Happy Birthday BATES — Style Poster Tribute

Since I discovered graffiti, the work of Bates has always been present. Few writers have maintained such a consistent level of quality and progression over such a long period of time. Still a constant source of inspiration.

It’s a special honor to represent TNB (The Nasty Boys) in Europe alongside him.

For this piece, I created a series of sketches on paper — fast, direct, with fineliner. No erasing. Fast lines. Pure flow. The challenge was to translate this raw, spontaneous ductus into the digital space without losing its character. Since no existing tool delivered the result I was looking for, I developed my own Python-based workflow to convert the drawings into clean vector centerlines. The final piece was plotted using a pen plotter — bringing the analog gesture back into a precise, mechanical output.

Never the same outline.

Process: Analog sketch → Digital translation → Generative refinement → Pen plot