Graffiti - Urban Art Without Gatekeepers

Graffiti is one of the most controversial forms of artistic expression. It’s been around since ancient times. Markings were found in ancient Roman ruins and remains of Mayan cities in Central America. Humans wanting to express themselves out of anger in many cases.

The word graffiti was first used in the mid-twentieth century in the United States and Europe to describe markings usually left by gangs on urban locations. Gangs used it to identify their territory, to honour dead members, for bragging about their criminal acts and to challenge other gangs.

In the late twentieth century a more artistic form of graffiti started to emerge. In many ways those urban artists were the forerunner of the emerging creator economy we are seeing develop now. They didn’t create their art to sell, they created it to be seen and not be subject to the gatekeepers so many creatives had to struggle to get past.

I had fun exploring images of this creativity from all over the world. It was from those CC0 images I created the images in my Graffiti Adult Coloring book that can now be seen on my site.

The Tools I Use

I’ve been asked about what I use to create my colouring pages. When I first started I was using Corel’s Paintshop Pro which is a graphics program I’ve used for years. Using it on my laptop didn’t give me the flexibility to create the images I wanted without spending hours and hours for each image. Not to mention a lot of frustration.

Back in March I withdrew some of my crypto earnings and purchased an iPad 8th Gen and a 1st Gen Apple Pencil. It’s turned out to be one of the best investments I’ve made. It has taken me sometime to learn new skills and I’ll continue to learn as I go.

I have a few graphics apps on the iPad but the main one I’ve been using for my graphics is Procreate. It’s a powerful package that I’ve come to just love using.

It took me a while to learn Procreate captures my process as I’m working allowing me to then download and edit the short videos I’ve been sharing of some of my work.

I have two pages to share with you from the Graffiti Coloring Book. One landscape image and one portrait image. Here they are:

The first one is what is called a Sugar Skull popular with tattoo artists:

This second one is an artistic rendition of urban cluster:

There are thirty images in the coloring book. I have enough images I will be doing a second book sometime in 2022.