I admire street art more than almost any other kind of art. The masterpieces I have seen in some random alley rivals the best pieces in museums, certainly in a modern art museum where something like a banana is taped to a wall and sold for over 100,000 dollars.
I once hired a guy to make a piece for me. It wasn't even expensive. Here is the "play-by-play."
First off (and I don't have a picture for this) he showed me a sketch concept, which is looking at in the photo. The first draft was too unreadable so he redid it for me.
We used to have a giant mural on the wall there, so when he first got started I was a little worried because I am completely unfamiliar with the process. I knew that if i ended up hating it I could just paint over it later.
He got the outlines done and then took a break. It was a really hot day and you can't have a fan on someone who is working with spray paint. I admired his resolve, that is for sure.
We start filling in the color at this point. I was still a bit nervous by now because again, i am not familiar with the process. I congratulated him at his excellence but I was not impressed yet.
Moving up to the second floor It is starting to look like something I appreciate. At this point dude has been working all day and we ended up calling it quits for the night so that we could air the place out a bit.
Start of day two I am really starting to feel good about this and was happy that I had hired the guy. He just had a little bit more to do before it was complete.
We ended up painting the outside matte black and it really did a lot of the piece. it looked so good in fact that we repainted the entire ground floor over the next year with other artists from around the world. It became quite popular to visit our establishment and perhaps get hired to do some work for us. Normally these artists were very happy to simply have a place to do this without getting arrested.
Normally the exchange was that they would get a place to do their work, free room and board, and I would pay for all the materials.... talk about a sweet deal for me! I was not cheating these folks, they were happy to make this exchange and it was actually the guy who made the first one's idea to have this be the "payment."
he did such a great job that it changed the overall atmosphere and motif of my business for the remaining years that I owned it. I would like to think that it was a major reason in why the value of it increased. It was unique in a way that could not be copied by neighboring, competing businesses that sold essentially the same products that I did.
years later i would end up trying my hand at this on bits of wood that I owned only to discover that graffiti is TOUGH. After seeing it done in person and also trying to have a go at it myself, my appreciation for this art form has increased many times over.
It was a great decision all those years ago. It made me very nervous at first and overall it ended up costing me about $150. As far as my business purchases were concerned, it was probably the best choice I ever made as owner of that place.
Good stuff. My dream is graffiti on Steemit gets huge
Wouldn't that be nice?
😇
Excellent mural choice. Super pro for the artist to redo the sketch at the start.
Were the colors purposefully designed to match the beer light on the wall?
The goggly eyes of "oo" symbol is my favorite part of the design.
It was totally left up to the artist although I did ask that he use the major colors that were in our business logo that had been our logo on all signs, websites, business cards etc. Other than that it was left totally up to him.
Yeah, the two "o's" being like that really impressed me as well. He was definitely very good at what he did.
I've always loved graffiti. When I was a kid of about 11/12, a film came out called Beatstreet, about graff in New York, and it had a huge influence on me.
I always dreamed I'd be good enough to do characters and funky lettering, unfortunately I was not artistically inclined, so my enjoyment was rooted in watching films about it, and enjoying the art whenever I could.
I still smile when I see good graffiti on the tube (subway), and I like the piece that you had commissioned.
If you don't mind me asking; what were you selling?
Cg
years ago I had a couple of guesthouses, both of which had small bars and a restaurant in them. As this business model started being copied by everyone all around the area, we had to make ourselves unique because literally anything we did that worked was copied by everyone around. It is funny because the business next door started getting street artists to paint the side of their building just weeks after we did this. They didn't get very good ones though, and it was just on the side of the building, and looked almost more illegal than commissioned.
That is pretty awesome. I know that @tattoodjay makes his way around NYC taking pictures of the various murals and graffiti that artists have done around there. It is always very impressive. The ones that get me the most are the places where you have to wonder how they were able to access the "canvas" without killing themselves in the process. Bridges are the first ones that come to mind for me, but then there are some tall buildings that baffle my mind as well. It sounds like that was a really smart move for you to do that in your business. I bet a lot of artists wish more people would do that so they can showcase their talent.
very beautiful and interesting...
Good job man!
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i also admire street art , its a fantastic kinds of arts and i can say that it is not easy , its a challenging work .
A step by step art post??!!
Hehehehehe
very cool though. Something as simple yet complex at that makes a big statement, so I could definitely understand if it changes the atmosphere of the place. I’ve seen a lot of cool train graffiti lately. Until you really give it a chance and take the time to sit back and absorb it, one shouldn’t knock it. Now I don’t agree with defacing other people’s property, but some of it is good stuff. Better than the rusty train car. Now I can’t get into the genitalia or other stuff. No. Otherwise I have a pretty open mind to different styles of art. Anyhow, love the post and the art! I just got done posting another blind contour step by step piece. Nothing quite like this though. Must of been a pretty cool business you had!!
Howdy gooddream! What a fantastic idea for the business. What type of business was it? I so admire the street artists too, some of the work is simply amazing!
i had a couple of guesthouses and one of them had a restaurant and bar in the lobby. That was the one in the picture.
Oh that would be perfect for that, very savvy gooddream!
the downtown of Chiang Mai is loaded with legal street art, I presume that certain individuals were hired or at least allowed in certain areas. Then there are other areas where the work is unfinished or it looks rushed. There is a difference between art and vandalism. I can't stand that vandy stuff.