Materials: pencil, sketching paper, craft knife, acrylic paints, sponges/paintbrushes.
I discovered the joy of creating my own stencils last year, and they are also super simple to do at home. So here’s how I made my own stencil art:
1) First I grab some paper (thicker paper is better because it doesn’t tear as easily) and I sketch out an image I would like to create a stencil of. When I’m drawing, I draw by creating shapes within the image leaving gaps between them. This is because these shapes will be cut out and the will gaps left behind to create the shape.
2) I then grab a craft knife and begin to cut out the shapes – here I need to be careful to not cut through the gaps, otherwise the paint would go through to places I don’t want it to go. Once the stencil is cut, I take another piece of paper and place it underneath the stencil and position it in the right place.
3) I choose to use acrylic paint and a sponge to paint over the stencil, because you have more control over the colour, it dries faster and the sponges creates a really nice texture. Once I have chosen the colours I would like to use, I begin using the sponge to dab it on to the stencil and paper underneath. (I often use blue tack to keep it the stencil still against the paper underneath).
4) After I have finished adding the paint, I then carefully peal the stencil away and leave both to dry.
Here are some examples of my work using this technique:
