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.

17- Early "Lover" Series, 1982

Ok ok, i know I said that these Lover pieces would be great, well I guess not all of them can be great. 1982 was a defining year for me as my style started one way and blossomed towards the end of 82, the pieces are so different only 9-12 months apart! I also started playing with different colors for the outline part like here, using Marvy fine point markers really allowed me to create some really fun color combinations which really helped later when piecing since everyone was using black to outline(well, not everyone, but many for sure).
I dont have a name for the heavy darker blue offsetting pieces floating near the corners through the fill in but I know they gave the piece some weight helping balance it otherwise, my outline would have been too light and the piece would appear unfinished, or definitely missing something.
I love the simple little Newave at the bottom, simple 3D with red bars, some little brown floating ovals ( i looooove flaoting ovals, they can be used to accomplish almost any design need, cover rogue drips, add color where needed, I still use them these days!)
Also again, the disappearance of any straight lines, this was not a conscious thought, this was just happening to my style, with no rhyme or reason, just forming and only now can I look back and appreciate the growth because back then I had no idea this was going on, just a powerful desire to keep exploring!

16- Lover "series" circa 1982

Oh I can already tell the amount of fun I'm going to have while describing these "Lover" pieces. I'm being sarcastic and I hope that's not lost with anyone. Even still, this is still a really nice piece, I had started playing with the concept of a transparent cloud floating in front of the regular cloud for the background and in this case that cloud was black. i added very little black to the piece and foreground because if I did the foreground may have gotten too heavy and i wanted the background to be the only heavy part. using a repeating outline as the fill in, red to orange to yellow to white or page white is a really easy and simple way to create a dramatic fill in, I used this technique several times and it always works well the trick as always is to keep the balance with the background. I also added a really heavy, long 3D dropping down to give the piece a sense of monster heaviness. I don't know why i did these things, but here it really worked well. Sometimes the most important thing about creating art is realizing when the piece is done and not over do-ing it, i wrote oops down near the lower right because after nearly completing the piece i got lazy and dropped that line for the 3D at the wrong angle which I knew immediately would ruin the piece, at least to me it would, I was always a stickler about correct dimensions and since the line was there i had to account for it or start redrawing a whole new concept, I chose to fess up instead. i never said i was perfect, just said I try to be!
Once again though, the letters of this particular word flow so nicely, semi leaning left, all upper case, super thick 3D and a black cloud behind it. Still works for me!

15-Lover 82, 1982.

I knew I had to get to the Lover pieces sooner or later. First I will explain, choosing the name Lover was at first an affirmation, if you believe, it will be. Looking back I cant help but laugh, not only was I not a lover, when I was I don't think I was particularly good at it. Lets call it wishful thinking. I did many Lover pieces though and the reason for that is these letters actually go really well together and offered many design possibilities while at the same time my style was becoming more my own, individualistic and unique so after choosing a silly name to piece I ended up creating many really neat outlines for it, so lets just call this the Lover series, sheesh!
The letters L and O are perfect together because the bottom stem of the L will always cradle or nest the O on it. The O is a free letter meaning it can be replaced with an image or character and will always be read as an O. Those 2 letters alone open a world of options, the V then represents a new beginning because the L and O can stand alone or join into the piece. The L and O will always dictate what the V will do. In this outline I decided that all letters would be stand alone letters (nothing connecting them to each other) and the "82" over the O because as I mentioned, you can do anything you want to the O.
The style of these letters is influenced by Chinese bamboo styled fonts which are curved like a samurai's sword, thin on one end and thick on the other and always sharp.
The colors reflect when the Design Marker company first released a series of natural toned colors which became all the rage, they muted the palette some but after 3 years of bright colors I was ready for something different and these colors blended so well with each other. I really loved the serenity of them especially in this piece. And as mentioned earlier I had already stopped tagging around the page, making my piece cleaner and more refined, I was respecting the piece as art more and more from here.

10-Pep 101, 1980

 Even when i was first developing my style I already showed signs of being A.D.D. i just couldn't piece my tag, Paze all the time, i would get bored, also because i was doing these pieces all day long, at least 1 and sometimes as many as 3 or 4 per day. that's dedication! one of the reasons for dropping the Paze tag to Erni was i knew even if i got tired of Erni i knew i couldn't get rid of it. i recently began tagging Party Paze and doing classic PZ throws in peoples blackbooks, i been feeling quite nostalgic you could say.
Pep 101 was one of those names that i cant even remember the reason why i wrote it, i may have only done in total 2 or 3 outlines for it so it wasn't a favorite by any means but this outline, still using the heavy connected base to anchor the piece is pretty nice. The "E" starts showing signs of a more curvy style and a breakaway from using any straight lines at all in any of my pieces. i believe graffiti should curve and sway, like a dance, lines are too constricting to me.
The 101 is not colored, i did this often because i was more interested in beginning a new outline than finishing the color on the piece before.