[CAPS]

Well the last subject got some decent replies so lets start another.

I am a tattoo artist and before that I was a graphic design artist. Before that I cant remeber cause I was to high and forgot. I have been at it a while and since i first started writing I was more into characters than into letter style. I have grown a lot in 10 years and I have messed a little here and there with letter style but my true love is and always will be characters. NOW...... some of the locals and I get in debates about how characters are not as much a part of graff as lettering and I say BULLSHIT. I know a lot of guys who can barely draw their name but can piece a PHAT ASS character in a minute. Just the same I know guys that can't draw a stick figure but have mad letter style. I say that letters and characters go hand in hand. There is not one that gets more respect than the other in my eyes. I would even venture to say that characters can be a lot tougher at times but that's just my opinion.

ROUND TWO.................... FIGHT


CAPS................ love thy neighbor....................... and her girlfriend........ hard.

[imported_Kreature]

Yeah i agree with you. You could even say that the ideal would the incorporation of fresh characters into ill letters, and make it look awesome, but maybe thats just me. I think that both are important and they look best when theyre together.
-Peace

whatever's clever.
if you don't like to rock letters, then don't.
i personally don't feel that should be a mark against anyone.
anything thats different is a-plus in my books. anything that
has skill and bucks the status quo is way better to me than
a city full of unoriginal and generic writers. just my opinion.
as long as your dedication and intentions to be original
translate then its all good in my books. there's a huge space
to be filled with weird, original and different shit in graf. it doesn't
have to be so predictable. by this i mean everyone has their little tag.
their little throw up. their little roller. or block letter. or wildstyle. or
3D. or bboy character. i know people that have 'tags' that aren't even
a word...its just an aesthetic scribble, and its dope. so what. fuck it up.
i guess this thinking takes it further away from the source and it eventually
ends up not being 'hip-hop graffiti'......but i could care less. i prefer it to be
open ended with no limitations or worries of what joe hiphopper writer will
think. diss it for all i care. it won't stop shit. Other said once that "you shouldn't
fuck with peoples weirdness"...
i like it boggling. word to ted koppel.

[Zyl one]

simple chars. are good for bombin.

[imported_Spoter]

make graff what you want it to be.fuck limitaions and fuck labeling what pure graffiti is.just have fun at what you like to do.i have personally drawn all my life before getting into letters.i truely think that piecing is a lot harder in different aspects.pieces have structure, have no limits on how you exaggurate them, and can be a lot more versatile and original than characters.i hear a lot of writers saying that characters are tough.but that also has to do with graff being letter dominant.most writers don't bother studying characters.i love characters...but if i only painted them i would get really bored.i've been drawing at the same level of characters for years and i'm not getting anywhere with them.letters on the other hand have endless possibilities, one reson being that they are more interprative.which is a main reason ordinary people can't relate or understand graffiti style pieces.

simple chars. are good for bombin.
nace!(rip)

i've always felt the same as spoter, graff is traditionally letters, but its your problem if you wanna limit yourself. these people who bitch "graff is letters only" can't say a damn thing when someone like twist, mear, or katch drops a dope character on a busy hiway without even signing their name. you know who did it by character style. THATS originality.

As a tattoo artist/graffiti writer, myself, I'd personally have to go with letters. I think I keep the two sorta separate so I never get bored. However, this is just my opinion, and I believe that whatever you do to leave yor mark, is graffiti. Characters play a major role in graffiti, as well as letters, it just comes down to your own prefference...

[imported_CATS]

Do it all. Do it often. Do it with an open mind.