I really wanted to do some new things this year as far as my graffiti was concerned. I spend a week in January talking to various writers and friends
such as Jick, East, and Rime. I was looking for insight on new techniques, and something to inspire a different approach. Everyone had some good input to help
me move forward… In the end I felt the thing that would push me to break the mold, would be to attempt a familiar and well known idea.. the "Exchange".
For 2012, my plan is to paint outlines drawn for me by my peers and see how that can infleuence change in my approach to the letters E-M-I-T.
- Emit
HSA - UPS
One of this last pieces I painted in 2012 was this sick outline I received from Bacon. I have admired Bacon's work for a few years now, and was honored he was willing to draw my name. I decided to do a solid fill because I was a bit afraid I would not be able to get the proportions correct and I wanted to show off the intricate style in this sketch. Dero, Scribe, and Rapes were in town, and together with East, and Ouija we drive to Pueblo to meet Vogues and Beast. It was a cold fall day and I did this piece entirely with Belton and Evolve using NY fat caps. Rapes of course did about three pieces in the time it took me to paint the one, and I was still one of the first people to finish.
Really happy with the final piece, and the response I got online was amazing. Bacon has a lot of talent and a ton of fans… thanks again for sending me something fun to paint. Now we just gotta get this guy out of Canada to come paint in Denver eh!
7Dollars - Zulu
Got my first over-seas exchange from the land of cheese and watches, Geneva Switzerland. After multiple emails to bother Serval for an outline he returned the favor by harassing me to get this outline painted asap. With Summer almost over and cooler weather moving in, I had to get back to my swap project. This was a fun piece to paint… I finished in just over 4 hours. I used a NY fat cap for most everything except the bubbles and white highlights. The outline is Evolve Steamed Spinach, the fill is Belton and Fresh Paint, and the bubbles were done with Beat paint. Spent most of my time getting the sketch to a point I was happy with. The original Serval sketch is more stretched out.... A really long piece which is common for Serval's style. I had to compress it a bit for space and I also enlarged the dot of the "I".
Thanks for the outline Serval, you are a true style master. Please learn to drive a car in a less dangerous manor...
D30 - SWS
Finally got another chance to paint a swap piece. This time I received an outline from 20 year vet and Denver legend Swek. I tried to combine two of the outlines he gave me into one piece. I really could not decide which one to paint. Had a bunch of issues painting this wall…. Luckily I had some shade cause it hit 100 degrees. I did this piece in a couple hours, all with a NY fat cap. I really wanted to get some detail done with a thin cap, but all my paint was clogging everything… any brand I tried with several different caps... even the fat caps. My patience wore really thin with the paint issues, but I got it done and I totally forgot to take the progress shots. Shitty!
Thanks Swek for the three outlines!!
Creatures
I got this outline from my friend Jim Beast. It had alot of movement and some cool ideas. I got to paint in on a raw cement wall with all Evolve paint and a NY fat cap. The un-painted wall made it hard to do the sketch like Beast drew it... but the size of the wall provided a good surface to stretch the piece out and add some of my own ideas. This basically became a freestyle strongly influenced by Beast's drawing. I drastically changed the "m" and some other small parts. The Evolve worked surprisingly well on the raw cement, and it was actually easier to paint on this surface than a buffed wall... fades were much nicer and lines just came out clean with little effort. Overall a fun day painting with Taste. I appreciate the sketch Jim, hope you like what I did with it.
ATT - DF
April 22nd, "Earth Day". DF party day with East, Lead, Jick, Jive, Ouija and Taste ATT. I decided to paint an outline I received straight from Cinncy via priority email. Since I started writing in 1989, Rapes is the only writer I have ever done a style swap with, so I was a little less stressed with this outline and the heavier letters were more in my comfort zone. The combination of these two things made me a bit more relaxed while translating the sketch to the wall. I painted my version with a few slight changes and I did a light outline for Rapes who is a pro at them. Overall very happy with this and the light outline.. I typically do not do many light outlines, but this particulate sketch seemed perfect for it. Thanks for the outline. Ramses #1.
Creatures - DF
April 7th, painting in Denver... It was 87 degrees and then the next day it snowed. Colorado weather gets pretty weird this time of year.
When I recieved this hip outline from Vogey, I was imediatly impressed, and was very intrigued by the flow of letters, shapes, and extreme difference from how
I approach my letters .As you can see in the photos, I started out with a different color scheme, and then wasted a ton of time getting more paint and basically starting over. There are things
here I would have liked to have done differently and painted better, but I ran out of time and diner was calling. I also changed a couple small things.... Happy wih the outcome, but
really wanted more time to do a nicer fill. Thanks for the sexy outline J-Vogey!
ATT - DF - Feds
March 7th, painting with Mpulse and Taste. My fourth piece in 2012 and the start of my Style Swap project.
My good friend East drew this piece for me. It seemed pretty simple at first, but was a bit of a challenge to get his letter balance and long lines.
I rushed a bit to finish this in four hours.... not exactly what i wanted, but overall happy with it. I painting this piece 97% with a New York fat cap which made some of the small
lines pretty difficult to paint. Thanks East for the dope sketch and the years of being an influential painting partner.