"...either you understand how to rock styles or you dont and you can't really explain that to people..."
- Dug One
Style...That concept is so important in defining yourself as an artist. That's what seperates you from everyone else. It's almost like your artistic fingerprint because no matter what you decide to paint or draw or airbrush or create in photoshop or whatever the case may be, thats the one thing that will never change and the one thing that will always find a way to manifest itself.
As of late I've been trying to really pin point what it is about my work people are drawn to and why it's made a difference in not only airbrushing as an art medium but also how it has affected and created a "format" for other artists to follow. I mean I'm not the first hip hop airbrush artist (i.e. DREAM and DONE TDK, Plan B, Mo' Betta, WIM, DASH) in the Bay Area nor with the most amount of experience painting nor am I the best portrait artist or even the one with the most celebrity pictures and video drops for people to bug out on..."Do you really hang out and do shirts for all those rappers?"...Before I came back home to the Bay Area from after being in San Diego (Chula Vista) for about 3 years, there were artists that had already been painting and had created a client base for themselves, either through a public display (working at a mall or amusement park) or through the internet (eBay, personal website, word of mouth) but the sense of notoriety and authenticity of an artist that is also a product of the urban culture was still missing.
That's what I like to think my style is...Hip Hop in it's purest form. No rules...No boundaries.. That's what I feel I contributed to the airbrush scene here in the Bay. I brought it back to the roots and along with other non-spray clothing designers (Nautiks, 2C, Upanoch) helped lead the way of this custom fashion revolution...
So let's break down the style elements 510Airbrush:
Graffiti Influenced Letters
I wanted to be the best graf writer. I moved to the Bay Area in the early 80's amidst the early days of what would become the Hip Hop culture and because I moved to SF in '81(16th and Treat St.), and then to the East Bay (Union City then settling in Hayward)in '84, a lot of time was spent on public transportation either on a bus or BART, I quickly picked up that love for letters. The movement, the interlocking, the different hand-styles (which to this day I STILL lack). By the time I hit 14 I was writing SPECS (because I wear glasses) but I never matured to the full-fledge writer I wanted to be because I had no direction and mentoring and I picked up an airbrush which completely changed my life. Growing up in the East Bay, TDK was the crew EVERYONE drew influence from pretty much helped develop a lot of the lettering styles still used today. But it's because of sheer fate I ended up working at a store where DONE was airbrushing and that is where the lettering influence really came to fruition. He was the one that showed me how make the letters "make sense" and give it that fluidity. I think because of the era I grew up in is the reason why the letters have this real old-school, funk type feeling which actually is timeless and people still gravitate towards it.
Balance and Fullness
After being introduced to my first airbrush in the summer of 1990, I was fortunate to attend high school with one of the Bay Areas urban airbrush pioneers, Mo' Betta (who's now the tattoo artist at Simm's Cycle in Hayward). He was able to create not just the normal airbrush character on a shirt but he was the first person I had seen to successfully create and incorporate a basic background scene and remixing whatever character he did on the shirt. At the the same time creating an equal distribution of space so nothing was out of place. He would have like 5 Tiny Toons characters playing dice on a street corner with buildings or cars in the background seperating it by using like a woodfence or brick wall or whatever else. He also pretty much taught me the basics of airbrushing like always go from light to dark when using transparent colors.
Highlights
I never really put much thought into this, but my friend and fellow airbrush artist, J-Seize (Salt Lake City,UT) pointed out that the way I use highlights, is a big part of my style. I never really thought about it except that I was only trying to create as much depth as possible. The more places you throw a light source on, the more it looks like it's jumping off the shirt. But on a "dark" shirt like red, blk, blue, etc., I used to have trouble in isolating the outline so u can actually see what was going on. That's when I just started using a white line on the outside and on the inside of the outline. The outermost white line really defines the shadows "shape" I guess you can say and the inner white line basically moves the light source directly in front of the shirt.
Celebrity Pics
So whats the best way to link up with your favorite singer, dj, or rapper? Give them a shirt! With their face on it if you have time for it. Your celebrity picture gallery is really like your autograph book, except it's a visual documentation that your work has made it someone famous, and not just a signature on a paper. How do you get close enough to actually give them the shirt? Well, the best way is to befriend someone that is in a position to be a middle-man. When I was in San Diego, I learned the best people for that job is your local radio station personalities, the hottest Dj's, and the biggest promoters and if you have a hard time going that route, a meet-and-greet is just as good because you will have direct contact with the artist. It was because of Z90 that I met Monica and gave John Legend his first airbrush shirt ever (well that's what he said), and a DJ that I used to spin with, Dj Play, linked me with Ghostface, so when I came home, those wheels were set. The next best source is you link up with a rising artist that loves your work and will damn near sleep in it and HE will bring you every local artist and if your relationship with that artist grows, you crossover to almost becoming a "stylist" for that artist. That's what happened with me and Mistah F.A.B.
Audio/Video Drops
So after collecting celebrity pictures I was thinking something more personal that I can get from the artist that's more than a picture. I thought about it and it hit me. I'm a DJ, so I'll do a mixtape and I started collecting audio drops. What's a drop? It's anyone shouting you specifically for what you do. Doesn't matter if it's your friend, your mom, or Paul Wall (he was my first major artist drop). I was trying to bring both worlds of music and airbrush together and also set myself apart from every other artist. Getting a studio clean audio drop is real hard to do because the artists have so many to do and waiting can be bit. So,I hvae found that if you get a video drop (most digital cameras have video capability (and I recommend at least a 5 megapixel camera) which will record onto the SD card or whatever memory it uses. This makes transferring to the computer very easy. So you have a video drop which is the dopest sh*t ever, and you can piece them together to make mini commercials and at the same time, if you have the knowledge, you can extract the audio from the video and VOILA! You have the audio you can lay over one of their songs. IF you're REALLY dope, you can piece together audio and make your own drop...
hey!!!! :) I miss ya'll too!!! I will go soon! Very soon I promise.. I was just thinking about you actually... its so nice to hear from you. :) cuidate!!
LOL NAW ITS SWEAT, BUT I DID IT FOR ALL THIS SLOW NIGGA OUT HERE(PEEP HOW YOU WAS THE ONLY ONE TO CAUGHT IT HAHAHAHAHHAHA) AND ALL THESE KATS IS SWEET LIKE PHIL COLLINS...HOLLA
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