23/07/2011 - Norreys community project Pt.2

Part two of the workshop for the youth shelter at Norreys park in Wokingham. The workshop started well with the kids from the previous wee buying me a box of roses which was nice. We put together designs, settling on 'theme park being attacked by monsters.'

Great day and as it was a community project, Wokingham opted for the additional anti-graffiti paint coating to be put onto the wall after, in order to make it easy to clean any graffiti which may be drawn onto the wall after we left.

22/07/2011 - Birthday party canvas workshop

On Friday evening Graff Workshop went to Birmingham for a birthday party canvas workshop. Another successful workshop with everyone involved designing and making their own street art canvas to keep. It was chucking it down with rain when I arrived so the gazebo went up in the garden. Luckily the rain pretty much stopped by the time the painting started so it was a fun, relaxed session, with no wet canvases.

17/07/2011 - Bar Mitzvah, Airbrushing joggers

Another job for an events company doing airbrushing for a Barmitzvah. Was a good evening in a nice venue in London. 

16/07/2011 - Norreys youth shelter, community project. Pt.1

Graff Workshop works closely with Wokingham Borough Council. This job was for the Youth Action Project and we designed and painted a mural with local youths. For the front we decided to go for a beach theme to try and brighten the park and the shelter up a bit.

This was a fun day, with some of the time spent inside designing the wall, and the second part spent outside painting. We had a huge audience by the end and everyone in the pub opposite was standing at the windows watching which was good.

Pictures coming soon, Part.2 on Saturday

14/7/2011 - We're about participation, not demonstrations. School mural workshop

Here at Graff Workshop, we seem to be heading down the education route, and we're loving it. Some Graffiti companies have gone for the private events market, some for the corporate and commission market, but we're all about education and young people.

As you can see in the title, our workshops are about participation; we don't send you an artist who paints the wall from start to finish and lets the kids watch, we send an artist who acts as a catalyst for the young people to form their own designs and idea. The artist will then show the young people how to use a spray can and give help and advice when needed.


This workshop was at a primary school in Derby. The kids in the final year were leaving and the walls in the playground needed a re-vamp so they got to leave their mark on the school before they left. They were split into five random groups of six students and were tasked with making a design relating to the school and things they had been doing recently. The themes were Art, Maths, Science, Space and Music.

Each team came up with great designs, and particular praise must go to the girl who painted the grand piano before our artist even had a chance to help her!

Graff Workshop knows how important it is for the students to have painted the wall themselves but also for the school to have a good mural on display. So our artist stayed back for half an hour to tidy up the edges, and this is how we do our workshops....oh and did we mention it was a hilarious day with a really funny group of kids.

29/6/2011 - Birmingham Secondary School Canvas Workshop

Today Graff Workshop attended a secondary school academy in Birmingham to do a canvas workshop during an activities week. The previous day the pupils had done drumming with bins etc and the following day they were due to go and see Stomp in London. So we took a group of around 20 in the morning and 20 in the afternoon, and they created their own canvases to keep.

A lot of workshop companies have pictures with kids who have a canvas with a pretty good piece of graffiti on it, and some pictures of the kids 'supposedly' painting it. Don't believe this when you see it. The graffiti artist would have done most of this for them, and that's not what we're about. We're about letting the kids do the work and create something themselves from start to finish. There's a time and a place for watching someone else create a piece of art for you, and a workshop at a school is not one of them. If you want participation instead of watching a demonstration then call Graff Workshop...

25/6/2011 - Birthday Party, Painting T-shirts with spray paint

Today we were asked to throw a Kid's Birthday Party. Luckily the sun was shining and we had a beautiful day to go out in the garden and paint some T-shirts. The Kids started by selecting there favourite colour and using it as a background on their t-shirts, They then drew various different shapes and patterns that were then cut out and sprayed onto the shirts in various different colours to add to the background. We then finished the T-shirts by making stencils of each child's name to be sprayed on top. All the Kid's had a great time and produced some super cool colourful shirts! - Kieran, Artist for Graff Workshop

24/6/2011, Gateway Foyer - London, Mural Workshop

We were asked to co-ordinate a workshop for the Look Ahead - Gateway Housing Project, which is sheltered accomadation for vunerable young people. The task was to teach a few residents who had never used spraypaint before in order to paint a mural in the Common room. This was part of a complete Renovation project at  Gateway, there were over 50 volunteers pulling together to give the place a much needed facelift. The session was split into two parts, we begun by discussing ideas and producing a plan for the wall, we then painted it. The girls who participated did an absolutely brilliant job, onlookers had a hard time believing they we're all complete beginners! - Kieran, Artist at Graff Workshop

20/06/2011 - Canvas Workshop at a Junior School in Chesham

This was one of the first canvas workshops that Graff Workshop did at a school. We usually do these sort of workshops for private parties, but as with most of the services Graff Workshop provides, they can be adapted to any setting. We spent the first half of the session designing and cutting the stencils, and the second half painting them and touching them up using markers, we also had a bit of time at the end to go over the positive and negative aspects of graffiti and had a discussion about whether different forms of graffiti were legal.

A good morning at the school and some very interesting canvases produced

11/06/2011 - Fairfield Junior School Mural Workshop

At Fairfield Junior School in Derby, Graff Workshop did a mural workshop. The school had picked 4 kids from each year who were the best at art to get involved and create a mural per group of four. This was a fun day and the first time Graff Workshop has gone down the 'complete freedom to paint how they want' route. As we had boards to paint instead of walls this approach was possible and the results were very good. Although the artist did use a black marker to outline some parts as the teachers needed it to look a bit more professional. It was going to be attached to exterior walls at the school, for prospective students and parents to see the following September.

Have a look at the pictures!

1/5/2011 - Site hits 1000 visits

The Graff Workshop site has recently hit 1,000 visits! Maybe at 10,000 we'll have a party or free giveaway of some sort

23-26/5/2011 - Cromer Junior School Norfolk

This was the first four day workshop for Graff Workshop Ltd. So I stayed up in Norfolk for the week, at a nice B&B right next to the beach. It was really windy all week though so I passed on the beach idea unfortunately.

The week consisted of 8 workshops, one in the afternoon and one in the morning for 4 days straight. It was an arts week and the theme was monsters so in each workshop we created stencils for each of the group and the kid with the best design would also have theirs painted in the middle of the board.

On the third day I was asked to paint a monster onto a wall inside the school which was a nice respite from letting the kids take control of the cans all week. Overall it was a fun week, here are some photos and videos of my time there