[madwakfreek]

We all need inspiration. we all need to have a steady stream of input. so where do we look? where can we find inspiration?

1) the streets stupid!!! Chances are, if you write, you're in a place where there are other writers. your city probably has it's own group of styles and ideals!. look around you, consider how others in your area construct thier peices. examine you'r surroundings! dont bite dondi's style if you live in LA and dont bite gamble if you live in new york etc.

2) books/magazines. BUILD A LIBRARY! for example i have some books(costing over 50bucks each.. ouch) that are full of graff. DONDI WHITE:stylemaster general, GRAFFITI WORLD, and ALL CITY:a book about taking space are must haves!! beautiful decay, giant robot and juxtapoz magazines almost always have graff pics in em.. skateboard mags have graff in a lot of the pictures.. so far i've got about 20 books/mags and i still buy any mag i can when i have the cash.. read, learn and collect.. you'r wallet will hate you, but it's a worthwhile investment. also consider tattoo mags and other art mags, you never know what you might find.

3) FLIX!! buy a cheap camera and a crapload of film from the dollar store. take pics of every peice, throwup and tag around. visit the trainyard every day! just collect pics. when you get them developed, get doubles! theyre like baseball cards! collect em trade em!! clothespin them to your bike so when you crouse around town the pictures flap in your spokes and it sounds really cool! if theres not much graff in your city/town, check out towns and cities around you! you should only look to the internet as a last resort!

4) get a box.. every time you give up on a peice, dont throw the paper in the garbage, put it in the box! when you're out of ideas, look through the box and see if you can pick up on a sketch where you left off, or rework it. any doodle should be kept.

5) go for a walk, look around you.. at buildings, nature, rocks.. look at the beauty around you! draw something other than graffiti, sketch wildlife or a landscape to try something new.. it may spark a new idea!

remember your art is YOUR ART! no one can tell you different! it has to come from your soul! your art will reflect where you are in life and expresses youre feelings!

you can take inspiration from anything that moves you anything around you. but before the internet, consider your surroundings.. be aware of whats nearest to you before whats in a far away land.

[Meth0d]

nice post, i'll take a ride on my bike some more when it gets warmer.

and ALL CITY is a really nice book, got it aswell..

[pldskooldude]

Bravo. Great post. I like what you said about the books. If you go to some of the cheaper bookstores you can get a lot of em for practically nothing. A good site to check is www.half.com

some current titles they have are:
Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City (Paperback, 2002) Other Editions...
Author: Ivor Miller

Best Price: $12.00
List Price: $30.00 (Save 60%)

Subway Art (Paperback, 1984) Other Editions...
Author: Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper

Best Price: $9.98
Subway Art (Paperback, 1984) Other Editions...
Author: Martha Cooper

Best Price: $5.42
List Price: $22.00 (Save 75%)

Check out CARICATURE ART for drawing exaggerated styles characters check out these sites:

www.caricature.org
www.subwaysurfer.com
http://www.zitmanart.com/gallery/sketches

[sazr]

madwakfreek, are you on any other forums? cos a lot of them could do with your sorta wisdom.good post,props

[Ground Control]

i look at a lot of fine art as well as urban art for inspiration. i am very highly influenced by the entire art nouveau movement, Alphonse Mucha in general is one of my favorite artists of all time. his ideas on design and composition are mind boggling.

bottom line, don't limit yourself to one medium. if you're into writing, that's cool and all, but that doesn't mean that the only medium you can draw from is graffiti art. draw from classical art, modern art, anything that floats your boat. limiting yourself only limits your art.

as far as caricatures and stuff like pldskooldude was saying...that's also another great place to look. however, before you begin imitating that kind of stuff make sure you have the fundamentals of drawing and art down. you have to know the rules before you can break them. picasso could paint super realistic raphael type pictures before he got into the whole cubism thing.

also like pldskooldude was saying, if you don't subway art, u should be ashamed. subway art and spraycan art are two books every writer should have memorized.

[Pop N Jay]

Originally Posted by Ground Control

i look at a lot of fine art as well as urban art for inspiration. i am very highly influenced by the entire art nouveau movement, Alphonse Mucha in general is one of my favorite artists of all time. his ideas on design and composition are mind boggling.

bottom line, don't limit yourself to one medium. if you're into writing, that's cool and all, but that doesn't mean that the only medium you can draw from is graffiti art. draw from classical art, modern art, anything that floats your boat. limiting yourself only limits your art.

as far as caricatures and stuff like pldskooldude was saying...that's also another great place to look. however, before you begin imitating that kind of stuff make sure you have the fundamentals of drawing and art down. you have to know the rules before you can break them. picasso could paint super realistic raphael type pictures before he got into the whole cubism thing.

also like pldskooldude was saying, if you don't subway art, u should be ashamed. subway art and spraycan art are two books every writer should have memorized.

i'm into impressionism and post-impressionism as well, glad you brought that up.

graffiti isn't JUST about bombing shit and getting up, although that's a big part. art is art, ya know? there is so much that can be learned from the masters.

side note...Degas=amazing. check out his stuff.