By Show Me Step by StepPublished Updated
Based on a video by Kenwood K-8 Center Art Class.
Graffiti letters look complicated, but every piece starts as a plain word in thin capital letters. The art teacher behind the Kenwood K-8 Center Art Class channel builds the word ART on a small whiteboard one layer at a time: sticks, outlines, fun shapes on the tips, a shadow, a thick border, then a brick wall behind it. At the end you see a finished name piece coloured in bright pencil.
It is a lesson written for middle school students, which makes it a great one to do with grandchildren at the kitchen table.
Paper and a pencil are enough to start. A good eraser matters, because you will erase the first sticks. For the bold lines, a black fine point marker. For colour, coloured pencils or markers. A small whiteboard and dry erase markers are a fun way to practise, since every mistake wipes off.
Drawing a fat letter freehand is hard. Drawing a thin letter and then tracing either side of it is easy. The sticks set the size, spacing and slant, and the outline does the rest. That is why the art class motto is to draw light until you get it right. Keep the first sticks faint so they erase cleanly.
Plain block letters turn into graffiti in three moves. Shapes on the tips: arrows, flames, points and swirls. Overlap: let one letter tuck behind the next, the way the R sits under the A here. And a shadow on the same side of every stroke, which makes the word look 3D. You can look up tip shapes online or invent your own.
Start with three or four letters. ART, JOY and LOVE are good first words because the letters are mostly straight lines. Your name is the classic choice, and in graffiti a name piece is called a tag. Leave curvy letters like S and G until the straight ones feel easy.
A whiteboard is great for practice runs. Erasing is instant, and kids feel free to experiment. For a piece you want to keep and colour, switch to thick drawing paper and a pencil, then ink over the final lines with a permanent marker once you like them.
Colour the letters bright and keep the thick border one dark colour so the word jumps off the wall. The sample piece uses analogous colours, the ones that sit next to each other on the colour wheel: yellow green, yellow, orange and orangey red, blended into each other. Shade the bricks lightly in grey pencil so they stay in the background.
For rounder, softer letters, try bubble letters. If you like adding thick and thin strokes to words, faux calligraphy uses the same trick with any pen. And for more drawing basics, see how to draw.
10 steps · about 12 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Write your word in plain capital letters using single thin lines. These are the sticks, the skeleton of each letter. Spread the letters out much further apart than you normally would, because each one is going to get a lot wider. Keep the lines light so you can erase them later. A short word like ART is the easiest place to start.
Tip
Draw light until you get it right. Heavy sticks leave ghost lines after you erase.
Draw a line along each side of every stick, like tracing around a bone. Follow the angle of each stroke. Do not close off the ends of the letters yet. The tips stay open on purpose because you will add fun shapes to them in a later step. Outline the inside spaces too, such as the hole in the A and the R.
Tip
Keep the outline the same distance from the stick all the way round. It gives even, solid letters.
Erase the original sticks in the middle of each letter. You are left with hollow block letters with open ends. If your sticks were drawn lightly, they lift right off. On a whiteboard, a fingertip wipes them away. Now you can see the shape of the word properly and decide where each letter will overlap the next.
Tip
On paper, a white plastic eraser removes pencil without smudging your outlines.
Close off the open ends of the letters with shapes. Try arrows, flames, points, swirls or rectangles. Make some big and some small. Let letters overlap, so one letter tucks behind its neighbour. Here the R slips under the A and the T reaches back behind the R. There are no rules. Mix shapes until the word looks lively.
Tip
Put the biggest shape on the first or last letter. It frames the word.
Pick one side for your shadow. In this lesson it is the left. Along the left side of every stick, draw a thicker edge and colour it in solid black. Do the same on every letter, every arrow and every tip. The shadow is what makes flat letters look like they stand off the wall.
Tip
Always shade the same side. One stray shadow on the right breaks the 3D effect.
Add small extras around the outside of the letters. A crown on top of a letter, a little heart, a swirl, a few stacked lines. These give the piece personality and make it yours. Keep them on the outside. The inside of the letters stays clean, so the colour shows up strongly later.
Tip
Repeat one detail two or three times around the word. Repeats look planned.
Draw one continuous line around the entire word. Follow the shape of every letter and every little detail you added, staying a small gap away from them. Go all the way round until the line meets itself. This outer line turns separate letters into one solid piece, the way a real tag looks on a wall.
Tip
Turn the paper as you go. It is easier to follow curves when your hand is not stretching.
Draw a second line around the first one to make a wide band. Then fill that band in solid. Black is used here, but any dark colour works as long as it contrasts with the letters. This thick border is what makes the word pop off the background. Take your time near the tips, where the band is narrow.
Tip
Fill the border with the side of the marker tip. It covers faster and leaves fewer streaks.
Now the background. Draw rows of horizontal lines across the page to start a brick wall. They do not need to be dead straight, so skip the ruler. Stop each line at the border and pick it up again on the other side. The bricks should look like they go behind the word, not through it.
Tip
Keep the rows roughly the same height. Uneven rows read as stone, not brick.
Add short vertical lines in each row, about two finger widths apart. On the next row up, put each line between the two below it rather than on top of them. That is how bricklayers lay a real wall. Round off the brick corners when you colour, then fill the letters with bright colours.
Tip
Analogous colours, the ones next to each other on the colour wheel, blend smoothly across the letters.
Keep going
How to Write Italic Capital Letters
How to Draw Graffiti Letters
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