Street art is not something they teach in school.
It seems, then, that the best ways to approach this discipline are (1) trial and error, and (2) learning from people with experience. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But wait, isn’t street art or graffiti or whatever you want to call it illegal? And what if you don’t live in NYC or London or Paris? Where do you find those experienced souls willing to stick their necks out and give you the real lowdown on how to plaster your artistic visions all over public spaces?
Of course there are resources online for street artists, but where do you look? Why spend hours researching when you could be making art? Valid questions, young sage. So for those who’d rather be out bombing, I’ve compiled a list of sites to get you started.
These 5 sites collectively hold hundreds of resources and tutorials to cover just about any question you might have about the graffiti game. I’ve provided a brief introduction for each one to let you know what you’re getting into as well as a link directly to the page with the links and/or info you need. No fuss, no waiting, no excuses….
So, enjoy. And then go wreak some beautiful havoc on your neighborhood in the name of progress!
1. Ekosystem.org
Ekosystem.org “is mainly a street-art & non-hip-hop-graffiti gallery with daily news & links.” It is also home to a wealth of information, with galleries, forums and a large and active community, for those making their own artistic urban assaults.
Ekosystem’s tutorial page has around 40 tutorial links (not including those in the forums) handling the following topics: Posters, Stencils, Stickers, Silk Screen, T-Shirts/Shoes, Ink/Paint, Hacking, and “Various.”
[Link]
2. God is Art
This site has no gallery. There is no community. And there is no blog. What God is Art does have, however, is information and is aimed directly at amassing links to resources and articles about “Street Art, Graffiti, and the Bohemian Lifestyle.” Definitely worth a bookmark.
God is Art currently carries links to around 30 tutorials. It’s topics are: Bohemianism & Alternative Living, Wheatpasting, Stenciling, Stickering, and Graffiti.
[Link]
3. Pure Graffiti
Pure Graffiti is a large community-driven site with galleries and forums and tons of features for its members. Since members are able to add photos of their own work, there are “hundreds of thousands of new graffiti pictures added every month.” Very ’street.’ Most of the work appears to be tagging.
Pure Graffiti doesn’t have a tutorial page per se, but there’s a large tutorial section in their forums with too many threads to count. You can pick up a few tips on other illegal activities here as well….
[Link]
4. Stencil Punks
Stencil Punks is just what it sounds like. It’s about stencils! The site states: “Stencil Punks is a free online-archive of print-ready stencils. At the moment we have a total of 783 stencils on this website for you to print out, cut up, and use for whatever means you like.”
There are only a few tutorials, but but a lot of free stencils and some very nice links to stencil artists and communities.
[Link]
5. Wooster Collective
The Wooster Collective blog “was founded in 2001 [and] is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.” This site always has the most premium works of artistic vandalism for you to drool over.
Truly a treasure for any street artist (aspiring or otherwise), Wooster Collective’s “How To” section is small but graced with the kinds of tutorials you won’t find anywhere else. Learning how to make clingfilm giraffes and paint-bombs out of light bulbs has never felt so rewarding.
[Link]
Photos 1 & 3 by BigGolf. Photo 2 by Mirubeltz.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 pite // Jan 22, 2008 at 6:39 am
a great collection. the best is that it works like you described all around the world.
2 bluecrystaldude // Jan 22, 2008 at 9:51 pm
In my country (and I believe in other part of the world too), street art is a portrait made out from perception of ordinary people towards life. It is the medium to get noticed by the higher level of society and to express their feeling
3 Myku // Jan 22, 2008 at 10:05 pm
@bluecrystaldude
Yeah, not just anyone can get a show in a gallery, no matter how talented you are. But anyone can get their work seen on the street. That’s art for the people.
4 antarfpaw // May 13, 2008 at 11:07 pm
There is a good deal of solemn cant about the common interests of capital
and labour. As matters stand, their only common interest is that of cutting
each other’s throat.
– Brooks Atkinson, “Once Around the Sun”
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