There is quite a lot of street art in Da Nang, Vietnam but most of it is done either with brushes or it is done with such haste that it just looks terrible. I don't know what the consequences are for getting busted tagging something is in this city / country, but it must be rather extreme and that is why we don't have all the surfaces covered with garbage gang signs and I am not going to complain about that. There is a fine line between art and vandalism and most of the spray work that we see in this city is just trash.
Most of the good works that I have found in this city have been done by brush and at least to me, this is very strange to see in street art since traditionally, at least to me, this was always done with spray.
I know from speaking to someone who is involved in this skill that it, just like any art, is an extremely difficult skill to master and really takes special techniques in order to get it right. There are a lot of factors at play here as to why you rarely see spray graffiti in this city, but suffice to say, there isn't much of it so when I encounter a piece that someone with some real talent made, I am quite happy.
When I first saw this in the stairwell of a pub, I was confident that it would be either a print or brush work only because there is so very little actual spray done in this city at all. I was pretty happy when I got up close and realized that this is 100% hand-made spray work.
This is a strange angle, but I did it in order to showcase where you can see the actual lines form the spray technique for the outline of the head for Louis Armstrong. The way in which they faded the hairline as well as adjusted the color to show the lighting on his face is particularly good - at least from my observational point of view. Even though I have seen this sort of work done many times, I do not possess the skill to do it at all. I have tried and it is very tough. So tough in fact that I am in awe whenever I see someone that can do it.
There were other really nice pieces in this same establishment as well, but the place was so busy that I didn't want to interfere with other patron's evening by getting all up in their faces to take photos of the wall. It is in a part of town that is alive with restaurants and pubs though, so if you are in Da Nang I strongly encourage you to go there and have a look. The establishment is called Luna Pub and you can find them on the map here
According to their website, the artwork on the walls has changed over the years so who knows what treasures will be there when you go!