bottom of the digital viewing area of the Palm. You can then tap on the virtual keys with the stylus like a regular keyboard. So the Palm gives you a choice: you can learn the graffiti strokes or just pull up the keyboard. Ultimately you'll probably want to do most of your data entry from your PC keyboard anyway; though both Palm options have a low learning curve, they are not nearly as fast or perfected as the PC keyboard itself.



Note that there are some unique graffiti strokes that allow you to manipulate text instead of just creating letters and numbers. If you want to erase the last character, you can use a right-to-left stroke in either the alphabetic or the numeric section of the graffiti display (see the bottom-right of the above graphic). You can capitalize any character by first using a bottom-to-top vertical stroke in the alphabetic side of the graffiti display.

These are just a couple of the special characters available in the graffiti display area; many more can be accessed via special keystrokes. Some of the special keystrokes are shown here. A comprehensive list of these secondary characters can be found in the Palm manual and on the special reference sticker that came with your Palm.

Graffiti History - Since Caveman Wrote on tha Walls

Since Caveman wrote on walls, graffiti legends talks about the history of graffiti. I searh this video from youtube.

Painting Without Permission: Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture (Hardcover)

WOW WOWWW ... Do you have this Book - Painting Without Permission: Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture (Hardcover). It very good book for hip hop & graffiti lover. This book about : The author interviewed ten hip-hop graffiti writers of various race, class, and gender by audiotape and reviewed them until patterns emerged as themes, mainly issues concerning public space and community.

She continued her relationship with the participants over a five-year period to observe the diversity and transformation of individuals within graffiti culture. The study begins with a literature review from Web resources, books, and subculture magazines on graffiti in order to define "The Structure of Traditional Hip-Hop Graffiti Culture."

This chapter lays the basic foundation familiar to all writers and points to the main issues in order to analyze how individual writers conform to or deviate from the standard subculture. The author addresses the complex issues which are layered behind a residue of illegally painted signatures, characters, and text. There is a need for the voices of young people to be heard, especially those who have found artistic integrity, and awareness of civic and political issues on their own terms.

Youth are in an ongoing struggle to construct personal identities and communities that they want to live in.

Hip-hop graffiti is only one example where they have created a space, within a peer-run environment, to respect and encourage their political powers, ideas, and skills. The book asks whether an understanding of how adolescents learn outside of school can generate alternative sites for curriculum theorizing.

Relationship Between Graffiti and Hip Hop

Hip Hop Graffiti

In America around the late 1960s, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Towards the end of the 1960s, the signatures—tags—of Philadelphia graffiti writers Top Cat, Cool Earl and Cornbread started to appear.

Around 1970-71, the centre of graffiti innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of TAKI 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, "bomb" a train with their work, and let the subway take it—and their fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough—"all city".

Bubble lettering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx, though the elaborate Brooklyn style Tracy 168 dubbed "wildstyle" would come to define the art.The early trendsetters were joined in the 70s by artists like Dondi, Futura 2000, Daze, Blade, Lee, Zephyr, Rammellzee, Crash, Kel, NOC 167 and Lady Pink.

The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists practicing other aspects of hip hop, and its being practiced in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms.

Graffiti is recognized as a visual expression of rap music, just as breakdancing is viewed as a physical expression.

Learning Graffiti

It is only recently that graffiti and the street art scene have been viewed as something more than just an underground artistic movement. The image of the lone writer has been transformed from a deviant character to someone who should be showcased and promoted for his or her talents.

With the emergence of street art collectives such as Cable Street, Scrawl Collective and Monorex, a niche has opened in the market for popular graffiti. Almost every night in London, a gallery space or bar is exhibiting the work of an individual graffiti artist. From the world-famous to the new and upcoming, it has never been easier to promote your talents as an artist.

Take Secret Wars, for example, one of the many creations sprung from the London-based company, Monorex. It is a dedicated street art event hosted in Shoreditch, east London, and is designed to showcase the art of approximately 16 artists from around the country, through the medium of a battle. Following in the path of previous battle events such as Jump Off and Throwdown (which are solely about beat boxing, rapping and break dancing), Secret Wars has stretched the concept of street art even further by using the event to broaden interest in graffiti and character art.

Designed like an FA Cup knockout competition, every event sees two artists chucked out of the tournament. The night has had such amazing feedback that almost double the number of artists have requested to be involved in series 2 in late 2007. Even a European tour is in the pipeline. Although numerous attractive prizes are on offer, it is without a doubt the coveted title of Secret Wars champion that spurs the artists on and draws the crowds each month.

Even without events like Secret Wars to boost its popularity, graffiti is making a name for itself with popular brand companies seeking the services of art collectives like Monorex to help promote their latest products. If companies want to target a younger crowd, the successful marketing and branding of a product is key.

Graffiti and everything associated with it, from the music to the fashion, is the new cool. The once vilified vandals now have fan bases the size of a pop star's. People in all four corners of the earth have heard of the likes of Banksy and D*face. Magazines are quick to pick up on the next big thing, and often request interviews with upcoming art collectives or selected artists. Vinyl toy designers celebrate the talent of graffiti and often produce limited-edition toy designs by the next big name in graff.

With graffiti becoming ever more popular, some people believe that its eventual demise is inevitable. However, if the artists stay true to what graffiti is about then it can undoubtedly still prosper on an underground level even when the big brands move on to the next latest craze. Graffiti is really about the art and that's how it will always be appreciated, no matter how popular it gets.