How to do Graffiti Pieces – Complicated, Colorful Masterpieces

What Are Graffiti Pieces?

UNDERSTANDING A PIECE

A piece, short for masterpiece, is a graffiti writer’s ONE made with complicated and colorful letters. A piece is where the writer’s style shines through. It’s more time consuming than a throw up due to the higher level of details in the letters such as arrows, cracks, blocks, cuts and wild color combinations. A well-executed piece gives more respect from other writers and is considered something experienced writers do. Before you start making your own pieces, grab a graffiti magazine and copy as many pieces as you can. By copying the work of other’s, you get to practice drawing graffiti pieces and letter structure without having the pressure of having to make something from scratch yourself. When you copy the work of other’s, be sure not to take credit for it. It should be for the mere purpose to practice. If you claim that it’s your own work it would be called biting.

MAKE YOUR OWN GRAFFITI PIECE

When starting to make your own pieces from scratch, create each letter separately before combining them. Add the same style to each letter so the overall style of the upcoming piece is coherent. You want to avoid making one letter only with round shapes and then the next only with hard edges. The higher pursuit is to combine different styles so they complement each other, but be careful not to overdo it in the beginning – less is more. When each one of your letters are made, com-bine them into one piece. Turn, twist and make them overlap each other, so they become one whole in the best possible way. After you have combined them, you can add extra details to fill in the negative space such as drips, blocks, cracks and shadows. 

Do you want to learn more about how to make graffiti pieces and create your own personal street name? Check our our “GRAFFITI FUNDAMENTALS” course right HERE