I could definitely make this a very short skip through just my best spray painted work, but there's no fun in that. I want to show you exactly how much fun I've had after picking up spray painting for these past three months. I want to show you what went into making this.

It started with sketches. No fundamentals or goal, just having fun with graffiti, experimenting with random letters and trying to make something that looked cool. 

Then I realised I could actually try and get these out into the street. I could put these on a wall.

I overestimated how much work would go into it by about a couple of years.

But hey, at least I had the spray paint now.

I had to get used to newspaper first, which probably slowed me down a little because of the uneven surface, but it was a good crash course in pressure, angle and speed management. Also got a lot of stencil practice, but I only really went back to stencil making later since my focus is learning how to do this freehand. 

I then ripped out all of the newspaper and went straight onto the walls, promising my parents I'd paint over it before we moved out. :)

This rose is technically my first ever finished piece, but it's definitely copied from a sketch off of pinterest.

These are the pieces and practice pieces that came after.

A lot of those were taken from Pinterest, since I wasn't being able to go from paper to wall just yet. 

I was starting to get better with my can control but not being able to work on original ideas frustrated the hell out of me. 

My first ever screw-this moment saw me just paint straight out of my head with no reference and see how it comes out. It ended up being one of my favourite pieces so far.

Most practice pieces from here onwards became original.

I also started working on some plywood boards.

And that brings us to the end of the 3 months, when I did my first street piece (legally).

I kind of ran out of time to prepare and come up with a new visual and meaning. I was planning to add in poetry and these cool barbed wire effects with stencils, as well as some massive freehand work, but I had some last minute deadlines for my schoolwork come up, so I couldn't get to that. 

Instead I just stuck to the face above, I made the shading up as I went along, using a planar face reference. 

There are some massive projects coming up before I go off to university. After these pre-board exams, I'm going to have the freedom to do something crazy (again, legally). Stickers, stencils and even more freehand work coming up. 

Stay tuned.