Making Stencils

Submitted by Jake Haglund on Mon, 04/17/2006 - 3:00am.

Instructional

First of all, why do you want to make stencils? Stencils are awesome that's why and besides that they're a quick and easy way to apply the same graphic a bunch of times on different surfaces. Sure you can stencil the street sign near your house or the side of the building where you work but have you ever tried stenciling clothes? Using a stencil and spray paint you can easily put graphics on your clothes and it will last a surprisingly long time. What about your computer? It's an easy mod.

Enough buildup, here's how:

First, decide on the graphic you want to use. It can be a photo, a design, lettering, or whatever. In my example I'm useing a picture I scanned a long time ago.

Ok now open the image in Photoshop or GIMP or whatever photo editing software you're familiar with. (GIMP is free)

Isolate the part that you want to turn into a stencil. At this point, do any clean up of the image that you need to. On my image I had to remove the text from the dude's face.

Now you need to reduce the number of colors in the image. To do this, change the type of image to from RGB to Indexed color. (In both Photoshop and GIMP this is done by changing the Mode under the Image menu) A window will open with a few options. You need to select Dither: NONE. Then reduce the number of colors. Just how many colors depends on how you want the stencil to look. Decide how many layers you want and play with the number colors to see how it looks. You can assign a number of colors then apply the changes and if you don't like it, just undo them and try again. (In Photoshop you can preview the changes before applying them.) In my example I reduced it to five colors.

Now you will need to print the image. The easiest way is to just use yor home printer but spray painting paper will ruin the stencil after a few uses. With that in mind, you can choose to do it that way. If you want to make a longer lasting stencil, print the image on acetate. Take either an electronic copy or paper copy of your image to a copy center and have them print it out on a transparency (acetate). You will need one copy for every color you want in the image. I have four: black, dark gray, light gray/white, and red.

Here's the tedious part, you need to cut out the stencil. Take your first copy and decide which color you will cut out and go for it. Repeat for each color. Be careful not to get confused and cut two colors out of the same copy. (To eliminate this from happening you can separate your colors on your computer and print off each layer of the stencil separately.) I use a new Xacto blade when I start a stencil so it cuts the acetate easily. I've seen it done with box cutters and small scissors so use whatever you feel comfortable with. Take your time because there's no real good way to fix something you accidentally cut off. With acetate you can cut out finer detail than on paper without the fear of it ripping off.

Once you're done cutting, figure out if it will be easier to paint a certain color first or not. With simple designs it may not matter as much but more complex stencils have a certain order that it must be painted in.

Choose the surface you will paint on and tape the first layer down. Mask off the entire area around the stencil so you don't get overspray. Don't underestimate the importance of this! Spray paint has a lot of overspray and if you don't mask properly, you will have a square show up around your design where the edges of the stencil were!

Now paint the first layer. Use thin coats to acheive your color. If you apply it too thick it will run! Also, the spray paint can blow the edges of the stencil away from the surface and paint will go in places where you don't want it to. The easiest way to stop this from happening is holding the edges down with your hand. I don't wear gloves because they get in the way and I work in a paint store so I always have paint on my hands anyway so it doesn't bother me, but do what you want. Another thing is after a few mist coats, the edges of the stencil will become tacky and you can push them down and they will stick to the surface and stop paint from blowing under your stencil. Remove the stencil when you're done painting, you don't want the paint to tack up or dry with the stencil still taped down.
When you're done, wait to apply the next layer! DO NOT RUSH THIS!!! This is the easiest way to ruin a perfectly good stencil. The stencil needs to be COMPLETELY dry because the next layer will push against it. If you try it too early, when you go to remove the second stencil it can stick to the first layer of paint an pull it off or smear it. Just wait.

Repeat until all layers are applied.

You have a new piece of art! As I said in the beginning, you can apply this to almost anything. Be Creative!

Here a few examples of what I've done with this head stencil. (hanging on my wall, a t-shirt painted over three years ago and the paint is still holding up, it's just a little faded, and my laptop)

Or use your stencil to send a message. Check out stencil artist Banksy.

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My brother used to make stencils all the time in high school-- he would use them to spray paint tatoos on his legs or his friends backs. Just thought I would add that to the list of things you can do with this project.
Have fun at the Make Fair!