PAINT !!! : A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Graffiti and Effective Streetwriting

Graffiti Action:

A Step-by-Step guide to Creating Effective StreetWriting...

What you will need:

Paint. Oh really. However there is a of a lot of different types of paint so here are a few pointers:

You can get paint very easily from scrap stores, just-decorated houses, people’s sheds, car sprayers etc. You can use virtually anything.

Brush paints: come in several flavors. All of which are preferable to spray cans (as they are not so environmentally damaging). You generally block the piece in using emulsion and then outline & highlight it using cans if it’s in a sketchy place, or if it’s small ... more brush paint if we have time. Emulsion (or any other water based paint) is crap in the rain. Otherwise, it lasts a fair while and you can spray on top of it while it’s still wet. This is very handy. Masonry paint has all these advantages, being water based, but also lasts literally a lifetime. You can get the color you want made up in shops. Emulsion tends to be boring colors, but you can get wicked colored concentrated dyes from paint shops that will dye a swimming pool full of white emulsion pink / purple / whatever. Powder / poster paint also mixes with anything water based. These are quite cheap to get hold of. Aerosol and masonry paint are quite easy to take from scrap stores or from people who have been redecorating.

Brush paint is especially good for big areas. Costs less and pollutes less.

Gloss: Lasts for ages and you can use it in the rain - but you can't spray over it till it dries (about 3 hours - come back tomorrow night) and you have to use white spirit to get rid of it / wash brushes. Beware, it can be very runny. Gloss is expensive if you buy but easily take able.

Spray cans: Make this plan B, ‘cause they are seriously toxic and totally unrecycleable. But, if you are painting in a busy place they are extremely quick (especially if you are using stencils) and come in super sexy colors. They are also very clean, especially if you wear gloves. Most car spray paints are crap, but there are bitumen based blacks and a few other colors designed to cover bodywork chips that cover well and the blacks do not come off. There is one particular make called stone chip that you can get in black and white that is really nice. With a New York fat cap (see next section) it comes out nice and slow, never drips, covers everything and is perfect for outlines. Art sprays are kind of hard to get hold of. You can get them in most large cities or in record shops. Oh, and maybe it’s obvious, but spraying inside stinks.

Nozzles (caps): Before you go out, make sure you've got the caps you need. Not having the right cap renders your spray can useless. There are basically two types. Fat and skinny. Keep a few of each on you when you're out. Unfortunately all the makes of spray fit different caps. Working out which fits what is just trial and error. When you buy cans, get say five of each type that they sell ... and experiment. When you buy art sprays, the nozzle they come with is usually fine, with car / plasticote sprays (not recommended anyway because they're shit and really seriously poisonous to our planet) the nozzles are often crap. After using the can, either turn it upside down (so paint doesn't come out) and spray propellant through the cap to clear it, or take the cap off and blow through it. Some caps, for instance the New York skinny cap, don't fit on many cans because of a ridge of plastic about half way up the tube. You can shave this off with a craft knife to make 'em fit.

mmm. Rollers...

It is also our mission to bring on roller use to the masses.

Rollers are fucking cool.

Rollers: You can get 3/4 inch ones that are really good for smaller funky writing. Big ones are good for massive pieces. You don't really need a tray. Overalls are good though if you don't want to travel home covered in paint. Look after the rollers well, coz once they go hard you can't really use em.

Brushes: are slow, so I don't use them so much (movable things, outlining, or alongside rollers if the surface is super uneven.) But there is one writer who only ever uses a brush and it works fine anywhere that’s not too on-top. Wicked for legal walls. Brushed graffiti looks super-cool. No spray-paint snobs. Brushes are where it's at.

Gloves: You can get latex ones from car part shops. You can jack the not latex ones from hospitals. Remember to take them off after you've finished. I guess they're used to it, but if you forget you'll get funny looks when you're buying milk off the milkman at five in the morning.

Stencils: Easy to make from photocopies. Use acetate, card or thin plastic sheets, even thick paper and have some kind of folder to put them in (plastic folders are best as card sticks and rips easy). You'll need to fix them to the wall if you are on your own. keep them in mind until they're dry so they don't stick to the folder when the paint is wet.

Stencil Tips:

1. Draw or copy your image on a piece of paper

2. Glue the paper on to a piece of cardboard using good glue.

3. Cut straight through the drawing and the cardboard at the same time using a very sharp knife. Snap off blades are the best. The sharper the blade, the better your stencil looks.

a. Ideal card should be about 1.5mm thick –much fatter and it’s too difficult to cut through, any thinner and it gets sloppy quick.

4. Find another piece of cardboard to act as a folder for your stencil and leave the house before you think of something more comfortable you could be doing.

5. Get a small roll of tape and pre-tear small strips, ready to attach the stencil to the wall.

6. Shake and test a can of paint before you leave. Matte finish comes out better and dries quicker.

7. Apply paint sparingly.

8. Move around the city quickly.

9. Pace yourself and repeat as often as you feel inadequate and that no one listens to a word you say.

10. Have fun!

Pens: You can get wet chalk pens for writing on shop windows and black boards. They don't come off when they dry unless you scrub 'em. We got them from friends working in offices. You can get them in car maintainence shops. They don't work at all in the wet, or on porous surfaces. Good for the inside of bus stops, that sort of thing. It’s worth carrying one around with you. Permanent markers work too, but they're small and generally black.

Surface / Location: You can paint on virtually anything; don't restrict yourself to walls and trains... Knowing which paint to use on which surface is trial and error. As a general guide:

Concrete - good. Its butt ugly anyway so you can't go wrong. It’s also about the right smoothness. Spray paint will soak into very porous surfaces, so it is good to put a layer of emulsion on first as a primer.

Metal (trains, buses, ect.) - good. Watch for serious dripping though. The same is true with the shiny subway surfaces.

So far as locations go, be as imaginative as possible. You might want to do a quick piece where loads of people will see it, like a highway, a bridge, or a more detailed piece where people will stop and have a look, like down an alley / parking lot / river bridge. Try bus stops, cash ATM machines, trash cans, walls, pavements, garage doors, roofs, billboards. Fur shops, posh hotels,embassies, Mc Donald's, etc. etc. The more you have to pretend to be a ninja, the more fun it is. For example...some motivated ones snuck, (all the time pretending to be ninjas..) inside an immigration center and wrote FREEDOM on an inner wall facing the inmates sleeping quarters.

Some things to ask yourself about your surroundings:

· What are the quickest get-away routes?

· Were are the large concentrations of people

o During the day(to see your artwork)

o At night (in the form of cars, cops, drunks, homeless) and will they get you in trouble or provide cover?

· Who are the major fuckers in the area and how do they defend their property against creative expression?

· What streets lead where and how do they connect to each other?

· Are there people who might give you refuge in their homes if you have to flee from the law?

· Where can you go that the police can’t go with you (and/or see you)? Bikes are great.

· How are different sections of town used (i.e. are there lots of shoppers, businessmen, students, drinkers, etc)?

· What sections of town are important to ruling elites and why? (For example: is there a neighborhood slated for demolition to build a freeway?)

All this information and more will make you efforts more effective. Often there is at least one person who might have a sense of answers to these questions, but it is really important to have everyone involved in the information gathering. We can never be too educated; the multinational corporations we are struggling against always know plenty about “their” territory. We are isolated in this society; we hardly ever realize we are engaging with specific spaces. We need to re-teach each other where we are, how we exist in relation to our environment, and how we hope to reshape the worlds we live in. This is important not only because it would keep us safe when we go out on graffiti missions, but in all parts of our lives.

Hints:

Take a friend. Its more fun, and then you have a lookout too. Know what you're going to paint before you get there; you don't want to be hanging around trying to think of something. Sometimes it helps to carry a drawing around with you. If in doubt, have a few quickies in the back of your mind in case of mental block. Anti-war slogans, local campaigns, web addresses (URL's) are good. Organize yo'self, make sure you got all the nozzles, color etc. and you know where they are. Remember something to open paint cans with.

It'll be dark when you're out.. so write in big letters on your paint cans what color it is. Saves lighter fuel. …or maybe you get one of those cool LED headlamps (they have them at camping stores).

Authentic Human communication is constantly drowned beneath the deafening racket of an inhumane and insane multinational corporate system. This system dominates our collective reality. Behind every advertisement – a baton; behind every “new and improved” product – a canister of teargas; behind every T.V. show- a tank; behind every newspaper – a prison cell; and behind every textbook – a graveyard. The classroom, the chat room, the bedroom, the church, the psychiatrists couch, the cash register, the answering machine, the office, the bar, the jail- these are all spaces in which we are confronted with our incapacity to speak.

But perhaps the most glaring expression of our voice-less-ness is in the streets.

The streets speak the language of money, and so our official options are either to speak this language as well, or shut our fucking mouths.

Street writers are among those whose expression enjoys more than just the system’s options.

We are street writers. We are not particularly special. We will explore our freedom. You wouldn’t know that we are street writers if you met us.

We are a lot like you. We are just people with anger, and passion, and hope, and vision, just like you. We create graffiti as a means of speaking and acting towards a free society; the kind of society that you, and me, and us could actually live in together. We only know so much, but our work is excited to share our truth. We are sharing this publication with you because if you want to create graffiti as well, we would like you to do an excellent job. If you are going to create graffiti, we hope that it is brilliant, bold, strategically done, and enjoyable!

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