Graffiti Writing Style - How to Learn Graffiti

To the untrained eye graffiti may look like it follows one generic style. Many may be surprised to find that there is huge range of different styles and approaches to graffiti and the best writers are those who are able to create and perfect their own unique style.

For all passionate graff writers the ultimate pursuit is that of their own unique and identifiable style. This can be developing a unique lettering style, using a motif or a color, or combination of colors and shading.

Style is a very important concept in graffiti and something that needs to be developed with a lot of trial and error and experimentation. It is form, shapes and how the letters connect. In attempting graffiti people assume it's just a matter of scribbling letters together and making them illegible in some way. If you try to do this, you'll stand out for all the wrong reasons.

The categories of style are vast and ever changing, but the main underlying principles tend to remain the same. There's styles based on the old-skool graff style, bubble letters and straights through to blockbusters and complex wildstyle. While style is often determined by their writer and their own personal interests and strengths, their style is also often influenced by their crew.

Every writer has a blackbook which is their sketchbook for producing pieces and developing or practicing their style. Many writers don't work on their blackbook alone. It's pretty common for writers to share their blackbooks and have others sketch in their books as well.

In your blackbook you have the freedom of experimenting with the shape and form of your style. You can work from simple outlines to fully developed 3D colored sketches. It's the best way to figure out what will work and look good before you get up in paint.

For a good writer a major past time is keeping an eye on what's happening around them in the streets to see what other writers are doing with their styles. A lot of writers take photos of their work and the work of others as a way of both documenting their work and learning how to progress further.

Adding characters to pieces is not a new concept. For some writers their characters become as crucial as their lettering style.

Writers often invent their own characters, but can also use more well known characters from mass culture. Images and characters from comics, TV and advertising are often taken and used in a different context. Even though some of the characters used may not be unique the way in which they use them in their design are often quite inventive.

Using characters is a way for writers to develop their pieces further than just the lettering and challenge themselves in coming up with something new and more creative.