The order matters more than the technique. Most pieces that go wrong went wrong at step one and only showed it at step three, which is why the fix always feels like it needs more work than it should.
Step 1 — Draw the skeleton
A plain, thin, readable outline of your word. Same stroke weight everywhere, no style, no decoration. This is the least enjoyable part of the process and it is the part that decides the outcome.
At this stage you are answering three questions: how wide is each letter, how much space sits between them, and where does the whole word sit on the baseline.
The test: if you cannot read the word at hairline weight, you will not be able to read it fat. Go back and fix the skeleton instead of proceeding.
Step 2 — Thicken the strokes
Push the outline outward from the centre of each stroke, in both directions at once. Not one side and then the other — that is what produces letters that look like they have been inflated off-centre.
Watch the counters as you go. The counter — the hole inside a letter — is the first thing to close, and it closes silently. Look from a distance every few strokes; from close up you will not notice the moment a letter stops being readable.
Step 3 — Fix the spacing
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it is the one that separates a piece from a set of letters.
- Space letters more tightly than feels comfortable. Beginners leave too much air, and air between letters is what makes a word look assembled.
- Space the letters so that they nearly touch, then let the outlines negotiate the gap. The gap should be a decision, not a leftover.
- Treat W and M as wide letters and I, J and L as narrow ones. Giving every letter the same box is what makes pieces look mechanical.
- Check the optical balance, not the measured one. An O next to an I needs more space than two Is, because curves read lighter than straight strokes.
Step 4 — Outline and shadow
The outline is what lets two touching colours sit next to each other without muddying. Weight it against the size of the whole piece, not the size of the letters — a heavy outline on a small piece makes the letters disappear.
Then the shadow, if you want one. A block shadow works on one condition: every letter agrees on where the light comes from. Pick an angle and hold it across the entire word. One letter lit from a different direction breaks the illusion for everything else.
A block shadow longer than about half the letter height stops reading as depth and starts reading as a second, uglier letter.
Draw it in the generator instead
Practise on paper, refine in a browser
The four steps are the same whether you are using a marker or a canvas API. Paper is still the fastest way to build the skeleton, because it gives you no undo and therefore forces the decisions to be deliberate.
Where a browser helps is at steps two and four. Thickening strokes, adjusting the shadow angle and testing colour combinations take seconds when you can change them with a slider, and the result is a clean reference you can work from with a marker.
Questions
How long does it take to learn graffiti letters?
The skeleton technique usually clicks within a few sessions because it is mechanical. Composition — spacing, weight and shadow — takes longer, and it is the part that actually determines whether a piece looks good.
Should I draw graffiti letters in pencil or marker first?
Pencil for the skeleton, because you will redraw it several times. Marker once the skeleton is settled, because the commitment forces you to stop second-guessing.