Where can i graffiti

Young teenagers growing up in impoverished, marginalized communities started "tagging" their names on walls in public places. These 'writers' created alter egos, aliases that often combined a nickname with a number. Often the digits were based on the street the tagger lived on.

Early leaders in the tagging world included people with street aliases like Fab5Freddy and Tracy These graffiti pioneers experimented with new styles and began the fad of tagging New York City's subway trains. This historic era of graffiti was when the main widely-accepted customs and slang language developed. While locally in New York graffiti was seen and treated as vandalism, enthusiasts in Europe recognized artistic value in the "tagging" and brought these young writers to their continent to produce and exhibit work.

Graffiti was an instant hit in Europe and by the mid 's the writers, who in America were looked upon as criminals, were treated as celebrities in countries like Italy and Germany. Over the 's there slowly began to be more recognition of graffiti artists in the US too.

Some of the legendary pioneers were recruited to paint in music videos and on cable television. By the late 's the original historic graffiti era in New York had ended and local writers proceeded to carry on and repeat the traditions and culture of their predecessors. Meanwhile in Europe the urban art movement was just gaining traction. In the 's European artists experimented with new styles, which have become referred to as 'post-graffiti' or 'street art.

In recent years the stencil has been made famous by notorious British artist Banksy. Another noteworthy artist is Frenchman Space Invader who illegally installs ceramic tiles that portray pixelated old video game characters. By the 's, street art was followed around the world and top artists became household names.

UK artist Banksy gained reverence and notoriety for his thought provoking images which appear in the unlikeliest of places. His work has subsequently commanded unheralded prices at top art auction houses.

The rise of the internet and social media has allowed for fans to follow their favorite artists, and for writers to collaborate across continents, cultures and language barriers. The acceptance of street art into mainstream art circles has created social controversies. In late a Banksy piece disappeared from a London wall and resurfaced at a luxury art auction in Miami, Florida. Residents of its original London neighborhood expressed protest. They felt strongly that as a work of art it belonged to the community where it was created, and that it should be returned.

The auction went ahead nonetheless and the piece was sold to a private collector for 1. Tags are words written in spray paint on a surface of any sort: including walls, storefronts, signs or doors. The words are usually the name of the person who wrote it; or their crew.

They are generally just one color, a few inches in size or a couple of feet. The traditional motivation of a tag is to create exposure for oneself and broadcast the audacity of taking the risk to spray paint in a dangerous, inaccessible or openly public place.

For a tag the main audience are other taggers. Larger productions known as "throw-ups" and "pieces" are more stylized and feature multiple colors - although they follow the same premise as tags and are also typically a name. Murals are generally large and portray an image or scene.

They often tell a story or express feelings of the artist. Many of them carry a social or political critique, satire or message. Murals are generally larger than tags but come in all sizes. Today artists are granted permission or even paid to produce murals for public display on businesses and public buildings. Poster art is usually created in private, then brought to a public place and affixed to a surface.

It is attached using an adhesive called wheat paste. In addition to paint, poster art can also incorporate multiple layers, cutouts, collages or stickers.

The positive side to paste-up's is that they can be deployed very quickly. The down side is that they are more susceptible to weather conditions or destruction than spray paint. Below are 10 places where tagging is legal, and in some cases, encouraged.

It can also be highly competitive. Bring skills or just enjoy. This famous spot is popular among tourists and artists alike. Located in the southern edge of Melbourne, Hosier Lane allows for all kinds of street art and even seems to encourage it, as the lane has been featured in travel guides and advertising campaigns.

Graffiti artists, if there was ever a place for you, this is it. Elsewhere in Melbourne, street art is just as prevalent though maybe not as heavily advertised as Hosier Lane. Even Banksy tagged it. The owners of the building then installed a perspex screen over the work to prevent it from damage or destruction. Topiel Street provides ample wall space for writers and stencil art. No hassle from the local police! Well-known among the denizens of Prague, near the Florenc metro station.

Relatively safe, this site offers completely legal tagging with the added benefit of good lighting from nearby street lamps. Dubbed 5Pointz, this full city block in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City is free to the public and almost entirely covered by graffiti. Artists who are interested in putting up their work here must first be reviewed and granted permission by curator Meres One.

Murals are allocated a certain amount of space and exhibition time based on the quality and durability of the work. Legal tagging sites are sprinkled all over France. Police officers openly admit to not getting involved unless there is an owner complaint or property damage. Now this alternative cultural center is one of the few places in this city where graffiti art is not just legal, but encouraged.

Lauded as a must-see sight in Copenhagen, the hall of fame wall near Sydhavnen is home to some massive and complex pieces. Fill in the letters with the colors you want. Try making patterns and symbols in different colors inside the letters.

For the main colors you can use a fat cap, which makes it come a lot of paint from the can, but for the patterns, and especially if you want to make a fading effect, it is better with a skinny cap. It is important that you get finished with the "fill in", before starting with the outline, because you will quickly end up spraying over the outline with the "fill in" colors, because e.

Make the background. Here you also make e. A smart thing is to choose colors that are colder than the ones you used inside your "piece".

Because this will make the background look like it is further away than the letters, which will stick out. Paint the outline on the letters and shadow or 3D effect. Use a color that stands out a lot from the colors you have used in the background and inside the letters. This is important to make it easy to see the difference between background and "fill in".

This is one of the most important steps, because black is hard to cover up, so if you make mistakes when spraying the outline, it will quickly make the "piece" look bad. Take small lines at a time, not whole letters. But from point to point where the letter's shape changes direction.

If there are complicated lines, take a "practice swing" to simulate the movement you have to do with the can before starting to spray the line. Paint the "skyline". This is a line that goes outside the letters and the shadow, that separates the background from the letters.

This makes the "piece" much better at once. If you spray over the outline while making the "skyline", just use the color you used for the outline to fix it. But remember to save enough of the outline color until you are finished, to fix the most important things. Add effects to the "piece" if desired. This is what separates the really great "pieces" from the not so great.

Now you can add something called "shining". Which is a line that is white or yellow that you put where the light would shine on the letters. And that is supposed to be on the exact opposite side of the shadow. So where you have shadow, you are not supposed to have "shining" and vice versa.

If you make a 3D effect instead, then a "shining" is wrong to make, because if there is no shadow, there is no "shining". It is just like when you draw a person, one place there is shadow and another place there is light. You can also make something called an "inline", this is almost the same as an outline, but it is complicated to make and will definitely ruin your "piece" if you do not do it properly.

Something the "shining" will also do because these effects are advanced. The "inline" is a line that goes on the inside of your outline in all the letters.

This can be very cool, but it is not in all "pieces" this effect is suitable. Part 3. Complete any additional and optional elements. It is very common to write the year that you made the "piece", and it is also very nice to know when looking in old photo albums.

To write the place you made it is also a possibility. Because if you start making a lot of graffiti you are not going to remember when and where you made every "piece".

Then you write your signature beside the "piece". The best thing to do is to take a skinny cap and write it on the right side of the "piece" low down under it. Because a huge signature draws a lot of attention, and you do not want the signature to grab the viewer's attention from the big letters. After this you can also dedicate your "piece" to someone, and write 4: which means for e. You can also write a greeting to someone with Yo. Yo: Eric and King D.

You have to know the people you are greeting; you can not greet to or dedicate your "piece" to, for example, a big graffiti artist you do not know because that is like "saying" that you know him or that he or she said it was okay for you to do it. If you have something smart to say that is short or know a good line from e. Take several pictures of your "piece" from different angles and lengths with your digital camera. If you can not go a very long distance from the "piece", because some other thing like another wall is blocking you from doing it, the best angle is from the side close up to the "piece".

Because then you can get all of it in one picture. The best thing is to use a tripod for your camera, so you get a steady and balanced shot. If you do not take a picture at once, remember that at legal walls your "piece" can get painted over at once. Think of the composition when taking the picture, try to get the "piece" as much in the middle of the picture as you can, and make sure that the "piece" is perfectly horizontal in the lense.

It's not percent necessary, but strongly advisable in the long run. If you're going to go for it and try to become great, you should definitely get one. If you're painting outside and you do it one time without a mask, you're unlikely to damage your health.

If you stand in a room with no ventilation painting for hours, that might cause acute health problems. Common sense gets you far, but generally, yes, it can be hazardous to paint without a mask on. Yes No. Not Helpful 1 Helpful 8. How old do I have to be to get a graffiti permit, and do I have to have one for a legal wall painting? You can contact the city that you wish to graffiti in. They will help you will getting permits as well as with finding a legal wall. The age can vary from city to city but it is likely over 18 in most places.

Not Helpful 7 Helpful 9. Lucy Plowman. You have to be 18 or older to buy the paint, but if you can get someone else to buy it for you, you could start at a younger age. Not Helpful 8 Helpful Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. When planning a composition of letters, remember that you can make the first letter small and then make the other letters bigger and bigger, but the other way around it is hard to not make it look corny.

The best thing is often to have approximately the same size for all letters. The best length in the number of letters for a signature is letters, anything over that becomes very long and takes to much space, and only three letters does not give you so many possibilities.

But for crews 3 letters is the best length. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1. If you want to become a serious graffiti artist, and not just try this out for fun, you should really learn the jargon for graffiti artists, and the history of graffiti.

Because if you do not know this, that will make you seem like an amateur. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 2. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Shake the cans before you start spraying until you hear the little iron ball inside it start to make a lot of noise, and then some. Buy new spray cans from stores that sell a lot, not old that are on sale. Because old spray cans can spray out thick paint instead of normal spray, and is much worse to use.

If this happens and your can starts squirting thick paint, you can try to shake it really hard for a long while. But this only helps in some cases, if it continues to spray out thick paint, just throw it. Caps for spray cans just like spray cans cost a lot of money in the length, that is why it is smart to use them again several times. But to do this you have to take the caps up to your mouth and blow out the remaining paint inside it, and wipe away the little paint that comes out with a piece of paper or something else.

If you plan to paint a whole day for many hours, it can be smart to do this while painting too, or else the paint will dry inside of the caps, something that makes them impossible to use. So you either have to do that, or buy many caps. But over time this will become a substantial amount. The paint roller is also smart to use again to be more economic, but then you have to wash it at once when you come home.

Or it will dry up too. You can also turn the can upside down and spray until only opaque gas comes out, but it's not sure that will take away everything. Extra tip: It is smart to check if there is paint on the bottom sides of the caps first, or else you will get paint on your lips. After shaking your cans, always test the cans before you use them in your "piece".

Because often the paint will come out in uneven amounts when you first start using it. So find a place, preferably a little away from your "piece" to spray lines with the cans. To become a good drawer, you have to draw every day. And to become a good graffiti artist it may take up to at least years with a lot of practice regularly.

Some super talents go from being rookies to becoming experts in only three or four years, but there are very few of them.

The best graffiti artists have been doing graffiti for 20 years and more. So practice, practice and practice, if you want to become good. Study the masters and see how they make their graffiti, and what kind of effects, styles, and lines they use. But do not make something in the exact same style as them, because amongst graffiti artists that is not acceptable.