If you had the choice to be a skilled graffiti writer or a totally toy graffiti artist, i think
all of us every single one of us would choose the former, right? It's just 100% more desirable
to be an awesome graffiti writer who has a great tag, has a unique throwie that looks good, and can
burn walls all day and, that being said, there's, because of that, a lot of people out there who are
wondering how to become better at graffiti, how to improve their graffiti and how to learn graffiti.
And whether you're one of those "veteran graffiti writers" with a huge ego that there seems to be
far too many of in every graffiti video comment section or a total newbie to the graffiti game,
this video will tell you something about why some graffiti artists are better than others or, more
specifically, what differentiates graffiti artists in skill level. And knowing those differences,
and knowing why the why portion of graffiti are being at different skill levels will help
me communicate in this video as well how to improve at graffiti. Today i'm going to tell
you the two ways that people improve at graffiti. They're both super obvious, but what isn't obvious
is the why behind both of those answers, And why both of those things help you improve at graffiti.
And to outline that, i'll be explaining why i use a poly tarp that you're seeing on screen to do
pieces regularly, instead of just going to like a nearby free wall or something like that. And
once you know why i use this method to essentially practice pieces, it'll help me get my point across
about why some graffiti artists are better than others. Because that that really is what it's
all about: uh it's great to be a good graffiti artist, but what people i think really want is
to specifically be better than other graffiti artists. And before I start, i'll tell everyone
right now i'm not in any way claiming a single thing about my work or my abilities in graffiti,
but what i am telling you is that i have been involved with graffiti and graffiti art for
12 or 13 years now, and i've even had a youtube channel for about nine or so at this point. And
with that being said, whether you think i'm a good graffiti artist, a horrible graffiti artist uh
or whatever you think, um it's pretty much impossible to deny that in the 12 or 13 years
there is some improvement that i have been able to make. And being that, i've had over
a decade to improve and try and improve, i am very aware of the times that i was improving,
the times that i wasn't improving and what things i was doing during the times that i was improving.
So let's get to it! And i am going to explain the 'why' first because that's the important part.
In between parts of why, i'll talk about the specific two ways to improve, they'll sort of
reveal themselves automatically I guess. So why am i painting on a tarp? Why am i painting on one of
the most liquid repellent surfaces that's not even fastened and can move around in the wind? Well,
to be honest, if i could fasten it a little better so that it moved around in the wind less, I would.
That's certainly not something intentional but there are several reasons that help me improve
that answer this question. And the first one, and this really is the biggest one that is, it's
the most abstract concept and i think once you just consider this concept and realize the truth
behind it, you will understand a big portion of why some graffiti artists are better than others.
That is simply, that one reason is simply convenience, the convenience of just going
and setting up that crappy poly tarp lowers my personal cost, my time cost, and my opportunity
cost of painting and removes barriers from painting and improving. And if you have
fewer barriers and costs preventing you from doing something that you like, you're going to
do it more! That's just simple economics; if you lower the cost of something the demand for it goes
up. It's no different with painting. If you were able to get all your paint cans for free,
i'm pretty damn sure every one of us would paint a hell of a lot more um than what we paint now,
having to pay whatever per can. And that's not to say you should only paint where it's convenient.
I'm not knocking the illegal graffiti scene and and no i'm not saying that the
time pressure in the illegal environment doesn't play a factor in how good you are, blah blah blah,
all that. Any kind of painting you're doing anywhere is good. And you have to bring
that up because there's always some idiot in the comments who's more worried about acting hardcore,
in on the internet of all places, than being involved with the video topic
and they're just totally out to lunch on what we're actually trying to talk about here. So,
you know, not knocking any kind of painting; all kinds of painting are good. But, as i was saying,
if you have fewer barriers and costs preventing you from painting or improving, you will paint
more! It's just a simple fact. And that is the first specific thing that will help you improve
at graffiti: do it more! Paint, practice practice practice, paint paint paint,
uh sketch sketch sketch, frequency of practice! That's what i'm saying here. And that sounds
obvious, and it's not a trendy sexy thing that you'll hear a lot of graffiti writers who are
doing tutorials on youtube tell you because it discourages a lot of people and outlines
the fact that it will take time but if you like graffiti and are actually interested in graffiti
then practicing and actually doing graffiti really is the fun part of the art right and
if you do want some evidence of that working then take a look at the sketchbook i have here
between 2018 and 2019 i basically tried to do at least one sketch in this book every single
day and i'll show you some of the stuff at the beginning um some of it's better than others
but here this is this is stuff from the beginning it's it is what it is um
but then if you flip to like the end close to the end you know here's one that i did
here's some stuff uh that one was fine i did a lot of experimental stuff in it and whether you think
any of it is good or not it's pretty undeniable that between the the beginning and the end there
was some improvement and that really is the point here guys if you do want to see pretty much every
single piece that is in this sketchbook here uh i'll link you to a video on screen
the video where i showed this whole sketchbook pretty much the second reason i use this tarp
is the repellent surface obviously isn't ideal but it makes you focus it really does and focusing and
actively painting is definitely better than just getting a piece done and in this case
the focus required to avoid those pesky drips on such a drip inducing surface
really helps you practice can control and it makes makes it feel so easy when you do go to actually
paint on a real wall after painting like three four pieces in a row on this sort of poly tarp
thing so so far what i've outlined is that this painting setup removes costs and and barriers to
paint and practice that simply allows me to paint more and practice more so what i'm getting at here
is that the differences between a lot of graffiti artists are it's simply down to the raw number of
hours that are being practiced a lot of times more times than not there was a great chapter in a book
i read called outliers it's by malcolm gladwell actually let me find it here's a picture of the
book and the one chapter talked about how pretty much to become good at anything it it really just
is the the differences between how good people are at something is just the number of hours they've
put into practicing it so if you did want to read that it's a it's a great little book but my point
is whether it be because of like some natural opportunities that some graffiti artists have
some live near a lot of free walls and have local paint brands that cost two dollars a can
whereas others live in in small towns graffiti really isn't a thing it's harder to do graffiti
some illegal in graffiti environments are harsher than others which is a barrier to doing graffiti
uh whether you want to think of that or not it that's it's just the simple truth so although
a lot of the differences in the number of hours that graffiti artists are able to practice may
come down to opportunities that just either exist or don't exist for them in their natural
environment finding ways to lower your own cost and your time costs and your opportunity cost
can really help you to give yourself those opportunities to practice practice practice
uh at lower cost to yourself and the other thing that i've outlined so far is that the
nature of this tarp forces me to actively paint rather than passively paint the active status
is important for learning and if you can find a way to paint actively you'll likely notice more
about your painting and be able to make even small subconscious adjustments to your painting faster
than you otherwise would but the second obvious thing that i haven't talked about yet is simply
learning artistic concepts as far as that one goes it's something you can learn online or in
actual art classes of course you know there's so many information sources these days everywhere
i've only done a few formal art classes but even the basic concepts that i i learned in those
art classes were invaluable knowledge and those concepts that i learned if there is one thing
that'll change your graffiti overnight and make you a better artist it's just really understanding
and having a handle on a good artistic concept so i won't go too in depth with that second obvious
one it just sort of is there and it's a lot more straightforward than the first one or the why
of specifically why practicing so much is a thing and how you can use that to your advantage so this
piece or the pieces i'm not sure if i'm showing one or two or three that you're seeing during
this video are just small pieces none of them took more than like an hour or two and they're mostly
just me trying to empty out a few cans i tried to show my process as much as possible in this
video but if you do want to see sort of each step of my process in like a seven eight minute video
i'll put a video on screen now of one where i did do that it is actually in my opinion one of my
better videos so i would highly recommend that but if you guys have found some techniques or
things that you do specifically that you find help improve your graffiti more quickly or anything
like that please put in the comments share it with everyone and that'll all help us to learn
and use all of our time more effectively we've got over 320 graffiti-related videos on the channel
for you to check out of various series reviews freight train watching episodes many other
graffiti related things hope to see you in one of those videos very shortly until then peace