SWAZE — MTN Australia Achromatic
This page is Q&A section of the Achromatic Competition Blog with artist SWAZE. To view the full blog article, including links to other artists Q&A or to view all submission, click this link:> MTN Challanges Australia Graffiti Community
Sydney based artist SWAZE is a versatile artist with solid grip across the fundamentals in letter form, portraits, landscapes and abstracts.
His entry comes alongside the Scratches Records collective entry, in which a whole clique of Australian veterans came together to produce a wall in collaboration with a music video for the Scratches Records label launch.
Showing off his versatility, Swaze entered a dope portrait. See his response to our rapid fire questions below.
Questions:
- Briefly introduce yourself and your art
I write Swaze, South West Sydney been piecing since 1999.
I’ve always been a purest Graffiti writer mostly focusing on tags, throw ups, burner pieces & letter structure, however the last few years due to aerosol art work opportunities i have been able to widen my painting skills to a much larger scale, including characters, back grounds, landscapes, portraits, realism & even logo reproducing free hand.
My piecing style would have to be ‘’semi wild style’’ main influences would be 90's Bronx production pieces to a bolder more modern look nowadays. I’m still a purest at heart & when talking about ‘’Graffiti’’ I’m all about the letters with minimal effects, cause that’s what graffiti actually is. I respect all other ideas & art forms & enjoy experimenting into those other worlds as a challenge & further learning curve.
- How did you come up with your Achromatic concept?
I’ve been looking at portraits lately & was inspired by an 80's themed production myself & friends were working on, once I saw the Blondie portrait photo i knew straight away i wanted to paint that as my achromatic entry.
- What challenges did you face and overcome with the limitations of only Black and White?
Mainly just 1 major challenge, that is fading black into white with out making it look like a stencil, keeping it mostly shaded. Grey scales would have helped a lot but I’ve done black and white shaded portraits before.
- What techniques can you share about your process, did you find certain techniques helpful?
The only painting technique i used is the ‘copy’ technique, Ilook at the photo & just try to copy it as closely as possible, mathematically as in ruffly measuring where everything must follow. I’ve always been good with estimation & copying things since a lil kid.
- What is one thing/lesson you learned while doing the Achromatic challenge?
Do better.
- If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?
That’s hard to say, Iwouldn’t change anything in this particular painting as it was part of a large collaborated production & fitted in well. I was happy with the end result, Iwouldn’t do anything different but i would have liked to add a full back ground to it.
Specializing in all styles including portraits, abstract, landscapes, tattoo influence, large scale murals and logo reproducing.
Professional aerosol artist since 1999. Painted in over 30 countries world wide. Former full time graffiti artist for Flip Out Trampoline Arenas franchise world wide. My only limit is your imagination.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swaze1
