🔥 Recreate “The Don” – The Ultimate Tutorial for an Iconic Street Art Piece
Learn how to paint “The Don” step by step with John Beckley’s exclusive video, his original stencil, and expert tips to create a vibrant and impactful canvas.
🎬 Full Demonstration Video
Before diving in, take the time to watch the accompanying video. John Beckley reveals, in real-time, each step of creating “The Don,” from the explosive background to the final stencil details.
👉 An immersive, inspiring, and educational experience.
🎥 This is more than a demonstration: it’s a fast-paced street art masterclass!
🎨 Presentation of the Artwork – A Captivating Visual Tension
With “The Don,” John Beckley delivers a provocative and elegant piece, where the calm strength of a stylized gorilla confronts the exuberance of a fluorescent graffiti background.
The contrast is strong, deliberate, almost theatrical:
- Background: A controlled chaos of fluorescent gradients, neon streaks, electric drips, saturated with pink, yellow, blue, and purple hues.
- Subject: A deep black stencil gorilla, immobile and charismatic. Mirror sunglasses, smoking cigar, firm jawline.
This face-off between colorful turmoil and calm posture creates a hypnotic effect. The attitude speaks louder than action.
👉 It’s the silent icon of street art. A figure of power, style, and composure.
🖼️ The “The Don” Stencil – A Precision Visual Weapon
Created exclusively for this piece, this large-format stencil (100×100 cm) represents a powerful and charismatic figure, perfect for your most ambitious artistic projects.
- Sharp and precise lines
- Futuristic mirror sunglasses
- Textured beard
- Stylized cigar
👉 It’s a visual magnet. Regardless of the chosen background, this stencil transforms your medium into an artistic statement.
💡 Ideal as a centerpiece on canvas, walls, textiles, or urban furniture.
🐅 A creation born from the Wild Smokers crew
The Don doesn’t stand alone. He’s the frontman of a much bigger gang: the Wild Smokers collection. A rebellious lineup of stylized animals — cigars lit, mirrored shades on, jaws clenched — each one dripping with street charisma.
They’re a street-smart bestiary. A pack of pure attitude. Silhouettes designed to take over your canvas or wall like they own the place.
👉 The Don may be the boss, but he’s far from the only one making noise.
🎨 Explore the full collection → See all Wild Smokers stencils
🎨 Another vibe: “Tropical Groove” in acrylics
In another tutorial, “Tropical Groove”, a different gang member takes center stage. Same attitude, new energy. This time, it’s all about vibrant pop art, fully painted with acrylics.
Bold gradients, crisp brushwork, striking contrasts — it’s a more painterly take, but the wild soul stays the same.
👉 Same DNA. Different playground.
📺 Watch the Tropical Groove tutorial → Go to the article
🛠️ Materials Used – Prepare Your Creative Arsenal
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Canvas | Cotton 100 x 100 cm |
| Stencil | “The Don” – Original Beckley creation |
| Paints | Spray cans (black, pink, orange, blue, violet, yellow) + Acrylic (yellow-orange for glasses and white for smoke) |
| Accessories | Gloves, mask, magnets/weights, cloth, caps, sprayer |
📦 The stencil is available in our official store, precisely cut and ready to use.
🛒 Ready to start? Grab your original “The Don” stencil today.
🧭 Creation Steps for “The Don”
⚠️ Before You Begin – A Note on Technique
🎨 For this piece, John Beckley chose to paint almost exclusively with spray cans, a deliberately different approach from his usual method. This artistic choice allows him to explore a more raw and spontaneous gesture, in line with The Don’s energy.
👉 That said, it’s absolutely not necessary to use spray paint to follow this tutorial.
Everyone is free to interpret this process using their preferred tools:
- Acrylic paint with a brush
- Dry brush technique
- Inks or markers
- Or any other personal technique
🎨 This stencil adapts to all approaches. The key is to make the creation your own and let your style speak.
🎨 1. Initial Stencil Application
John begins by placing the stencil on the canvas, then applies a uniform layer of black spray paint to reveal the gorilla’s silhouette. This creates a sharp initial structure that will guide the rest of the composition.
Cigar Smoking Gorilla Stencil – WS010
Original and trendy Cigar Smoking Gorilla Stencil. Perfect for painters and artists. High quality, available in various sizes, easy to use, and visually striking.
🌫️ 2. Creating the Blurred Background
Next, he works on the background around the character. To give an impression of depth, like in a photograph with a blurred background, he uses a soft-diffusion nozzle. The goal: less sharp contours to better highlight the central subject.
🌺 3. Coloring the Gorilla’s Interior
John then paints the inside of the gorilla using a deep and intense pink spray, immediately giving the animal character.
🔵 4. Blue Details – Adding Contrast and Depth
John applies a touch of deep blue to the gorilla’s chin (left side) and the top of its nose. This intense blue not only creates a subtle contrast with the warmer tones but also adds a sense of depth to the composition.
👉 In color theory, blue is considered a “receding” color: it appears to move away, creating an illusion of depth.
🧡 5. Adding Orange Textures
Orange streaks are then sprayed onto the fur to enrich the texture and add dynamism to the gorilla’s form.
💛 6. Bringing Light with Yellow
John brightens the brow ridges, lips, and nose contour with bright yellow to add volume and natural light areas.
🚬 7. Painting the Cigar
The cigar is then painted in orange and yellow with precision. For a clean result, John recommends masking the edges with tape to ensure straight and clean lines.
🕶️ 8. Gradient of the Sunglasses Lenses
The mirror lenses are then created with a spray gradient of fluorescent colors: orange, green, turquoise, and violet. This detail brings the entire scene to life.
🔁 9. Reapplying the Stencil
The stencil is carefully repositioned to “rematerialize” the gorilla and reinforce the sharp lines after the interior painting steps.
🎯 10. Retouching the Background Around the Cigar
At this stage, John masks the cigar to rework the background without altering the details. (He notes that it would have been simpler to protect the background in step 7.)
🖤 11. Camouflaging the Stencil Bridges
The “bridges” of the stencil (small unpainted spaces) are then manually filled in. John sprays some black paint into a cup, allowing him to reuse exactly the same shade as the initial stencil.
🟧 12. Painting the Glasses Frames – For a Stylized Golden Effect
The glasses frames are then spray-painted in orange and yellow to create a visual effect of gilding. This warm and luminous mix evokes a golden metallic structure, adding a touch of sophistication to the gorilla’s gaze.
👉 This treatment enhances the mirror effect of the lenses and contributes to accentuating the urban and luxurious pop side of the character, without using actual metallic paint.
💨 13. Creating the Smoke – Dry Brush Technique
To paint the cigar smoke, John uses a simple yet very effective technique: the dry brush.
Materials:
- Flat brush or soft brush
- White acrylic paint
- Cloth or paper towel
Steps:
- Lightly dip the tip of your brush into the white paint.
- Wipe off almost all the paint on a cloth: the brush should no longer leave thick marks.
- Rub the canvas with light and quick strokes, tracing the direction of the smoke.
- Layer multiple passes if needed to create density effects.
- For sharper areas (swirls), go over with a slightly more loaded brush, but still very dry.
💡 Tip: Test first on a scrap sheet. This is a highly sensitive technique: better too little than too much!
🧨 14. Final Touch
To finish, John replaces the stencil one last time and applies a final layer of black spray paint to reinforce the contours and give the piece its definitive structure.
🧠 Technical Tips for Optimal Results
- 💥 Layer the background to create depth (e.g., fluorescent → textures → splatters)
- ⏳ Let each layer dry before proceeding – especially before applying the stencil
- 🎯 Secure the stencil firmly with magnets or weights to avoid smudges
- 🧽 Personalize around the character: splashes, tags, personal marks
🎨 A good stencil is 30% of the work. The rest is your creative freedom.
🕶️ The Unmissable Presence: Discovering The Don
Suddenly, there he is. Towering. Unshakable. The Don doesn’t seek attention—he already owns it.
This artwork by John Beckley stands as a visual manifesto, where street art bursts with color, attitude, and symbolism.
The background, sprayed with fluorescent mists, unveils a nearly psychedelic palette where graffiti elements swirl in chaotic rhythm. Waves of acid blues, intense fuchsias, and burning oranges saturate the canvas—like an echo of urban energy. You can almost feel the tension, the voices, the beats—as if each layer vibrates with an invisible pulse.
And from this chromatic storm emerges the silhouette of the gorilla.
Stenciled with near-royal precision, he asserts his calm mass, his gaze hidden behind mirror shades, and a glowing cigar smoldering in his mouth—a symbol of silent dominance, effortless power.
He doesn’t roar. He watches. He smokes. He waits. And that is enough.
The rainbow-reflective sunglasses act like inverted portals—not revealing his eyes, but mirroring the world in all its colorful tension. This reflective game subtly reminds us: this Don isn’t a gang boss. He’s a modern allegory of absolute confidence—the kind that doesn’t need to be explained or defended.
The cigar, nearly exaggerated in its form, becomes a totem of provocative calm. It pops. It captivates. It sets a slow rhythm in a saturated composition.
Because in a world of noise and excess, a leader’s silence speaks louder than any crowd.
👑 An Ode to Pure Attitude
With The Don, John Beckley offers more than a portrait—he carves out a character through forms, colors, and reimagined pop icons.
The work flirts with satire, but never cynicism.
It celebrates that mythical stance of the one who has nothing to prove—natural authority, raw elegance, calm power.
In a world flooded with images and noise, The Don chooses restraint. That’s where his power lies.
And that’s what makes him more than a painting—a contemporary icon: urban, bold, unforgettable.
🚀 Why this stencil stands out
✅ Because it hits instantly
One glance and The Don grabs your attention. It’s the quiet force in a world of noise.
✅ Because it makes your art look pro—instantly
Even without advanced skills, this stencil gives you a clean, powerful result.
✅ Because it tells a story
It’s not just an animal. It’s an attitude. A message. A silent legend.
➡️ Inspired? Add ‘The Don’ to your collection today.
📈 What this stencil says about you—without a word
The Don is more than a graphic.
It’s a visual totem. A stance. A way to speak through art without saying a thing.
It resonates with those who:
- want to express their style without shouting
- seek a quiet, confident form of control
- love to leave a bold, lasting mark
This cigar-smoking gorilla doesn’t need to roar.
He’s there. He watches. He imposes.
💡 Hang this stencil on your wall, and you won’t need to explain a thing—it speaks for you.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Is the stencil reusable?
Yes! It’s made of durable material and easy to clean.
Is it suitable for beginners?
Absolutely. Just fix it properly and follow a few tips—you’ll get a great result.
Can it be used on clothing?
Yes, but we recommend using textile sprays or fabric-friendly acrylics.
What type of paint works best?
Fluorescent sprays for the background, and black spray for the stencil.
Do you ship internationally?
Yes, we ship worldwide from our official store.
🎯 Conclusion – Let Your Style Speak
The Don is more than a painting.
It’s a moment. An attitude.
With this tutorial, the video, and the stencil—you have everything you need to create your own urban masterpiece.
➡️ Be bold. Create. Show your vision. And let your art speak for you.
🛍️ ‘The Don’ stencil is waiting for you.
👉 Click here to order it
