Learning the Art of Spray Paint
Learning the Art of Spray Paint - A highly recommended day out for art enthusiasts of all ages.
Graffiti Workshop
The Contemporary Art Gallery,
Chester Saturday 22nd August
Cost: £30.00
Tutor: Graffiti Dave – graffitidave@gmail.com Tel 07565043038
Above is my finished 'Tag' with me in front
To complement my research on international Street art and Graffiti, I thought that learning the basic skills of spray painting would help me to understand the process better and connect me with street artists who have first hand experience of doing both legal and illegal street art.
The Tutor ‘Graffiti Dave’ has been fanatical about graffiti since he was 13 years old. He read a book on the graffiti in New York and was inspired to learn the skills of spray painting, perhaps by practicing in locations that (allegedly) were not exactly designated for the art form. He has turned his passion into a way of earning a living and now works for a large range of organisations and alternative education projects, such as AgeUK, Connexions, Groundwork and Nacro, teaching and demonstrating the art of graffiti. He even does children’s parties and events, personalized tee-shirts and sweatshirts and old recording discs for hanging on the wall. He also now has a number of legalised sites where he is commissioned to do graffiti.
The workshop started with a simple exercise; painting on an old record disk. We used a stencilling technique to transfer our names onto the disks, add stars and splashes.
We were then taught how to outline this with felt tip pen and add a three dimensional look.
We were given simple exercises to help us master and control the paint spray, such as painting a neat hash tag with narrow lines (more difficult than you would think). Over-spraying and blending two colours etcetera. Once we were confident we could then start on our large piece.
I chose to write my nick-name (VIX) as its shorter than Victoria! make Yellow Pink and Blue contrasting colours made up the body of the letters, against a background of cream bubbles.
As you can see in the main picture above, to finish I did an outline and the shadows in black.
As I painted, I became more confident in my technique and I found I was mastering the fine lines pretty well.
I was rather pleased with the resulting piece!
Today’s Learning outcomes were…
1. New painting skills -working with a new and exciting spray paint media.
2. New ways of producing larger scale art works.
3. The spray paint that the first graffiti artists used was designed for originally painting metal radiators and cars, then when the graffiti craze took off in the early 1990’s it was further developed by some entrepreneurial guys, especially for graffiti artists, with a lower pressure can and interchangeable nozzles and a huge colour range.
4. That you can make a career out of your art, whatever it is, if you are passionate about it.
5. That an art movement that first starts out as an illegal action can become accepted by society. i.e. Graffiti is now commissioned by corporations and organisations and generally considered art rather than vandalism. I would recommend this course to all artists and budding graffiti artists. It is informative and fun and the basic techniques and safety aspects of spray painting can be mastered so that you can go away and practice and refine your skills with more confidence.
