@APITATAN

@Freakingart

@MrDevas

@Dato_one

@reineroro

Common Areas

Graffiti can be anywhere and everywhere, but if your interested in finding a lot of graffiti; trains, big cities, under bridges, and bridges are great places to find some. These areas are most common for graffiti because these all deal with transportation. When a writer is able to find a place where a big group of people will see his work, most times, he'll graffiti there. See, if you do graffiti in an alleyway thats in a small town or something, not as many people see your work as much as they would see on a billboard next to the interstate. Understand? This is what writers call "getting up." It means that a writer is getting their name out  by throwing up his or her tags or pieces. In the big cities, its common to see graffiti on business or company buildings also.

LEGENDS

TAKI 183

     Some call him the godfather of modern graffiti. TAKI 183 is one of the most influential graffiti writers. His "tag" was short for Demetaki, a Greek alternative for his birth-name Demetrius, and the number 183 came from his address on 183rd Street.

Zepher

     Zepher is a graffiti artist, lecturer and author from New York City. He began creating graffiti in 1975 and first signed using the name "Zephyr" in 1977. He has been identified as a graffiti "elder", who along with PHASE 2 and TAKI 183 have invented styles and standards "that continue to be used and expanded upon today". He was also part of the first wave of graffiti artists to make the transition to galleries, collectors and commercial work. In the early 80s, he showed at NYC galleries specialized in graffiti.



PHASE 2

      He was another and well known New York City graffiti artists. Mostly active in the 1970s, Phase 2 is generally credited with originating the "bubble letter" style of graffiti writing, also known as "softies". He was also influential in the early hip-hop scene. He began writing in late 1971 under the name Phase 2, Part of the appeal of graffiti writing for Phase 2 was that it allowed him to get his "name" known yet remain anonymous. He noted later that tagging provided disadvantaged urban teens "the only significant vehicle to represent their 'existence.'" It was in late 1972 that Phase 2 first used an early version of the "bubble letter" or "softie", a style of graffiti writing, which would become extremely influential and is considered a "giant leap" in the art form. The puffed-out, marshmallow-like letters drawn by Phase 2 were soon copied by other artists who added their own variations. He is also credited with pioneering the use of arrows in graf writing around this same time. In 1974 Phase 2 joined the newly created United Graffiti Artists, a professional graffiti collective that began to attract media attention which appeared in New York magazine and inspired a new generation of graffiti artists. In the 1980s, Phase 2 began publishing International Graffiti Times, the first zine about graffiti writing.

COPE 2

     COPE 2 is a famous graffiti artist from the South Bronx, New York. He has been writing graffiti since 1978-79, and has gained international credit for his work. Though he is now known worldwide, he didn't receive recognition in the mainstream graffiti world until the mid 1990's. Cope2 has achieved considerable mainstream success for his artwork and has collaborated and released many projects alongside such names as Adidas and Time Magazine. Also in 2005, Time Magazine commissioned Cope2, for $20,000, to paint a billboard ad in the SoHo district of Manhattan, New York on Houston and Wooster. The ad depicts the magazines cover with graffiti tags scrawled over it; the text reads "Post-Modernism? Neo-Expressionism? Just Vandalism? Time. Know Why".

Graffiti At Your School?! And Legal?!

Recently I've had an idea to bring new art to my high school. I've been thinking about working on a piece for my schools red hallway. The design that I've had in mind is something that says, "TIGERS". I could make it all capitalized with an outline first. Next, I could fill it in with black because the wall is already white. After the fill in, I can put on orange stripes in the letters, giving it that tiger's look. After the stripes are in, I can than outline the piece with white, bringing the letters to life and giving them their shape again.

After all of this is done, I can get into more detailed work. I could create it so its 3D looking; I can add a glow effect, shading to different color if I wanted. With the letters, I can draw a tiger or tiger eyes above the lettering. If I wanted to get really into detail with this, I could have the tiger looking like its busting out from the wall behind, and have the lettering kinda all busted up but still readable.

I'm still deciding how big this piece would be. I've got an idea that each letter might be 4 feet high and 2 1/2 to 3 feet wide. But these are just my ideas that I have right now. I could come up with something better in a little bit but I'd like to know what you would like to see in the design.

I've spoken to my principal at school to see if this would be allowed and we both agreed that this would be a new good thing for our school. Hopefully if completed and happens, it creates more tiger spirit throughout the school body. I look forward to this project because this will be my toughest one yet and I'll also be leaving my mark on the school.

Do you want graffiti at your school?

This one was a close call. I actually had to come back and finish this one. This probably took me all together in time spent an hour or so. I think I used 3 black and 2 white cans on this one. I was just finishing the fill in when I heard a vehicle pass over above. Talk about a rush of adrenaline, my heart was pounding so fast but the excitement was great. So I ran, and as I just left the area, the vehicle pulled in on bottom. Ended up being lucky and getting out in time. Next day though, just came back and finished it. I probably wont forget this piece because of the experience I had.

I created this piece way back ago. I think one of my firsts. If its unreadable to you, it spells out my name again. In this design i was going for more of a block lettering look. This one took me less time to finish because there is no fill in just outline. I only needed 2 cans for this.

This is a piece I created at my own place. I used about 8 cans on this one. If you are not able to read this, It says KYLE. Took me about half and hour to finish. To me, this is currently one of my favorites that ive created. I like the wavy lettering it has and the color I chose for it.