21- Last of the Lover Series, thankfully, 1982.

Luckily, the blackbook Lover series has come to an end, this being the last piece I will be showing. The L as in the previous pieces underlines and grounds the piece and becomes the basis for all the letters after even if the R continues solely. I was really concentrating on keeping the design markers from bleeding (new markers bleed so much more than older markers) over past the outline which as you can see is so super very thin.
I was experimenting with the balance between color and outline and there is a stray blue drip that kelps sell the idea of a 3D because it changes direction at the 3D.
This outline as a couple of others could also hang today proving that at certain times my style may be regarded as timeless. Something I am fortunate about.
Check out the lines on the 3D, they are even from the left side of the piece right on through to the right side meaning that i was conscious of the effect it would leave behind before I was even done with the piece..
Im proud of this outline mostly because it shows me that there was more going on in my head than just doing graffiti for the sake of graffiti. I wont be the first or last artist to fall from this.

19-Sunsetting Chrome Lover Series cont. Early 1982

Here we go again, another Lover piece from early 82'. I dont think there was a graff artist in HS that didnt attempt the chrome style fill in, I attempted it many times, mostly to non chrome results but althoughI didnt pull the chrome off the end piece still has some cool things going for it.

First thing I want to point out is the black stripes in the 3D, everyone used something similar to these in their 3D, its quite common and it helps give the outline some weight. Here I chose to do the black from the back of the 3D fading to the face of the piece or symmetrical with the piece, not the 3D. I hadnt seen anyone do something like that up to this time.

Second there is the lavender cloud, connected to the frame but with a page white cloud popping in front of it, trust me, there is thought behind this. The lavender cloud is the furthest back, the wite cloud in front and thhen the lavender frame connecting to the lavender cloud in back but in front of the white cloud. I really did think that.

Thats why I outlined the connecting cloud frame, to help point that out, I don't know if anyone ever got that, not really sure I did but there it is, I was barely able to describe it here!

Still its a nice piece, heavy but floating in lavender clouds, reflecting a sunset, I should just call this my Cliche' piece after all that!

18-Early "Lover" Series circa late 1982

When will these Lover outlines end?  Ha, I still love these letters together, I may have to revisit the Lover series in 3D. This outline has several cool concepts going on, first is what I called my broken letters, where large chunks of the letters are literally sliced from the piece and begin sliding away, the difficult part was keeping the outline and fill in consistent with the sliding pieces. I tried this several times after trying to perfect it, its something I havent seen recreated by other graffiti artist, although that doesnt mean its never been.

The other thing is the minimal black mini frame that just accents a little bit of the background, I had grown tired of the same old consistent frame wrapping around the piece and just started playing with it as decor. The frame is 100% as important as the piece itself and shouldn't be treated as just an accent color around the piece. I'm pretty sure I used that mini black frame to cover some of the marker bleed marks, necessity is the mother of invention after all.

I was also starting to use the really large super thick 3Ds, almost 30-40 % of the outline would be 3D which is tricky as if 1 line is off the entire outline is ruined, visually the viewer understands it makes no sense and wouldnt get the concept but when the 3D is straight it makes it feel balanced.

Lastly I will comment on the purple marker outline which gets really thick then really thin in certain areas, the thick parts ultimately become fill in in a way as they take up to half the area they are in. Overall I think this peice works well and is very well balanced and ultimately thats what I wanted to achieve, these days I'm not so concerned with balance but I did have to learn it to know how to manipulate it later.