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Project two Urban art and graffiti

Photoshop/Illustrator

Tokyo graff writer Imaone demonstrates how to create clean vector lines from hand-drawn graffiti, which can be used to decorate a skateboard deck
Its been almost 20 years since grafti rst exploded onto the shores of Japan. With styles evolving and splitting across the island, Japanese graff work is no longer simply an imitation of Western designs: todays writers are breaking the mould, creating as a means of self expression rather than just in the name of graffiti. Recent work boldly displays clear stylistic differences from Western graffiti: some artists have deployed Japanese characters; others kanji or katakana mixed with inuences from manga, anime or Japanese pop culture. In this project, Ill show you how to create an authenticlooking Japanese design of your own that can be transferred to a skateboard deck. It might seem easier to draw the letters which here spell Imaone straight onto the board by hand, but I often use the method described over the following pages because I enjoy outputting perfect vector lines through the more analogue method of silkscreening. Only basic design software skills are required, but you will need a steady hand and plenty of patience!

Design Japanesestyle graffiti

Imaone A Tokyo graffiti writer, Imaones original style uses graphic design, illustration and graffiti. He finds inspiration inside and outside of Japan, and is affiliated to the Grenade Art Gallery, SRK, and Project: Mooncircle. www.imaone.com

On your disc Youll find the files you need to work along with this project on your cover disc, in the Resources folder.

Skills Develop Japanese-style graffiti designs Learn to trace hand-drawn designs in Illustrator Use anchor points to soften sharp lines

01

First, download a skateboard deck template (there are lots online) I used one measuring 31x8 inches. The design will need to be printed out at a later stage, so the document is set at 45% of the actual skateboard size. This way the printout of the design will fit onto A3-sized paper. If you are using an A4 printer youll need to make the template smaller.

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Design Japanese-style graffiti

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Open your image in Illustrator. The layer containing the scanned image should be at the bottom of the layer stack, and should be locked. Select the Pen tool and trace over the sketch. Make sure you use lines of different thicknesses by adjusting the Stroke settings. This will make the design look more lively.

03

Now sketch out your ideas for the graffiti experiment with different alphabets and Japanese inuences. I used ivy vines to create the name Imaone. Its a good idea to take your time and draw in the shadows on the original sketch. This way its easier to view the design clearly and it will make the work process easier later. Scan your sketch and open it in Photoshop. By going to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask, you can adjust the settings and improve the clarity of your design.

02

The perfect sketch

Its much quicker to trace an almost complete, or very detailed, sketch. Tracing a half-completed sketch can make you hesitate over ambiguous areas and the whole tracing process can take much longer as a result. This might be a slight contradiction, but I also recommend adding extra touches and details to the sketch at this stage to make the tracing process more enjoyable.

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Project two Urban art and graffiti

Once you have finished tracing your design, select a letter and go to Object>Path>Outline Stroke. Repeat this process on all six of your letters, making sure you keep a copy of the original trace line.

04

When the previous steps have been applied to all of the letters, print out the design and add more detail to the sketch. When youre happy with your work, scan the sketch in again, prepare in Photoshop, and place in Illustrator as before.

07

You can now use the Pen tool from the Tools palette to add or delete anchor points as necessary and neaten the end of the lines.

05

Next, select a letter and go to Pathfinder>Add To Shape Area>Expand. This will fuse the lines into one.

06

And stretch!
By now your hand will be tired, so take a break and stretch your hands and fingers. Although they can make the skin on your little finger a bit sore, I recommend using a graphics tablet for long processes such tracing.

Back in Illustrator, create a new layer and start tracing the newly drawn areas with the Pen tool. Make sure you lock all other layers while doing this. Try adding a slight curve to longer lines while connecting them with shorter straight lines.

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Apply the technique used in step 9 to where the ivy branches meet. Then select all the ivy parts and save a copy either on a new layer or a separate Illustrator file for later use.

11

Add anchor points to either side of sharp edges using the Add Anchor Point tool. You can then delete the middle anchor point using the Delete Anchor Point tool and smooth out the line using the Convert Anchor Point tool.

09

Repeat steps 4-6 for all of the new details, using the Anchor Point tools as before to smooth out any sharp edges. This lengthy process requires plenty of patience and a steady hand, but take care now to ensure a perfect end result.

10

If there are areas where the letter goes over the ivy, add and delete anchor points to remove any unnecessary parts of the ivy so that the letter remains clear, as above.

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Project two Urban art and graffiti

Go to Pathfinder>Add To Shape Area>Expand, as you did in step 6, to fuse the letter and ivy together. You can now start to apply shadows to the design using the Pen tool. Try using the original ivy lines saved earlier, in step 11, to create areas of shadow. Line curves can be edited using the Direct Selection tool.

13

Select parts of each letter using the Group Select tool and fill the areas with colour, then cut and paste all the fills into a new layer. Its best to separate the fills of the letters and ivy into different layers.

15

Fill layers
I recommend saving the colour fills of objects on another layer because they can come in handy when trying out different colours or textures. In Japan, silkscreen data is sent to the printer in separate layers of black shapes, so its convenient to separate the layers like this.

Select the letter, ivy and shadows and again select Pathfinder>Add To Shape Area>Expand. Start smoothing out the shadow lines, using Anchor tools and the technique explained in step 9.

14

Select the colour fills you prepared in the previous step, then copy and paste them into a new document. Save the file as an EPS by going to File>Save As.

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Open your new EPS file prepared in Step 16 in grayscale mode in Photoshop (Go to Image>Mode>Grayscale). Select Image>Mode>Bitmap, set the Resolution Output to 350 pixels/inch, and Method to Halftone Screen. Now set Frequency to 38 lines/inch, Angle to 57 degrees, and set Shape to Round. You should now save the image as a PSD file.

17

Now open the grayscale image you created in the previous step in Illustrator and position so that it fits perfectly in between the ivy you left behind in steps 15 and 16.

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Place the wood texture image (wood_texture.jpg on your cover disc) on the lowest layer in the layer stack and mask using the skateboard deck outline from step 1. To do so, copy and paste the skateboard outline on top of the wood texture in the same layer. Then select both the outline and wood texture, and go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make.

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Project two Urban art and graffiti

Experiment with textures

At this point you could try applying a number of different textures to your design to see which works best. For example, a metal scratch will look different to a paper scratch. Its good to prepare different styles of textures and try them out.

To give your design a more rough and ready feel, try placing a vector texture file (texture.ai on your cover disc) over it to make it look scratched. Select and group all the texture objects and try experimenting with their colour and opacity to get the desired effect.

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Using the Direct Selection tool, move the vector pieces around until the scratch effect looks more realistic.

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Select the letter and positioned texture files and go to Object>Group. Select Multiply from the Transparency box (Window>Transparency). Finally, open the holes for the trucks and your board design is complete. If you want to print the design onto your own blank board, call a screenprinter and ask if they print onto skateboard decks (some dont like to print on curved surfaces). Once you get the OK from the printers, take away the wood texture from the file and send them the data file with a blank board.
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