Urban Art Walk & graffiti drawing class

Hosted by Ian

Who is Ian Fay?

• The Artist: He’s a veteran urban artist with 20 years of experience in the game. He has a unique, signature style that incorporates Jackson Pollock-esque, wallpaper-style backgrounds.
• The Mentor: He is deeply community-minded. He’s the driving force behind the Temple of Art initiative, dedicated to teaching local young people for free so they aren’t priced out of learning, while offering graffiti therapy to older adults.
• The Rule-Follower (in a good way!): Despite his deep roots in street art, he has consciously avoided illegal tagging since he was a kid to keep a clean record, and he actively steers his students toward legal, permission-based public murals.
• The Unconventional Thinker: As a teacher, he pulls inspiration from everywhere—using Super Mario Bros to teach textures, 80s pop music to boost creativity, and heavy literature like Shakespeare and James Joyce’s Ulysses to find unique words for typography.
• The Guide: He is the host of the walk who teaches graffiti drawing classes and is a graffiti art therapy facilitator .

💷 Cost: £30

📍 Location: Westway Roundabout, London

⏱ Duration: 2.5 Hours (Optional Spraycan Add-On Available)

About Your Experience

Step under the iconic Westway flyover and immerse yourself in London’s most vibrant concrete canvas. I’m Ian, a local artist with years of experience, and I’m taking you on an exclusive walk through the neighbourhood’s living gallery. We won’t just look at the art—we’ll decode it. We’ll talk about how the clash of this neighbourhood fuels its creativity, how to pull inspiration from the strangest places (from Super Mario to Shakespeare!), and the actual mechanics of how massive murals are painted.

After we walk the walls, we’ll sit down for a hands-on graffiti drawing class. Whether you’re a young person looking to find your style or an adult needing to escape the daily grind, this is your chance to learn about graffiti from an experienced graffiti draughtsman.

The Itinerary

• Part 1: The Westway Art Walk We’ll navigate the massive painted pillars of the roundabout. You’ll learn to read the streets like a textbook, decoding the difference between simple tags, throw-ups, and complex Wild Style. We’ll explore the history of the medium and how to train your eye to see style and balance in everyday typography.
• Part 2: The Mechanics of the Line (Pencil & Paper) We grab our sketchpads and get to work. I’ll teach you the “airplane” technique for drawing flawless lines and how to work with the natural curves of your wrist. We’ll start with basic letter structures before taking the leap into extensions, swirls, and shadows.
• Part 3: The Master Template Method A crucial lesson for any artist: never ruin your original line art! I’ll show you how to build a clean black-and-white template that you can photocopy and color a million different ways, ensuring your best ideas are always preserved.
• Part 4: The Spraycan Upgrade (Optional Add-On) Want to take your sketch from the notepad to the concrete? Book the Spraycan Add-On! Once your paper design is locked in, we’ll grab the cans and step up to a legal practice wall. I’ll teach you can-control, blending, and how to scale your art into a physical masterpiece.

What’s Included

• Guided Urban Art Tour through the historic Westway roundabout.
• All Design Materials: Sketchpads, pencils, erasers, and fine-liners for the paper masterclass.
• The Vibe: A curated playlist of nostalgic 80s pop and vocal house music to keep the positive energy flowing while we draw.
• Spray Cans & Caps (Only included with the Spraycan Add-On tier).

Part 1: The Concrete Canvas (The Neighbourhood Walk)

(We walk under the sweeping flyover, surrounded by a dizzying array of tags, throw-ups, and massive, intricate murals.)

UP: The Westway is such an iconic spot. Why bring the young people—and the tour—here?

Ian: Because this neighborhood tells a story. You look around this area of West London, and it’s a total mix—it’s incredibly rich on one hand, but deprived on the other. The art under this roundabout reflects that clash and that energy. When we walk through here, I tell the group to keep their eyes open. Look at every piece, every logo, every bit of typography. The street is the best textbook you can ask for.

UP: (Pointing to a massive, jagged lettering piece) When you look at a wall like this, what are you pointing out to the class?

Ian: I’m showing them that graffiti is about style over strict rules. I want to see a new style that isn’t just arrows everywhere. We look at the history. I talk to them about how artists evolved, how older comic books used cross-hatching for shading, but modern street art is all about clean lines, bold colors, and light and shadow. We also talk about inspiration—whether it’s the simplified, vibrant textures from Super Mario or pulling dramatic, unique words from Shakespeare and James Joyce’s Ulysses to use in their pieces.

Part 2: Decoding the Walls (Technique & Theory)

(Ian stops by a fresh piece, tracing his hand in the air over the swooping lines of the paint.)

UP: You don’t just show them the art; you break down the actual mechanics of how it was physically painted, right?

Ian: Exactly. I explain that drawing a straight line is like an airplane—you have to ease your can or your pen down like a plane landing, glide, and then lift off smoothly. I show them how to look at the swoops in the letters and explain that to get a smooth curve, you have to work with the natural ergonomics of your hand and wrist, not fight against it.

Part 3: From Concrete to Paper (The Design Class)

(We step away from the roaring traffic and find a quiet spot to sit down. Ian hands out sketchpads and pencils.)

UP: So this is where the actual class begins? We aren’t starting with spray cans today?

Ian: We start small. Pencil and paper. Before you can hit a wall, you have to know how to build a letter. We start with basic graffiti throw-ups and rough outlines. Then, we take the leap into Wild Style—I teach them to be brave enough to add extensions, swirls, and overlays.

UP: And you emphasize keeping these original sketches clean?

Ian: Always. I teach them the “template” method. I tell them, “Don’t ruin your original ink drawing by coloring it straight away!” You want to leave it blank, scan it or photocopy it, and color the copies. That way, you have a master template you can reinvent a million times. We put on some good 80s pop or vocal house music to get that nostalgia flowing, and we just design.

Part 4: Taking It to the Wall (The Spraycan Add-On)

(Ian taps a duffel bag sitting next to him, the faint clinking of spray cans rattling inside.)

UP: Now, for the people who do want to take their paper designs and actually put them on concrete, you offer something extra, don’t you?

Ian: I do. The pencil and paper class is the foundation—it’s brilliant for getting your brain working sideways and learning the structure. But for those who want to take it to the next level, I offer dedicated spraycan graffiti classes that can be done right along with the tour. Once they have their paper design locked in, we grab the cans, step up to a legal practice wall, and I teach them how to translate that sketch into a massive, physical piece of public art.

Questions? Email us at hello@undergroundparis.org.