Interview with Erse

Erse was one of my own inspiration sources back in the day so I was glad to hear that he'd been active through all these years with only a few absent periods. Not many good writers have the energy to stay strong on the scene for this long. The pieces are constructed with an architects preciseness, twining letter into each other to form a well balances frame.
Say what you will about bankers, some actually have artistic talents as you can see here.

How old are you and where do you come from?
I'm from a Stockholm suburb along the Red Line (14th).
I never ever disclose my age due to the fact that I want to be as
incognito as possible, but I have been active more than 20 years.

Tell us about your graffiti background, when did you start,
what was the scene like, why did you get interested?
It all started for me in early -86 when a friend of mine made a piece at my school. It said "Pinky".
This piece made a great impression on all of us (my friends and I already had a crew at that time
but we were only tagging at the time). Painting pieces was the new way to do it!

A month later yet another piece was made at my school by another couple of dudes and later that year I made my own first piece. In 1987 I made 4-5 more pieces and then in 1988 it all began to escalate and be more systematic.
I made my first "Erse" red-line pieces in -88 (four pieces) and some other Erse walls around the
area I lived in that year. I clearly felt that this was what I wanted to do.
I just loved the excitement with the third rail, running the tracks and tunnelz, covering concrete with massive letters in different colours and always trying to develop a new style for the next piece.
I had been painting a lot at home as a kid and was very found of doing small comics and stuff.
I also was into action sports like skateboarding and diving so when graffiti came along it was the perfect match for me. Art and danger - combined!

The feeling of being one personality during the day (in school and at home) and another identity at night suited me like nothing else and being out there, running the rails at night was the ultimate thrill for me - and still is.
In those times it was all about style and technique combined with getting up a lot. If you had 20 pieces along the red-line but without "class" (like good styles or characters) you were nothing but a toy. You really had to perform to be respected.

Everybody had their own secrets (caps/cans etc) to get ahead of the others. The competition was 100% dependent on the quality of your pieces. The rankings of writers was very clear back then - either you were in or you were a toy. If you did not pay respect to the leaders at that time you could easily get beaten up. Everybody was tagging back then and a lot more of the criminal type of guys were in the game at that time. These guys were not to be crossed out.

What crews and writers are you down with?
Until 1988 I was only piecing with my crew and did not know any other writers in Stockholm part from some red line toys. Our "crew" had no name but it was a tight gang of vandals/thief's that mixed graff with stealing successfully.
It was writers/vandals/thieves like Strike, Reiser, Dair, Craze (Cult), Day (Metal) and Nobel.

At this time there were very few writers on the short 14'th line. On the other red line (13) it was a completely other scene with many hardcore masters that were painting along the line since -85.
We were always travelling the other lines during 87-88 to see what everybody else was doing
(Zappo, Cruel, Slay, Lady, Baze, Speed, Slice, Merley, Zack, SHOF and many others) -
but we had never really hooked up with any of the other writers.

Then in -88 TracK called me up. He had seen my Erse pieces in the Stuvsta Hall of Fame and
asked me to join him on a wall he was working on in Flemmingsberg. That was the start where I
got to know most of the writers from Stockholm as Track was very well connected and basically
knew everybody at that time.

During 89-92 I made a piece almost every weekend with lots of different writers. During these years I mostly painted with Bogie, Cult, Saye, Kaos and Metal. In 89-90 everything for me was about piecing train stations and various line walls. Between the station and line attacks we made some trains (subways and commuter). It was first in 90-91 the trains came more into focus and a lot of cars was made by me and my gang - OSV (overnight sensations, founded by Track - that later became OSV as in OS-vandals. Members of the crew were Bogie, Erse, Ance, Estik, Track, Weston and Saye with the hang arounds Cult and Seven).

These were golden years - really fucking golden. Me, Bogie and Cult basically owned the lay-ups in Södertälje and Tumba. We went there all the time and experimented with different styles and sizes and it was amazing how lucky we were with the vandal squad at that time. Lots of funny stuff happened on these lay ups.
Once, when me and Cult made a top to bottom whole car, a guy spotted us as he passed us by on his bicycle. It was light outside on this very early summer morning.
He shouted "Write COCK for me guys!" and just kept on cycling.

I stayed with OSV as long as I was painting trains basically. In -94 I did my "last" train and I was off the whole graff scene between 95-97 for school. The reason I left the scene was actually more complex than that. In -94 we had so many train pieces ruined as we were interrupted by cops, rail workers etc that we got tired of it all.
At the same time the OSV members chose different ways in life. Some went abroad, some just quit and some went to prison due to several reasons. I myself went to the university. We all had the feeling that we had been so lucky not getting caught for such a long time that we didn't want to push
it further. The thrill was gone and other things looked more interesting than spending nights in the bushes with the risk of getting caught.

Later in 97 I was asked by UP (Underground Productions) to make an appearance at a jam. I accepted and made my first Erse piece in two years. It felt good but it wasn't until a month later when a dude came up to me on the street and asked me "Aren't you Erse?" This was Bruce (painter from red line) who had been to the jam and recognised me in the street. This was the start of a great friendship and my second era of graff. Me and Bruce founded The Pricks in 99 and I've been piecing with The Pricks ever since.
(The Pricks are Bruce, Erse, Ocho, Metal, Crack, Viruz, Weston, Raps and Ance).

Since some time I'm also a member of old school crew DOA - Demons of Art. I was asked by Ance
to join the crew and I felt this was a great honor as I had admired lots of DOA productions during 86-87. DOA is one of the definite first real graff crews that ever´s been founded in Sweden.
Today DOA consists of Dhemn, Ance, Zack, Erse and D.A.Z.E.

Ever had a rough battle with another crew or writer?
Back in -91 me and Fozfor (Weston) had a battle on the 14'th line for about a year since he had moved into the area. This immediately increased the temperature on line 14'th as Fozfor was one of Stockholms more active writers. It was a real battle but it was always about graff.
Never any hostility and spitting. We had respect for each other and later on we became good friends and members of the same crews (OSV and TP).

Besides from Fozfor I saw no competition on the 14'th as I always made sure that no one had more or better pieces than me along the line even though I was more into the trains later on. As long as I was active along the red line (88-94) that was my line when it came to pieces. During 90/91 me and Fozfor had about the same amount of prices along the line.

I was more into colours and Fozfor was more a silver piecer. Clear, Tawe (R.I.P) and Soft and some others was bombing the line very hard for many years - but they were not into painting, only bombing. Besides that I have been crossed out a few times by different toys but never anything heavy. Recently we had some crew members crossed out by some red line kids/toys from some toy crew. I can not even recall their names but that's exactly the shit that I despite the most. Toys that don't know anything about graff history.

I am 100% into graff for the hardcore of graff. If you like to make a "statement" you do it by making a burner graff piece - not by crossing someone out with bullshit. If you want to battle someone you do it with burners - lots of them. Non-talented vandals are only in it for the hell of it. I can't say I have much over for these guys. To me these guys are lay-up and wall destroyers. This has been devastating for the Stockholm graff scene of today.

What other writers has been the most influent for your own development?
During -86/87 it was all about Subway Art. It was like the holy bible for me and many others.
Besides that it was Merley, Zack, Zappo, Deeice, Shasam, Ways (Slice) and Bear.
The first time I passed the Örnsberg station I was totally knocked out by Zappo's "Crush The War". The style and the colours were unbelievable. When you think about that piece today it is even more impressing as it was made in -86 when hardly anybody knew anything about technique and stuff. Still one of the most impressive station pieces - if not The best.

I can also still recall the feeling when I saw the red/yellow coloured "SliceB2C" piece between Farsta and Trångsund along the commuter line. I had never ever seen anything like that and could not understand it was made by a man. This mega wild style burner took the whole scene to another level. It is not many times in your life you experience something like that.
Almost the same thing happened when I in -87 first saw the master burner "Your Dead" in Stuvsta along the commuter line. I've lost my photos of this piece and can not recall who made it. It could have been made by Shoice from SHOF crew - but I can not say for sure.

Later in 88-89 it was Akay, Code (Triumph), Ångest and most of all Slice that inspired me. If I have to pick only one from this era it was Code who was the overall king as he hit the inner-city subway stations so hard during -88 and they were all with complete styles and techniques.

Overall though it is Slice who is the grand master. There will be no one like Slice ever again in Sweden as I see it. A unique combination of enormous talent, skills and risk willingness.
He was like a ghost with his highly skilled/styled pieces on often risky spots - and he was hardly
ever seen around other writers that you met.

I was active on the red line during the "golden times" in 87-88 and was fortunate to experience subway pieces that were running for days (Cruze & C:More) both inside and outside.
A totally bombed subway system. All cars - inside and out, all the stations and along the lines.
That is something I am very thankful for and that has meant a lot for me.
Bombing together with Cruel, Slay, Mail, Woman and Lady back in -87 are very nice memories.
The memory of how all the stations looked like back then is today surreal.

It were loads of pieces on all the stations (along the redline and green line) and some stations was bombed so hard that you could not even see the original colour of the walls (Hallunda). It sound like bullshit - but that's the way it was - and it was like that for years (87-88).
For this you must pay respect to bombers like Cruel (Cruze, Eter, Danger, Poker, NSL 20), Horse, Brain, Slay, Lady, Ster, Cancer (Baze), Speed, Slice and many others.

These times are what has shaped me as a writer and these days stand as standard for me of what can be done. A lot of guys from today's scene don't know shit as some of them weren't even born in 1987. Simple as that.

Tell us about the most crazy story happened to you while you were out there?
Many crazy things has happened throughout the years but one event that we always return to when we get together again from time to time (me and Cult) is when me, Kaos, Metal, Bogie and Cult painted S:t Eriksplan subway station back in 91.

We entered the stations smoothely via the tunnels from the Fridhemsplan side. Everybody choosed to paint in the beginning of the station near the tunnel exits (against Fridhemsplan). Everybody but me. I was looking for the perfect wall to piece with great exposure. I went to the middle of the station to make my piece "SMACK" right in the centre of the station far away from the others. Everything was working very smooth and I felt I had a burner coming. Me and Metal had hit the same station six months earlier and I was not very pleased with my piece from then. This time I wasn't gonna leave until this one was 100% completed.

After approximately one hour there was a big BANG! Seconds later the station was stormed by four guards at the end where everybody was painting but me. They came running down the short stairs and jumped down on the tracks in no time. It was a hell of a noice with shouting and everybody ran into the tunnels including all the four guards running after the writers. I had not even dropped my can when everything seemed almost over. I just stood there and stared at the empty station and the black tunnel holes where they all ran in. It was completely silent.

After like ten seconds (that felt like minutes) I slowly started walking the tracks towards the other
end of the station (against Odenplan). I had to walk as if I ran it made a lot of noise from stones that touched my feet and as the station was so quiet it felt as if this noise was laud. I had not decided
if I was gonna run the tunnels to Odenplan to escape or take a chance and exit S:t Eriksplan's
station in the other end of the station - but I had to do something.
After like thirty meters of silent, controlled and stressed walking towards the tunnel suddenly four other guards stormed the other end of the station, towards which I was running, and came running down the short stairs right at me. They were shouting like wild hogs. For some reason the guards had failed in a simultaneous attack of the station and these four guards came in 30 seconds after
the first attack in the other end of the station.
I jumped up on the station platform and directly started to run back again to the other ending of the station aiming for the tunnels - realising that those tunnels already were filled with four guards - but with no other choice it seemed I ran the whole station against the tunnels with the guards like twenty meters after me shouting things like "Now you regret doing this shit you litte fucker" and "You are caught you little shit".
At that moment my brain started to send signals of regret to my body and I could really feel how close I was to the moment I never had experienced - To get caught. All this in a matter of a few seconds.

Coming to the end of the station I jumped the tracks on the right side and immediately I turned my feet to the left after landing and ran through the little tunnel that runs between the two tracks (for everybody that have been there - you know what tunnel I talk about) and came out on the tracks on the other side. I kept running the tracks on that side in the direction against Fridhemsplan - now very short of breath as I had pushed the throttle to the bottom for 100-150 meters and had them all very close behind my back. I clearly heard that the guards after me had troubles finding out that I now was running on the other side of the tracks. That gave me at least 10 valuable extra seconds from the guards I had behind my back.
In front of me now I had an interesting problem on the rise.

There were four guards in front of me somewhere in the tunnels and I had another four running after me! After a couple of more seconds I saw some guards in front of me in the tunnel. This is saw with my mag light that I had barely managed to bring out of my pocket during the chaos and the running.
It was clear that it was some guards standing and blocking the tracks in front of me a bit ahead.
It looked like a complete tunnel block. As I never left my house without my mag light with new batteries I could, thanks to the bright light, see after a few more seconds that there were three guards and they had caught one of my friends in the tunnel chase.

It was Bogie who had made the fundamental mistake to piece a station with no flashlight. He was caught big time. One of them held him down and I noticed that the other guards could not identify me as a guard or a writer as my mag light was strong in the black tunnel and as I pointed it right in their faces as I came running in high speed. When I came like ten meters in front of them I shouted out "Catch the bastards!" and the guards, believing I was a guard, just stepped aside and let me pass by. II kept on running with a feeling of a miracle in my body. While all the emotions was running around in my body I was at the same time looking for the short cut to the fire escape ladder that that me and Metal had found six months earlier. I knew it was only a small hole that was easy to pass by.

Behind me now the guards that were running after me from the station came up to the other guards that just had let me pass by and there was a laud yell. I clearly remember hearing "You fucking idiots!!!" and then some other laud yelling. Right after that I found the hole in the wall - the short cut! There it was! It was on the right side as a little hole narrow in the wall. When trying to crawl through
i got stuck!
The hole was very small but the hardest thing was that you had to jump and kind of like fly through
the hole. It jumped and landed half way through with my feet in the air and nothing to use to push on to the other side! It was a short moment of terror just hanging there in the hole with my feet in the air and with no way to back down and not able to get through. With half my body hanging out on the other side I saw Kaos, Cult and Metal come running down the fire escape towards me as they had taken the long way around and not used the short cut.
They didn't even notice me! I remember Cult turning his head a quarter hearing my cry for help but in the stress we all were in no one had the time to stop. A short moment later I managed to drag my body through and get to the ladder. After climbing down the ladder in high speed I made a very high jump to finally reach the ground.
I was so stressed I skipped to climb the last part of the ladder and miscalculated the height heavily.
I landed hard - but OK. I ran up behind the other guys who had stopped for a short moment under S:t Eriksbron. Then we all climbed over the fence into the commuter train tracks and ran the tracks over to Kungsbron and jumped a cab. Everybody was just totally quiet in the cab. Out of breath of course.

I remember seeing Kaos face and his surprised expression when he saw that I was in the car. This as Kaos knew I stood in the center of the station and he was certain that I'd been caught.
This night I will never forget. A memory for life.

Another more horrible memory was when me, Kaos, Yes, and Rustle was in the Rissne subway yard painting in 91-92. We had planned to do Swedens first doubble whole train and were really up in flames with energy as we wanted to make history this night. I was inside the yard the night before this one hiding at least 40 Auto-K cans in the yard and brought another 30 cans this night just for my own four subway cars (a total of 16 top to bottom cars).

After filling two cars myself spelling "ER" and "SE" and just about to put some lines on I suddenly heard Rustle's whole can supply fall off from the bridge we all were standing on to be able to work fast and to reach to the top of the cars. It was a terrible sound that echoed through the yard and we
all just stared at each other standing still for a while.
Thirty seconds later a rail-worker stood staring at us from behind the bridge, like fifty meters away from us. You could only see his head and we were really lucky that we even saw him as he was only there for like 2-3 seconds and then dissapeared. We understood immedeately that we were fucked and had to leave.
The Rissne yard is inside a big mountain you can very easily get surrounded with the very few exits if you do not act quickly.
We dashed against the tunnel exit which is quite a long run as the yard was a couple of hundred meters inside the mountain. In the haste I tried to carry all my cans - but as you understand that was not possible. After some running my bags just collapsed and the cans fell out on the tracks. There was no idea to even try to save the cans. We had to get out of the tunnels.

I clearly remember Kaos shouting out "Get the fuck out of here!". When finally getting out of the yard we ran into the woods and up on the mountain to get to the other side. After the climb we decided to split up. I went with Kaos and Rustle, Yes went the other way.

Nobody got caught that night - but what a loss!
I have never lost that much paint and we did not even get a single photo at the train. Totally ten cars werepainted top to bottom but only like two cars with outlines. A terrible night and an almost impossible mission as we were there to make 16 colour whole cars. Everything with sketches.

Ever got caught?
One member of the vandal squad lived near the Tumba lay-up where we went so many times - but we only ran into them once (!!) and we had no problem to loose them.
For some reason we had a lot of luck - we heard about guys getting caught and of course we had some close encounters - but they never caught us and I know that this was eating them. We were very tactical and always scooped very thorough before painting.

After the vandal squad got known I always took the time to search through the nearest four cars inside on the train as they were known to jump out of the cars to surprise/chock you and catch you. Also I must have spent every 5th minute looking under the trains while painting. NOT getting caught was prestigeous for us. Some people never seemed to care about getting caught but for us that was the ultimate defeat. Never been caught!

Got any advice for the new upcoming writers?
Always focus on getting better. Always try to stick to your original plan for your piece. It is very easy to get tired in the end and finish off before the piece is 100% completed. Invest time in sketching. It will pay off if you are talanted. Try to develop your own styles and take it as far as possible. It is all about style. Do not fill your blackbooks with shit that no one will ever remember. Better to do 10 burners than 1000 shit pieces. It only takes one mega burner to make history.

What are you doing nowadays?
Today I'm married and have two children and I work in finance/banking.

Any final words?
Big ups to all the Pricks. We'ill never stop!

//Erse.TP

references

Grus74 Picasa site, good collection of Erse pieces and others from the same crew.
Fotolog - Good pieces, horrible photo quality.

Thanx to Grus74 for some images.

Idioten

I met Idioten when I was out taking pictures at an old factory building, he was there to study his latest piece with clear eyes he made a few days earlier. I got to talk to him and at first he was very causius of who we were, I guess he thought we might be cops or something.
I thought this piece was very unusual and interesting. When I later checked his Fotolog I saw
other pieces reminding me of Georges Braque, the master of cubism.

How old are you and where do you come from?
I'm 26 years old and originally from kalmar, Sweden
even though I've been moving around a lot lately.

Tell us about your graffiti background, when did you start, what was the scene like, why did you get interested?
I started when I was 13 years old and the graffiti scene in my hometown was quite dead,
I started to write Zid, and later Zeon. Actually I had a lot of different signatures in the beginning.
In my neighborhood there was another writer, known as Tobyone nowadays, back then he wrote Sens. we battled each other and toyed each other for a while until we realized that it would be
better if we joined and painted together instead of fighting. That was the beginning of our graffiti group TF (transformers). At this time the group was more of a hip hop collective with rap and breakdance included. I stopped writing 2001 or 2002, my girlfriend at the moment encouraged
me to do so and I was kind of sick of getting involved with the police and such. At that time, I got nerves just seeing a police car.

After a couple of years of living in different cities and very little contact with my old crewmates
I moved back home for i while and Tobyone inspired me to start to
paint again. Thanks!

What crews and writers are you down with?
TF and also an upcoming crew from kalmar, OGX.
I'm also down with Tobyone.

Ever had a rough battle with another crew or writer?
Yes i have, but always against my will.
I'm a peaceful kind of guy even though my teenage years was really sketchy.

What other writers has been the most influent for your own development?
There were some oldschool writers in my hometown, i guess they inspired me.
I remember that i thought graffiti was awesome and something different.
Still think it's awesome
In my early years, I was inspired by Skize and I've always adored the work of Ruskig
and Ångest. Nowadays I'm much more inspired of classic painters. I like o lot of different styles
and genres and right now I'm working with something close to Renaissance style.

Tell us about the most crazy story
happened to you while you were out there?
Recently I was backpacking in South America, and I painted in Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica and Panama.
Sometimes it felt like it was kamikaze graffiti, especially in a certain area in Panama City where
I painted. In Colombia a crackhead tried to chop me with his machete, but he was really wasted
so I could run to safety.
I met this fascinating writer in Cartage, Colombia. He was traveling all around the world only to
paint and he was kind of a spiritual person always referring to old Asian philosophy. He wrote Flode(it means hippopotamus in Norwegian) and he was from Norway but had been traveling nonstop for three years, we did two pieces together in Colombia. I think he still in South America,
I hope he's doing alright.

Ever got caught?
Yes.

What are you doing nowadays?
I study engineering...and art in my spare time. Such a Schizophrenic combination.

Any final words?
Use the public transportation.

references

Idiotens Fotolog- http://www.fotolog.com/idioten

Lee "Brain" Spångberg

One of the first to hit it big in Sweden. Along with pioneers such as Disey, Ziggy, Circle, Zappo, Weird and Puppet, Brain moved graffiti to a whole new level. Many of us 30+ remember the gutsy full blown pieces, vivid colors and detailed characters Brain did on a regular basis.

MindGem: I remember myself when I came to The Graffiti School in 89. I was 13 years old
and came into this old rundown building with graffiti painted just about anywhere, even the
roof was covered with paint. I saw guys tagging, painting and just loitering around all over,
you know, things we thought to be the best spent time ever.
I came into one of the classrooms and saw this big dude leaning on a chair, drinking milk
out of the carton, this was Brain. Behind him stood Höken, the founder of the school.
He was making funny faces or something because when Brain turned around and saw it,
he laughed and squirted milk all over himself. It was a pretty cool first "school" day.

MindGem: How old are you?
Brain: I'm 37.


When did you first get in contact with graffiti art?
In North Melbourne, Australia 1983.


MindGem: What was the graffiti scene back then?
Brain: I started doing graffiti in Stockholm 1986, there weren't too many people doing it at
that time but some of the guys were Disey, Ziggy, Circle, Weird, Zappo and Puppet. They
always seem to be 5 steps ahead of me in technique, I tried to copy them but I really sucked.
So I got depressed and started doing more abstract stuff and found myself in that  :)


MindGem: Brain helped start up the infamous Graffiti School in Stockholm back in 1989.
This was a sponsored project from the city, SL(the transit train company) and
Beckers(Large spray paint producer).
The idea behind the school was to get kids of the illegal trains and walls into the school
where they could paint on cardboard and paper instead. Of course this was destined to fail. Gangs of 20-30 guys came and took the free paint and went out on the streets and started bombing the town. Some days there could be 50-60 kids hanging around at the school.
This was really the peak of graffiti art in Sweden.
Everyone had a tag and everyone wanted to start a crew and mark out a turf.


MindGem:
Back in 1989 you started up The Graffiti School together with Höken, what was that like? 
Brain:
I was 18 years old when we started. The Graffiti School made headlines everywhere so me
and other artists got a lot of attention. I realized I could make money of my graffiti so Höken showed me how galleries worked and we made a lot of exhibitions that year.
We made lots of money and didn't care about what happened to the school, that was a big mistake on my part. I got a lot of enemies who were great artists but didn't know how to sell
their shit. Sorry I lost track :) So what I remember of The Graffiti School is that I was a asshole.

MindGem: What are you doing now?
Brain: I'm still doing my art and coaching a soccer team called Zinkens F.C.
and taking care of business.

MindGem: Any final words?
Brain: God forgive me :) Respect.

Brain references

Website

The Graffiti Coloring Book

The 64 pages heavy coloring book features 60 of Scandinavians best graffiti writers artworks.
To name a few, Bates, Nug, Disey, Egs, Ador, Skil and Que. This is yet another step towards making Graffiti a legitimate art form instead of an underground youth culture.

If you want to buy this book the price is around $10 bucks.
www.dokument.org
Amazon.Com

What's your given name?
I'm not gonna tell ya.

How old are you?
Old enough.

Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
In Copenhagen, Denmark.

When did you first get in contact with graffiti art?
In 1984 through the Hip Hop culture...i started to dance Electric Boogie
and my eyes catches the graffiti art in the background. I was in my local youthclub.

sometimes we went to the Thomas P. Hejle club were the unity of Hip Hop was born.
Here you could meet writers, bboys djs and listen to Hip Hop music and share it with
people from all parts of Copenhagen. Standing on the staircase watching writers brag, flipping blackbook pages and back pieces rocked with Posca markers.
Try read danish wildstyle graffiti book from 1985!

As you started out with Graffiti art, tell us
about the scene back then, what was it like?
I took the name BATES back in 1986 and worked up the name, massive amount
of hard work! The graffiti scene back then were awesome!
So much energy, good styles and flavours. Sometimes I miss the good old days,
everything was so raw and pure....

i remember the good times at Ryparken, Svanemoellen, Noerrport writers bench
where I sometimes meet cousing Joze, Great, Side, Apache, Scan, Fuse, Sketch,
Shame, Rezen, Jab. Skipping school, doing insides at Klampenborg all the way to Hellerup!
Making homemade markers, cutting your first fatcap and discover the soft cap for outlines!

What other artists inspire you?
I like Ralph Bakshi, The Pitt comic books, flyer designs..
Comic book artists, designers, amazing artwork, colours..

Any final words?
Peace and respect, Bates.

Bates references

Official website - www.greatbates.com

The Blog
www.writeandunite.com
www.magicmomentsweb.com
www.myspace.com/magicmomentsweb

A common approach

I think everyone has his own progress when creating a text but this is one of the most common approaches. This is by any mean nothing special but I'd just like to show you how I usualy do it
and hopefully you'll find this useful for your own development.

The idea is to build up a finish graffiti piece using your tag as a base. One thing to think
about is to draw up a similar height and width for all your letters, a piece look better when it's symmetric.


Draw up basic outlines. Notice how I increase or decrease the length on some spots like
the end of the last "M" to make it the same height as the first "M".

Now decide your color theme.

And finish it...

MindGem's Monthly Art Battle Contest gets tougher

The final gallery for the March Competition is published. A lot
of artists participated and up til now we have accepted almost every submission for the contest, this is about to change...

New rules for This months contest. We will now have a vote to select a winner after each contest, the winner will get a special Forum Avatar which will bring glory and fame in our small graffiti community.
The rules for the submission itself has also been changed, we now require the artwork to be in color which should result in a more interesting gallery.

Check out the Art Gallery for March here.
Enter the competition for April here.