Sketching Your Graffiti Art

Stefan Hauswald: Hi, I am Stefan. I am here at State of Confusion Skatepark and I am going to show you how to do aerosol graffiti art. Now that I have shown you how to do some lines, I am going to show you how to actually put the sketch from the paper on to the large wall. Before we get started on sketching on the wall, we have to paint over the wall first. I have chosen a yellowish color because I am going to be doing a blue fill on my sketch which is complimentary. Once you are done rolling the wall, you want to save a little bit of extra paint just in case you make some mistakes during the sketching or the filling or any part of the graffiti for that matter. Once you are done painting the wall, you can begin sketching on the wall. Sketching is -- I usually take a lighter color paint. For this, I am going to use a khaki color which is similar to the color of the background I use. I use a lighter color paint, just in case I mess up. It's not necessarily so important that I cover it with the wall paint again. I can possibly just cover it with outside designs or anything else. So you want to have your sketch handy and your light can of spray paint handy and what I usually do, I just take off the cap that comes with the paint and I put on a skinny cap to do my outline with and just begin sketching basically. You might occasionally want to step back from time to time to see your space and you want to think out your letters. I am writing HOW2. It doesn't matter how clean you are with your sketch, it just matters that you get the main idea of your sketch up there so you can begin your fill. Now that I have the main letters up, I want to put on the 3D. Now when I put on 3D, I like to imagine there is a vanishing point which is where all your lines connect to. I usually like to imagine this in the center and I will bring all the lines in the piece to this imaginary center mark.

Once you are done putting your sketch up and you get your outline in 3D up, you just want to make sure you want to take a step back and you want to make sure that everything looks right. I am basically looking to make sure the piece looks symmetrical and to make sure everything looks in place, no letter forms don't look too outrageous or too sketchy. Now that I am done with the graffiti sketch, I am ready for the fill.