I started out over a decade ago spraying the sort of thing most stencil artists cut their teeth on, which is running chopped up photos through a cocktail of Photoshop filters and spraying them with no regard for underspray or, indeed, overspray. I was painting dogs and cats before I was painting Pahnl dogs and cats but let’s take it back to the beginning. Here’s a snippet of some stencils from the early days…
I think we can all agree this is very edgy and brought great change to the world. Okay, it didn’t but stencil art is intrinsically linked with politics and before I had my own voice, it’s all too easy to ape what everyone else is doing. Nevermind all the underspray or blotchy torch.
Or how about the innocent kid with the kalashnikov? I guess it was good to get this stuff out of my system early but of course you learn new things from every piece. It’s all too easy to let the Photoshop filters spit out an image that’s still legible but soon you begin to tweak the image, evaluate each shape and decide whether it’s actually doing anything. That’s perhaps why I draw the way I do these days; presenting as much as possible with as few shapes as I can get away with.
Misaligned stencils like that wouldn’t fly these days but you can’t go far wrong with anything when it’s on a skateboard deck.
Placement was, and still is, probably the most important part of street art to me. It should always try to interact, or at least nod, to it’s environment. It might be rough around the edges but I’m still quite pleased with this ‘No Fly Posting’ piece.
And so this harmless dog was the first piece I got up on the street that wasn’t a sticker. Situated under a bridge, one of the first columns had ‘BEWARE OF DOG’ sprayed on it and then the further in you get, you’d see this harmless little bulldog. Not a clue now why I sprayed a bin shaped white background for the dog but it was probably something to do with the all consuming adrenaline and forgetting how small the dog layer was.
Later on, I ended up adding a whole posse of ironically friendly looking puppies to the ‘BEWARE OF DOG’ underpass. Whilst you’d never mistake the stencils for actual dogs, I liked that (with a little suspension of disbelief) the dogs could reasonably be found in the street. They’re close to the ground (or as much as the stencil margins allowed at the time) and there’s a kind of painted alternative reality to them. To this day, I’m not a fan of characters that float in midair and I like to keep them grounded to some kind of plane.
After that, it was a natural progression to bring cats into the equation and have them at odds with the dogs, fighting a war in a manner we’re more familiar with. I wish I had more photos of this series but when I eventually began painting as ‘Pahnl’, the dogs and cats were some of the first things to be drawn in my style.
I generally don’t put too much importance on pieces that are completed. I might coo over them for a day or so if I really like them but once something is done, my mind is already onto the next project. I think I’d be prone to laziness and complacency if I looked at completed work too much. However it’s good to occasionally take stock and recognize the development that’s taken place, see where things have come from and how much things can change.
I can’t imagine how things will be different in five year’s time but it’s reason enough to carry on working!
your cataloging is so much better than mine, over the years ive lost pretty much every old image i had
What kind of stuff did you used to do? I can’t even remember…
just general shit
Your Miami patter with the collectors must’ve been wonderful.
Real talk. Haha. I actually managed to be more professional than I’ve ever been. Mainly down to some people levelling me out
I can imagine Alex being a helluva hypeman though.
Oh hey, how many cards did you get through? They last alright?
almost got rid of all of them, they were wicked man thanks
@Pahnl I think I remember that skate deck from dA, and the fly posting was one of the first “ohh clever!” things I’ve seen
Cool to look through and have a read. One of the things I love about stenciling is how everyone goes through the same progression at the beginning but once you get out of the photoshop stuff there’s a whole world of styles and techniques to come from it.
It’s very rare that someone doesn’t go through those early steps. The ones that completely skip that stage tend to be the ones who are coming at it all by themselves and don’t get involved with any communities at the start.
Well, you know what I mean 😛 I’m certainly not one to self-loathe.
I love the comment about looking at finished work too much. I think that is part of my problem. I finish something I really like, and end up feeling like the next piece won’t be as good. I tend to get in a rut
Forgetting about past work definitely helps with that problem but for me, I don’t do it because I’m scared I’ll otherwise rest on mine laurels and not have the drive to better it.
Everybody has to start somewhere..
When you cut some of those stencils, damn, you’ll spray it everywhere just to see the image appear before your eyes in a matter of seconds. It’s an addictive feeling.
Mine lol!!
The easel makes this hella classy though, mate.
One of my favourite street/graffiti artists @Pahnl talks about how he began & found his style https://t.co/ImolOfARUW
@LearnArtHistory re suggestions: street/graffiti artists pls
One my favs @Pahnl talks how began & found his style https://t.co/ImolOfARUW
A lot of people still do that their work looks shite but people praise them.
Different strokes but I wouldn’t be happy treading water for so long…
The more people that say “that’s awesome, amazing etc” the more they carry on firing out the same shoddy work