your own stencil. « touristiko

your own stencil.

Ok, super versatile, super useable and pretty simple. Make your own stencil. I’m working on this part, getting pictures and a little tutorial together for some simple stuff, or just showing how I cut a stencil period. Maybe starting with T-shirts, considering everyone can make and appreciate those. Until then, check out StencilRevolution.com if you’re interested – tons of forums and info on how to do things.

Alright, to hell with the Tshirts. We’re going to get real here.

1. Find a picture you like or better yet, have drawn. Enlarge it or make it the size you want. This can be done with iPhoto or an overhead, or by hand. So I’ve got my picture:

2. Acetate. Thin plastic, or you can use thin cardboard or manila folders. Anything you can cut through. I use acetate because I can see through it, just like your windows at night. Then trace out the light greys. In this case, we’re going to make a three layer, using a base white, effectively for colour stencil. Basically all it requires is a good tracer, and the real trick is thinking ahead, drawing it out so that you can cover things up without losing details. notice the white pupils and white eyeballs. these are called islands, but you always want them to be peninsulas so that you don’t later paint over them by accident.

3. Reference Points. I’m up to 63 – 64 cups of coffee a day. wakey wake eggs and bakey. I’ve made marks so that I can line up my stencil properly later. I do this on every layer.

4. Next Layer. Mark out those darker greys.

5. Layer 3. Mark out the black. Be careful to cover any white spots you don’t want to show through here. Notice how I’ve been able to keep the pupils by covering the upper eye lid with dark grey rather than black. In most cases, one can get away with minimal detail in the earlier level with the heaviest layer being well detailed.. in this case the black will be noticed most, though I like to keep all levels detailed. „MUD” you say? Kid Koala asks that too.

6. You’ve got the layers. Don’t forget the reference points! Now I’ve got 3 layers that look something like this:

7. Let the cutting begin! Slice away. Use whatever works. Exacto, scalpel, scissors, Victorinox, teeth. Just like you learned how to colour in Grade 3. Don’t go outside the lines.

8. Print it. Ok, so it’s been cut out without too many screwups, and it’s ready to be printed. I tend to use spraypaint, the thicker the better – more expensive ones usually cover each consecutive layer better. In this case however, i’m going to use rollers and acrylic paint seeing as it’s dark and wet outside, and i want to keep the few brain cells i have left so i won’t be using spraypaint indoors. First off, place down some registration points and using some spray adhesive that you should be able to buy in your local art store, cover the back of the picture, this will make it stick a bit to whatever surface is being printed on:

9 . Print the layers, lined up to the registration points. As you can see above, i’ve taken the picture after having already printed two layers. So here’s what i’ve got after two layers, and you can see my roller in action: