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To celebrate the occasion of our latest tee drop ‘LAYERS’, I wanted to put out a mini interview with the man who blessed us with the fresh handstyle that sits front and centre of this drop; Monsieur SOFLES’.

The shirt graphic features a handstyle standing strong atop two layers of shadow beneath, backing up the main tag and adding depth to the design.

Given that we’re working on more projects with SOFLES in the future, and we’ve got some other interviews with him on deck for a couple of future publications, I thought it would be nice to dig into some concepts that fit within the theme of the moment: LAYERS.

Here’s our conversation, Onion Boy:

LUKE (ARTILLERY): I remember when I was younger, and first starting to paint, I would just do an outline on my piece – no 3D or dropshadow. Then I met LROC (LINZ), and he encouraged me to do a drop shadow on every piece. I remember painting under this bridge with him, and he was like ‘dude, you gotta do a dropshadow’. I didn’t.

At first, I was adverse to it because I wanted to conserve my paint. The truth is, he was right, and I came around – eventually. 

Years later, I was painting with you, and was nearing the end of my piece – with dropshadow, keyline, shines, all that – and you said to “Dymsy, most people stop here. The piece is done. But you gotta keep pushing beyond this stage – add the lipstick – it makes the piece so much better.”

Has this always been your approach? To tech things out? Adding more and more layers etc? Where do you think this comes from? What role do an abundance of materials play in this approach to extra-ing out the piece? Chuck a wig on it.

SOFLES: It took me a while to find the lipstick, but I think it came from wanting everything to be detailed. I was always drawing before graff, and I loved detailed rendering and lots of small details. I realised I could do this with graffiti, and even if your letters or piece wasn’t as strong, you could hide a lot with extra layers and details.

As time progressed, my pieces got better, and I probably didn’t need to hide as much, but I still loved pushing the rules and limits by adding more and more. It made my stuff look different, and a lot of the techniques could still be painted quickly, which I really enjoyed. I tried to break down the classic rules and rebuild something new.

L: What do you think when you hear the word ‘LAYERS’?

S: When I think of Layers, I can see a visual breakdown in my mind. I can mix and move layers to create new and different pieces. The layering is super important, and the order in which they are done makes a massive difference.

Sometimes a simple layer or two can make or break a piece.

L: Handstyles. You’ve got ’em. What do you think makes a good handstyle? How important are handstyles to have in your graffiti toolkit?

S: Handstyles are super important. I didn’t really understand this for a long time and just wanted to jump straight to wildstyle.

A few years into my graff career, I started to realise all areas needed to be practiced and executed if you wanted to master the art form. Handstyles are the base of everything, much like rough and formative sketching is to art.

L: What are your thoughts on consistency/ repetition vs being able to flex lots of different styles?

S: I appreciate people who master the same tag, but for me, it’s about trying all styles and learning them all, and that way you fail/learn/succeed, then put it all together and come up with something new and original.

L: What’s more important – aesthetics or meaning?

S: For me, it was always aesthetics over meaning, but the older I get, I try to add more meaning. But it’s been mostly about creating something that just looks insane, different, and has a special energy to it.

L: There’s beauty in decay. Layers of rust and grime have their own charm and aesthetic value. The same goes for mistakes; happy accidents, improvising their way into a finished artwork. Do you find this to be true in your work? How does decay influence you?

S: Mistakes are good. I’d rather have mistakes in there and just try to hide them as I go, so no one notices. I like to just get in a free headspace and paint with not much planning, so there’s often a lot of mistakes. I’ve just learnt to hide them as best as possible.

L: With all this talk of more, and the extra layers that you put into everything you touch, and given your history of ‘Netching’ things out, does simplicity ever enter into the equation? When is less more?

S: The ‘less is more’ mentality has definitely come to me as my art matures, but I still prefer to go wild. The less is more aspect probably applies to certain areas like handstyles or colour schemes, but the rest still gets teched most of the time.

Follow SOFLES here: @sofles

Our Artillery ‘LAYERS’ tee by SOFLES is available now by timed release. It ends tomorrow, Sunday, 2 November (11:59pm AEST) so this is your last chance to cop one. Grab yours here.

SHOP NOW: SOFLES ‘LAYERS’ TEE – BE QUICK! ENDS MIDNIGHT SUNDAY 2 NOV.