More Stencil art

Here is an example of one my own early stencil designs, pretty basic and a bit oversprayed as it was one of my first forays out illustrating the streets at night, and I was more concerned with my immediate surroundings than the quality of my spraying... I don't think I'm cut out to be a full-on street artist, but it is fun.

Here is another of my early attemps at stencil making.It is a self portrait. I designed it in a vector - based program like Illustrator or Freehand. Just print it out, mark out the holding "bridges" then cut. This is the second one as my first attempt was smaller and too finicky, also I hadn't left enough little "bridges" so smaller areas lifted when spraying, making the image soft and oversprayed.

I quickly realised that it was pretty stupid to do a self portrait if it was for doing street art... it's a bit incriminating everytime you walk past. I sprayed one a T-shirt but people say it looks a bit like the Kentucky Fried Colonel.

I found a bunch of filing cabinet folders that are made from relatively thin board. I cut them with a scalpel which I don't recommend as it can really dig in to your finger as you press, my forefinger was completely numb after only about 20 mins.

An Exacto blade or something similar makes it much easier as Mr. Kuper suggests, his stencils are made of photocopy paper which is much easier to cut than any sort of card, but is a lot easier to rip or tear and may not last more than a few sprays.