CaNxControl

Handstyles are like a writer's signature. They sign any surface they can with markers, mops, or spray paint. They'll sign their piece with their handstyle so their tag will be recognized.

It's the quickest and easiest way to get your name out there. When you're walking down a road you can line the whole street with your tag in a matter of minutes.

Often the markers will be homemade with old pens, custom ink, and custom nibs. This allows the writer to have their own preference on ink thickness and how drippy their tag will be.

GUSTO and KATSU and REFRY and MALVO and ADEK

FALSE

WSER

MENACE

Often a certain area will have their own "style" for tags and handstyles especially. This is a result of kids growing up without internet and emulating the styles they saw on the streets. Philly has the most notable style difference in their tags. Known as wickets, they tend to be tall, skinny, and barely legible.

SAER and RAEM

KAEAEDEE aka KAD aka KADISM

BAM

NAW and GEEZ

For this post I will post the progress of me sketching my last name, Loges. This is the finished drawing:

The materials I used were a pencil, highlighters in the following colors: yellow, orange, green, a darker orange Prisma marker, and a black Prisma marker.

I start off just by drawing the basic lettering, trying to get it to flow a little bit while also showing me the portioning of the letters.

Afterwards, I move on to outlining the letters. I use the letters from the prior step as a guideline to outlining them. At this point I begin to add on slight additions such as the parts of the letters that stick out or even some arrows.

Now that the letters are outlined, I'm going to keep fixing parts of the letters that I don't like, or that I don't think look good. Sometimes I could end up erasing full letters and starting over. I take my time with this step, trying to make the letters look as good as possible before I move on.

And this is what I ended up with. The most changes I made were to the E and the S. I also added some "bricks" that fall off the letters. Also in this step I added some horizontal lines inside some letters (the L and top of the E) but I ended up not including them in the final drawing.

This is after the outline, I erased all the pencil and now it's time to color it.

Here it is before the power outline. I used a highlighter for the orange and a darker orange marker for the design in the bottom orange as well as the lines on the top in the yellow.

And this is the finished product, with a green power outline and extra additions to really make it pop. Finished it off signing LOGES and dating it at the top.

As you can tell drawing something like this takes a lot of effort and determination to make it look right. Often the piece can go through many different transformations and could look very different from the beginning and even the middle steps.

Beef in graffiti is described as two writers who don't get along very well. Often the writers will write over each other's tags, throwies, and pieces with their own name, which accomplishes a few things: it takes a the dissed piece out of existence, it puts the new piece in its place to ride out its own life, and most importantly, it gives a big "fuck you" to the writer who got dissed.

Beef has its place in graffiti as a means to settle disputes. Often, however, beef leads to violence and someone ends up in the hospital. If there are no further retaliation the beef could be squashed.

Beefs start in many ways. Usually a writer will break one of the unspoken rules of graffiti, and while some may argue there are no rules, there are general practices that writers normally adhere to.

One would be that you shouldn't go over someone else's work. There are some exceptions, as throwies go over tags/hollows and pieces can go over throwies, tags, and hollows. Generally if you're going over someone, you better be spending a lot more time to paint your piece than the person you're going over did.

Another would be if a writer goes over a tribute piece or a piece of a writer who died. The beef will be handled by the deceased writer's friend or crewmates.

And yet another cause of beef is going over a piece that has been running for a long time. Sometimes it'll bring writers out of retirement to diss the kid back who went over him.

All of these violations of the code are taken very seriously as it shows a huge lack of respect for the writers when you do. You have to know the area and the writers who are prominent in that area. If a toy goes over someone who is well-respected, it leads to beef, or even leads straight to a single beating and paint-robbing to teach the kid a lesson.

All of the above images are examples of beef. Sometimes writers will leave a message taunting the other person, or even to just make it clear that it was a diss, and not someone randomly tagging over it.

The PEAR/GASM beef started when a GASM piece was buffed and PEAR went over it. GASM didn't know the spot was buffed and wrote over a couple of PEAR's pieces and PEAR launched a war. In the above photos he writes "You dis a pear, you disappear" which is referring to GASM's pieces disappearing from walls, as well as a threat, while still being a clever play on words.

The famous Brooklyn bridge, an icon of New York City is also famous in the graffiti world for being notoriously dangerous and hard to tag due to its security as a national landmark.

The insane difficulty to hit the bridge doesn't stop some determined taggers. It was first hit in the late 80's by SANE (RIP) and SMITH, a famous bombing duo who also happen to be brothers. SANE and SMITH were some of the hardest-hitting writers in New York City in the 80's and after their stunt, they became wanted by the FBI for causing $3 million worth of damage to the national landmark.

In October of 1990, SANE was found dead in Flushing Bay. He was said to have been a good swimmer, so the reason for his death is inconclusive, but rumored to be everything from an accident, to being pushed, to suicide.

From that point on, the Brooklyn bridge became legendary in the graff-world.

A little over a decade later, SACE (RIP) and YEAR hit the same spot. To the left of their tags, they left a few messages, including "SANE RIP" as a tribute to SANE who tagged the same spot before him. SACE and YEAR are members of IRAK crew, one of the most famous crews in graffiti, made up with some of the most influential writers in the graff scene: NEKST (RIP), ADEK, EARSNOT, NEMEL, and many others.

Just last year, LEWY BTM single-handedly crushed the bridge harder than before, with 3 back-to-back-to-back fill-ins. He also left a tribute, writing SANE and SACE along with his tags with a halo over them, paying his respect.

Can X Control

This blog is dedicated to the appreciation and examination of urban vandalism and the underground culture of graffiti.

What better way to start off the blog with a huge dope handstyle by king SOFLES. One look at SOFLES' website and it is easy to see why he is considered a king. His style and flow are unmatched, incorporating incredible use of color and 3d in his spray paint designs.

The handstyle above is the perfect image for this blog, as it not only represents the dirty-dirty of street vandalism mixed with style and risk, but also demonstrates what "can control" truly is. The flares (the parts of the tag that flare out) require a great amount of skill that only comes from writing your name over and over again with a can of spray paint.

This effect in particular, especially due to the sheer size of this tag, is achieved using a special nozzle for spray paint called a 'fatcap'. A fatcap is the quickest and easiest way to get a lot of paint onto a wall, as it sprays fat lines and uses a lot of paint. It's usually used to fill large spaces, but can be used for tags by holding the can closer to the wall for thinner lines, farther away for fatter lines, and on an angle for some serious flares. That is where real can control comes into play, and when a writer demonstrates this effect you know he's not just anyone.

And SOFLES isn't just anyone. Not only are his handstyles and throw-ups filled with style, but his pieces are amazing and truly show his range of skill. He blends old-school and new-school styles with crisp colors and clean lines, while still maintaining legibility...for the most part. While he can masterfully piece a legible style, his wildstyles, while may not be as easily read, are out of this world with expert use of extensions and 3d.