How To Stop Biting
This is NOT Smoe, this is biter who copies and sells the work.
Copying in any art form is frowned upon, and in graffiti, it’s one of the worst ways to learn since graffiti artists don’t copy with the intent to break down and learn the basics. Despite being discouraged, just about every single graffiti artist (yes even the famous ones) copies and bite. The question now becomes, how do we as artists break away from that and find an actual style that is unique to us and not some amalgamated bite fest from years of copying others without any originality? The answer is simple practice and learn the basics. The basics are the
Elements of art: Line, Shape, Form, Value, Space, Color, Texture
Art form specific fundamentals - (a list of basics that defines the art form): Letter structure, Negative Space management, Letter Name Weight, Letter Name Positioning, Flow
Techniques: Defined by the tools you use and how you use them
These are the basics, and this is truly the only place progress happens. No artists practice a style and get better at style as a result, rather, they practice the fundamentals listed above and that makes them more capable of style. It takes time to learn these basics but once you do you can create any style you’d like to. Creating your first style also takes time, and some artists claim to have a first style when they don’t yet know the basics. Keep in mind, this is how no art form functions, it’s not possible to exaggerate the basics to make a style until you learn the basics. Many then claim to have a second style, and the only way they could manage this without knowing the basics is if they copied.
Now what I recommend is that we separate our art into two categories, those being what we’ll call our Fun Art, and Practice.
Fun Art: create whatever you’d like however you’d line, quality is irrelevant. This category is all about exploration of ideas, concepts, and just having a good time. This is not at all practice so do not at all expect to learn the basics when doing these.
Practice: Riggurous studying (gathering new information), then practice ( exercising that new information). Style is absolutely not allowed in your practice since style requires you to change and exaggerate the very fundamentals you’re trying to learn.
If you split your art in this way then you allow yourself to really make the progress you’re looking to see, and you can make that progress consistently. As you become better and more knowledgeable, the more you’ll see this progress in your fun work too. If you’re consistent and you don’t stop practicing and studying then you’ll be able to creat ea legitimate first style that’s original to you, and not some Frankenstein mess created from years of copying.
