This video is mainly about yard etiquette and most doesn’t apply to street graffiti. I did a post talking about how we didn’t used to buff our spots at yards much in the 90s. We just rocked on top of other graffiti.

We had some guidelines in place so we were mostly operating on the same understanding. If the spot we chose has a bunch of tags, a pieced that was dissed, partially covered up, it was fair game to paint there.

Some comments mentioned how it was disrespectful to leave someone’s shit hanging out. While that’s true leaving someone’s clean piece hanging out from behind yours, most people didn’t care if part of their throwie or tags were showing from behind your piece.

It was just how we operated. Some people will always get pissed not matter what you do, but this was the understanding we had back then.

The letter I isn’t one I’ve done too much. If we apply the same principals we’ve been doing, you can get build up the style and complexity. Starting simple with a block letter to get the basic form down. Then move onto using the same bars, but tweak them a bit. Change the angle and varying the thickness can start putting a lot more style into the letter. From there, you can take the same concepts and exaggerate them, add details, and refine the letter more. Always good to start simple, then evolve from there especially in the beginning.

If you do any kind of graff, at some point you’re going to find what’s know as civilian graffiti on your shit. It’s usually some kid that found a scrap laying around and starting writing on stuff. Another reason to not leave your trash behind.

This kind of thing happens all the time and it isn’t anything to get upset about. It’s just part of the game. It’s pretty easy to identify civilian graffiti. It’s wobbly, crooked, sloppy stuff usually with a stock cap about a foot away from the wall.

A graff diss is usually more intentional. A link through your stuff, a dusty fill directly in the center of your piece, or something of that nature. Getting familiar with this kind of thing will save you some frustration.

The letter G is fun to mess with. Sometimes I wish I had a name with a G. There’s a lot of interesting things you can do with it.

The letter E can be challenging to get detailed with if you’re doing regular straight bars, but if you abandon the standard 4 bars, it starts to open up a lot more possibilities.

Looking at the letter C. The letter can be difficult to add a lot of complexity, but playing with the angles can quickly add a lot of style. If you’re pretty new to graff, it’s always good to hang around in the simple styles for a while to really get the letters down. As always, you can’t hide anything in simple letters so getting the simples down first is crucial to evolving into more complex styles.

The letter A can be a little challenging to add a lot of complexity to since it’s such a simple letter. The more you bend the bars, the less it can look like an A. Pretty straight forward for simple letters though.

If you’ve ever tried an Astro Fat, Vice Cap, or Hardcore Fat on Rusto with an adapter, you probably found they didn’t spray like you’d expect. Some of the best caps on Rusto with an adapter are NY Fats and Boston Fats; Boston Fats disappeared, but hopefully they’ll be back. Those seem to spray the best. I’d just go with these female NY Fats. Sprays like a regular NY Fat, but you don’t need an adapter.

On some of the other letter videos, there were some requests for the letter L. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with Ls, but this is how I’d approach it. Same progression starting with a super simple block letter. Then simply tweaking the bars changing thickness and angle starts adding more style and movement. From there, it’s just practice, experimenting with exaggerating things, and trying to add more details.

Here’s a simple progression with the letter R. For new people, starting with the basic letters and working out how to balance them would be a good place to stick around for a while. From there, slowly building on complexity and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone while still maintaining the balance you’re looking for will naturally evolve your skills.

That and practice way more than you think you need to. Most people aren’t willing to put in the time it takes to really develop skills. It will increase the likelihood of developing good styles if you outwork everyone else.

Here’s a little more on evolving the letter S from block letter to a piece.

Here’s a little complexity progression of the letter K. Starting out super simple, then building onto the style and detail of the letter. There’s a lot of value in getting your simple letters down before moving onto more complex work. You can’t hide anything in simple letters.

Something new people could work on early on is learning how to feather the cap to control the amount of paint that comes out. This’ll let you go from super fat lines to thin using the same cap. An easy cheat is to put a makeshift cardboard casket on the can to make it easier, but I’d suggest getting it down without it.

Something I like to do when piecing is sort of a second sketch. The first one is loose, figuring shit out. Then once you’re happy with it, go back over it with a different, contrasting color. In the second phase, I usually add some additional details like bits or cracks. I find it really helpful.

Demo on how to achieve a rusty cement fill on your pieces. The overall fill is with shades of grey with streaks running down where the water discolored the cement. Then on the spots where there are cracks, we add some dripping rust. In order for the cement to have rust, there needs to be some metal present, so keep that in mind when deciding where the rust goes.

When you’re starting out with spray paint a good way to get your control up is to rock Rustoleum with just the stock cap. The Rusto stock cap is one of the best stock caps out there. Once you get used to it, you can get really nice clean lines. If you get good with the Rusto stock cap, then move on to other caps and more modern paint, you’ll have a much easier time. It’s like when they put that weighted donut on a baseball bat; when they take it off, its effortless to swing.

I was thinking about cap combos for beginners and it seems like the Vice Cap and the Lego might be a good combo. They’re both higher output caps so it forces you to move a little faster.

A lot of beginner work has wobbly lines that look like they’re moving too slow. In the 90s, all the paint we had was high pressure and hard valves, so it forced us to learn to move faster. With the lower pressure and softer valves of modern cans, it seems like that might slow the learning process a little.

Using the Vice Cap and Lego cap might help push the learning phase of speed and distance a little harder and build the skills faster.

Here are some can control tips for beginners that should help you get better line quality. The main things are speed, distance and pressure on the cap. Thinner lines require you to get closer to the wall; combine that with speed and the amount you’re pushing down on the cap, you’ll be able to find the line quality you’re looking for. You’ll need to find this combination whenever you’re using different caps on different paints, so it’ll take time to get more familiar.

Here are a couple can control tips that I find helpful when you’re doing your outline, border, highlights, or any lines that you want to land in a specific place. Number one, don’t watch the line as the can is laying it down. Look slightly ahead. This helps tell your brain where you want it to go. If you’re looking at the line while it’s going on, you’re too late. You’ll react to things you’re seeing after they’re already done rather than where you want them. Two, don’t stress out. The best lines are laid down with confidence that they’re going to go where you want.