Fall Crop 2011 GRAFFITI 101 CLASS: Saturday 5pm

[KarenP]

Very cool! I bet I could give new life to some ugly papers I have!

I was just thinking the same thing!

[DeniseM]

Now let's try something different. Take a piece of cardstock in any color. I chose black.
Spray a contrasting color in a random squiggly line. You need to spray closely to the paper and quickly. Spraying close gives you more definition in your line.


I then used a chipboard alpha sheet to spray in both corners of my piece with red paint.


I placed two chipboard stars onto my piece and sprayed with yellow paint.


After the yellow paint had dried I lifted my stars and then sprayed a few lines and used some red metallic glimmer mist to spray the stars.


You can keep adding layers if you want.

[DeniseM]

Very cool! I bet I could give new life to some ugly papers I have!

I was just thinking the same thing!

absolutely ladies. or that ones that just scare you a bit because they are too bright, pink, etc.

[ccm]

Those are awesome! I figured I would be totally lost with graffiti but you made it seem very simple, and very cool. Those backgrounds are too nice to put photos on though

[jjflair]

I'm not from Boston, but the phrase "Wicked Cool" just escaped my lips!

[sillypea]

KarenP wrote:

jjflair wrote:Very cool! I bet I could give new life to some ugly papers I have!



I was just thinking the same thing!



absolutely ladies. or that ones that just scare you a bit because they are too bright, pink, etc.

Brilliant idea... who would have thought y'all would have me searching for papers I DONT like this weekend? Now that's talented... great ideas, thanks!

[jjflair]

Brilliant idea... who would have thought y'all would have me searching for papers I DONT like this weekend? Now that's talented... great ideas, thanks!

Lol! That's funny!

[DeniseM]

Creating interesting backgrounds on paper or even canvas is relatively easy as you can see. In this next example I used strips of paper that I cut with a pair of scissors.
I then placed them on my cardstock.



First I sprayed a layer of pink onto my piece.


Then I placed a decorative piece of paper onto my piece and sprayed with yellow paint. It's exciting to add layers because often a piece turns out quite different then you imagined.


Now for a trick I learned from taking a class with Debee Ruiz of, Art as Life (aka belladrummer). An easy way to create paint splashes. Grab the spray paint can lid.


spray a liberal amount of paint into the cap along the side.


Work quickly before the paint dries and splash the paint from the cap onto your piece. After a bit of practice you will be able to control where you splashes land and how big or small they are. Sometimes it's just fun to not think about it and be surprised!


Graffiti artists call themselves "writers" many of them when starting out use markers or paint pens to "tag" there name up in various places. I used two paint markers in orange and white to write on my piece in very quick, writing. Like tags, the script does not need to be legible.


It might be cool to then add another layer of paint over the script, using a piece of chipboard as a mask.

[DeniseM]

I'm not from Boston, but the phrase "Wicked Cool" just escaped my lips!

so funny. I grew up in Franklin Mass. south of Boston. we said wicked cool all the time

[kayoft]

wonderful ideas getting us to think outside the box

[jjflair]

OMG! Love, Love, LOVE!

[DeniseM]

Hope this is giving you guys some cool ideas and inspiration.
Now I am going to show you a strictly spray paint background.

I used cardstock and chose a color. You need to work quickly, and get close to your work to get well defined lines. I chose blue for my starting color. Don't worry about making mistakes. Just play. If you don't like what you've done you can just throw it away and start over.



I try to let things dry between coats but sometimes I am too impatient.






Just keep layering with different colors until you get the look you want.
This is my finished piece.

[Funky Fairy]

Amazing class Denise.

[DeniseM]

I couldn't help myself. Wanted to show you another background I created. This one I used a stencil I created with a piece of cardstock and some circle punches. I will just show you the progression of layers.




for this layer I used my chipboard alphas and green spray paint.


I added more layers of black circles and then yellow paint.


I then used my chipboard stars again as a mask as I sprayed the background with blue.


then finally some Maya Road mist and metallic strawberry.


The interesting thing about this piece is before I put the last layer of blue with the stars, I wasn't really liking this piece. That last layer, and the mist, really sealed the deal. here is the finished background.

[jjflair]

Denise, can you explain some of the different properties of the various sprays? Maya Mist vs. Mr. Huey, vs. Tattered Angels, vs. watered down acrylic in a mister, vs. Krylon "real" spray paint?