I've been painting for about 1 and a half years now. In the beginning, me and my friends were painting crazy spots without giving a single shit, mid-day painting with people passing. So of course in the course of about a year we got chased about 6 times (not by cops, by people, we are 14) And now, today: I'm incredibly paranoid to paint. All apart from one of my friends have stopped painting but I really don't want to stop. I'm serious about it and so don't tell me something like "if you're that scared you don't really want to paint" since I know I do. So the problem is that I almost cannot paint. Even with all my friends there it takes me 30 minutes to do a throwup because I can't paint while any other person is even in sight. Today I went out alone at 8pm and ended up walking around aimlessly for 2 hours. This has got to stop. I'll be grateful for any tips or similar experiences and how you overcame it. Please give me advice on how to get over this problem!
Force yourself, only thing that worked for me. Or find a way to relax. Also, might be something that happened to you recently that fucked your head up.
That's what I want to do, go out and force myself to paint. I think I might go out with a friend at like 3am and try to hit up a really open spot quickly, I'm thinking if I paint a lot successfully then it'll go away and I'll be able to paint just in the evening or with people/cars passing.
If you're that paranoid, maybe it's a sign that graffiti isn't for you. The paranoia never goes away, tbh. Even late at night you never know when a cop is going to pull around a corner or if some thugs are gonna roll up on you.
It's good to be alert, vigilant, etc., but you also have to have some nerve to do what you set out to do. Steady yourself and do it. What will help you is seeing your shit up the next day and having others see it too.