My First Stencil

That video I posted a few days ago of the artist stenciling inspired me, but I was so caught up in crocheting, I didn't think I would begin a new craft so soon. Today, I was looking through my boyfriend's magazine (it was Maxim) and I came across a stencil artist that is not only amazing at stenciling, but he's also amazingly stealthy (he smuggled some of this art into some New York museums!).

Here's one of Banksy's (the featured artist in the magazine) famous works:


So we asked our cook, who's also an artist, if he knew how to stencil and his reply, "Oh my gosh, that's so easy! It's all in the shadows!" Those few words made me produce this.



It was a newspaper clipping of some politician, I forget his name, and no, it's not George Bush as everyone thought it was today. I just did exactly as the cook told me to...just cut out the dark parts. Now the black parts are the easy part, but you also want to cut out some of the gray parts (if it's not a 100% black and white photo...which is what I recommend if this is your first stencil). I also spray painted it to test out the stencil and also so you can see it a little better.

It's a fairly easy project to do, very cost efficient and extremely addicting!

A few tips:
- Get a black and white photo (can be a newspaper/magazine clipping, a photo you took yourself, or a picture you got offline). A completely black and white photo (no grayscale here!) is recommended, but not required.
- Use very, very sharp x-acto knife. You can find some high quality blades at an art supply store or even a hardware store. Just make sure it's really sharp and pointed for those fine details
- Heavy paper. If you can, photo copy your image onto some heavy paper. It's not very easy cutting small details onto newspaper (it tears very easily).
- Enjoy! This is a really fun project and once you finish your first one, you'll want to make another, so make sure you set aside a bit of time for this project!