Robot Graffiti

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Mountain Graffiti

by David Finley

 You'd expect to see graffiti on the side of a train car or in an alley, but what about the side of a mountain?

You should know I am fascinated by graffiti. I can't help myself. There's this element of risk combined with the story of the moment. Who looks at a public fence and sees a canvas? What makes someone scrawl a penis and some balls on the bathroom stall wall?

 In the case of this mountain side, a majority of the graffiti is comprised of differing names and dates. There are multiple couples who have professed their love on this mountain side, and multiple vacationers who just wanted to say that they were there.

This particular mountain is on the Appalachian Trail and is one of the oldest mountains on earth. When Nicole and I were white water rafting later that day, our guide pointed out some rocks that were so old that no fossils besides single cell organisms could be found in them. That means those rocks were around before the dinosaurs. Yet, here on this mountain's side is the name "Tacr" with 2010 marking the date.

 The combination of ancient and modern makes an interesting statement.

On the opposite side from the mountain wall was a beautiful view of the mountains around us. Our stop on the road side was meant to be a great photo opportunity spot, but that graffiti on the wall kept competing for my attention.

This beautiful stone and wood fence lined the cliff's edge so we wouldn't fall to our doom while trying to snap some pictures..

 As you can see, the view itself was beyond words...

... but even at the cliff's edge some more graffiti managed to snag my attention. Stevie, where ever you are, I hope you still love peace.

 Thanks for reading, Scofflaws!

-Dave, Grand Poobah of the Haven for Scofflaws.

Tutorial: The Adventures of Punky and Bucket in Graffiti Land

Words and images by David Finley

Greetings, Scofflaws!

Today's post is a tutorial explaining my process in the creation of this piece below.

A little over a week ago, I posted an article depicting a scene from a parody of Mary Poppins I am writing. If you would like, you can look and see some concept sketches and visual development on the characters from that previous post by clicking, here.

Today, I am going to follow my article up with a series of images involving those same characters, and explain the process I use to establish the visual look for this story.

With this particular drawing, I sat down with my sketch book and some markers putting down the first thought that came into my head. I enjoy sharpies because they don't allow me much room for meticulous detail or careful planning. They are powerful and bullish on the page, often bleeding into the paper. I don't have to care that the resulting drawing is crude and ugly, as long as it does its job.

At this point, the drawing is not even close to being polished and I'm not completely happy with the body language of the characters, but it establishes the tone and humor I'm trying to convey.

I've added lines of action, which are imaginary guides that control the directional flow of the eye across the picture.  

In my reworking, I tighten up the body language of the characters. I want the robot to be more delighted, upright and alert with his lines of action pointing the viewer to the wall behind him. The cat has good southern-belle characterization in the sketch, but I want to draw her lines out further to add grace and elongate her body lines.

Here you can better see the directional flow the lines of action give the piece. They are positioned to lead the viewer's eye in a pattern of direction ending with the robot's cane.

Now it's time to open Adobe Illustrator to tighten up and "ink" the linework.

 

The result is much closer to my original vision. I've also redone the background. It is still seedy, but I've taken away the needle and trash to avoid stealing focus from the graffiti that will be placed on the wall behind the characters.

My result is cleaner, and slightly more dynamic. The lines used to render the characters and the water curve and flow diagonally, giving them a more kinetic and moving feel, while also contrasting with the heavy and stable vertical line of the pipe, and simple and at-rest horizontal line of the ground.

It is also important to mention line weight, or the thickness of the lines. Thicker lines will bounce toward the eye faster than thinner lines. Balance is key with this device. It is important to use both thin and thick lines to avoid visual monotony. Thicker lines should be used to anchor, while thinner lines are useful for detail, and contrast.

Power to the People.

 At this stage, I insert the graffiti into the background. It was a lot of fun to design and create this graffiti myself. Because the graffiti is so kinetic and visually active, we do have the unfortunate problem that it threatens to bury the main characters and steal focus.

I then change the color of the graffiti from black to blue, which helps, but doesn't totally fix the problem. We want some focus on the graffiti, because in a sense it is a character, too, but in it's current state, it is still a bit too powerful.

We'll try to fix that with some simple color and shading choices.

Very Gene Kelly.

You'll notice I've added a dialogue balloon to complete the punchline.

The first color treatment I apply is an analogous, or blue tone color treatment. I really like this look, and I am tempted to keep it. It creates an old fashioned, and nostalgic feel that aids in portraying the innocence of the characters, but the characters are still getting just a little lost.

I have added color to the foreground characters, but have retained the monochromatic treatment of the background elements. The blue background color scheme contrasts nicely with the oranges, and reds used on the characters.

 So, there you have it. The result is clean, and dynamic with nice color contrasts. I would still like to find a way to use the monochromatic color scheme, but this is just a concept drawing and there is a lot of room to shift..

Thanks for reading!

John Lennon Is All Over My Graffiti

Or, at least he is on this batch.

Despite my interest, I've never done any real graffiti before. I mean, sure, once in fifth grade I wrote the "s" word on the metal fence on the school playground, but I'm reasonably certain that eventually washes off.

 No, I mean true blue street art. Tagging, if you will.

So, today I made some digital street art, which made me think about what I would really want to put out there. I don't consider myself to have said anything profound enough on my own, so I chose John Lennon instead.

He didn't claim to have all the answers but he said lots of profound stuff and he said it well. Lennon has become a bit of a muse of mine in recent years. I love the combination of anguish, love, and whimsy he injected into his work. It's inspirational, and a reminder to strive for honesty in my work, while still having the freedom to pour out pure nonsense every now and again.

He was a musician, an artist, a writer, and a poet. So, as is becoming somewhat of a habit of mine as of late, I close this article with a quote.

I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can... But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.
-John Lennon

It's a Jolly Holiday With You, Punk.

Every once in a while I start a project that I put down and forget about until later. I came across some sketches and a concept drawing for a short comic story I was working on. It involved an innocent robot and cat watching Mary Poppins and wanting to take their own enchanted journey into the land of sidewalk chalk art.

 However, when searching for sidewalk chalk art, all they come across is street graffiti. Undeterred, they begin a magical journey in a strange world, oblivious to the darker nature of the art they are traveling through.

Now that I have time, I think I'm ready to complete this one.