# Graffiti'd Tombstones



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

*Tag your Tags*: To help convey that the graveyard was disputed territory go back over all the graffiti tags and tag them again. Do as many layers as you'd like. In fact, I think if I had kept going the stones would have looked even better.

At this stage, the graffiti is new and very colorful. Too colorful and too new in fact. So, all that color must be taken down in vibrancy and aged. What's the best way to do that? More tea-staining, of course! 















*Tea Staining:* Do 2 or 3 sessions of tea-staining until you get that graffiti to look like it's been there for ages. Consider using a black/brown tea-stain. Change it up between very dark to brownish by using differing amounts of black and browns. Here's a brownish recipe: To about 2 cups of water add a brush full of black exterior paint, 2 glops of raw sienna and 1 glop of raw umber. Mix together and add a few drops of dish washing liquid. The dish washing liquid helps to break up the surface tension of the water and allows the tea-stain to really get into the nooks and crannies of your stones. Another recipe is 2 cups water, three brushes full of black paint and one glop of raw sienna. These differing paint recipes will help your different layers of tea-staining show.
*
Big Name Graffiti:* This stone also shows another graffiti technique. Blow up the letters of a name but take one of the letters and add a zippy flair to it _(like the 'N' here).
_













*Doodle Font *(_picture 1): _Exactly like we all used to do in high school, write a name and then add more and more embellishments as if you are doodling on your science folder. Grab another color and color in just the top half of the letters for a two-tone look.

*Liquid Font* _(picture 2):_ Achieve a drippy, liquidly look by taking a second color of your font and hover the airbrush at the bottom of the letter - apply air and then slowly add paint. Once you see the paint come out of the brush sweep it up while you stop applying paint. To finish, add a tiny spot of white.














*Jazzy Letter*_ (picture 1):_ This follows the same procedure shown at the beginning of the tutorial but this time add fun accents to the inside of the letter. Always be sure to go back in and re-sharpen those outlines.

*Drawings* _(picture 2):_ Use coloring book techniques for a drawing of an item. Outline the item and then color in. Add lines of white for a highlight and even a teenage-girlish sparkle accent.














*Simple Doodle*: If you look at the obelisk on the left you see a primitive-type drawing. It's basically a doodle drawing and another type of graffiti. In summary of all these styles - you don't want them to be too artistic or good. Even the simplest designs help convey that there were some very shady characters and gangs of people marking their territory. They weren't roving bands of artists, lol. 

This picture also shows some additional things you could do to the graveyard to give it that abandoned look: Drop a branch or two in the middle of the graveyard like it was a fallen tree. Break apart a stone and leave the remnants laying on the ground. You can also strew some trash, newspapers etc. on the lawn.














_See how the graffiti gets toned down at night but is still visible?_ 













_Here's the graveyard at sunset._













_The new Beloved..._​




Thanks for checking out the latest tutorial. Are you brave enough to try it? heh.


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Hi Terra thanks for the post....but I don't have an airbrush.
I wonder if they make spray paint cans with smaller nozzle spouts? I saw a guy on you tube that's a graffiti artist and he had these small spray paint cans, but couldn't see what they were. 
Wonder also what happens if you shine black light on some of your stones???


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

matrixmom said:


> Hi Terra thanks for the post....but I don't have an airbrush.
> I wonder if they make spray paint cans with smaller nozzle spouts? I saw a guy on you tube that's a graffiti artist and he had these small spray paint cans, but couldn't see what they were.
> Wonder also what happens if you shine black light on some of your stones???


No problem if you don't have an airbrush. You could simply go old school and use regular spray paint cans. Additionally, there are now artist versions of graffiti spray paint that is acrylic and you can get different nozzle sizes that adjust air pressure and spray pattern _(pencil thin to large). _They look to be quite fun actually: http://www.dickblick.com/products/m...lickTracking=true&CAWELAID=520010530000095154

Though not officially black lights, my LED blue flood lights do help fluorescent paint fluoresce. In fact, the red fluorescent paint on the hell hound's neck and eyes are reacting. The white spray paint on the graffiti also fluoresces a little _(you can see that in the night shot). _If you were to use fluorescent paint and black lights - that could look very cool. Thought of it but then came to realize that it may make what I was going for too cartoony or contrived.


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## deoblo (Apr 9, 2010)

thats still amazing everytime i look at it and still kinda painful LOL!!!


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

This is quite a novel and neat idea. Will you inspire territorial disputes in your grave yard from gangs? Trying to put myself into such a mind-set I could see someone spraying stuff on your house or car ..I hope not.
Some Insurance study once said that if your house is within a 1/4 mile of a school that your premiums will be higher because increased theft and vandalism.
Since my place is in a small town in the middle of a big cornfield, and the "Cop-Shop" is only 400 feet away, and response time is measured usually in mere seconds, my "Vandals" have almost always been drunken adults (5 Taverns close by) so I make all my outdoor displays from steel, welded or bolted together, real "Hernia-Makers" for the criminal mischief inclined.
Everybody's situation is different except that there will always be someone who thinks Halloween somehow gives them the "Right" to do Wrong to your things celebrating that season.
The Urban-modernization of your grave yard is a really neat idea.
This may make it more real and Scary to some people!


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## crazy xmas (Dec 30, 2008)

I need to start airbrushing just to cool Terra!


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## lilybones (Sep 30, 2012)

This is too cool. I love the addition of gravemoss on some of your tombstones.. 

Very inspiring work here - the tags look real!

(you could've enlisted neighborhood kids to do it for like a dollar each tag: they get to spread their tag and you get some money and decoration out of it!)


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## Druidess (Sep 2, 2010)

Oh, man!thanks for posting this one for sure! I love it.


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## TWISTEDUK (Jun 15, 2009)

You made amazing tomb stone and then vandelised them and made them look so cool. Great work as always.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Thanks very much everyone! 





Gym Whourlfeld said:


> This is quite a novel and neat idea. Will you inspire territorial disputes in your grave yard from gangs? Trying to put myself into such a mind-set I could see someone spraying stuff on your house or car ..I hope not.
> Some Insurance study once said that if your house is within a 1/4 mile of a school that your premiums will be higher because increased theft and vandalism.
> Since my place is in a small town in the middle of a big cornfield, and the "Cop-Shop" is only 400 feet away, and response time is measured usually in mere seconds, my "Vandals" have almost always been drunken adults (5 Taverns close by) so I make all my outdoor displays from steel, welded or bolted together, real "Hernia-Makers" for the criminal mischief inclined.
> Everybody's situation is different except that there will always be someone who thinks Halloween somehow gives them the "Right" to do Wrong to your things celebrating that season.
> ...


Thanks Gym. My neighborhood is the kind that graffiti would be especially shocking because it's as suburban as you could get so was never concerned about that. But, maybe something that people near urban areas may want to consider.


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## Stringy_Jack (Oct 28, 2011)

I'm sorry Terra but I just what to cry when I saw these pictures, I love your work and they are your to do what you will but, I loved them the way they were....


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Stringy_Jack said:


> I'm sorry Terra but I just what to cry when I saw these pictures, I love your work and they are your to do what you will but, I loved them the way they were....


I'll admit - if I was to do this to some of my later stones _(Raven, Blackbeard)_ not sure I could pull the trigger_ (pardon the pun)  _But, these stones were old to me so I was like... *MUH HA HA HAAAAA!!!!!*


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## Stringy_Jack (Oct 28, 2011)

I understand Terra but....the beloved!!


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

I agree, Stringy Jack. It's sacrilege, I tell youI

I'm afraid it's time for an intervention, Terra......... JK


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Just try it and see what it feels like to get beat over the head with a paint gallon and then poked in the eye with the airbrush....


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Terra said:


> Just try it and see what it feels like to get beat over the head with a paint gallon and then poked in the eye with the airbrush....


I already know......that happened to me yesterday. Ouch!


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## Dismantled Soul (Apr 9, 2012)

Phenomenally amazing. I wish I had the artistic ability to do something like that...AWESOME job!


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