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Stencilling Tips and Tricks

© Jo Murphy

Creating a Stencil

The key to creating a stencil is to simplify your three-dimensional subject to basic lines and shapes. The easiest method and one I would recommend when working with children is to find a pattern, maybe from a picture in a book (colouring book for kids) or a design traced from fabric. If you are a beginner, keep your pattern simple, a complex pattern can be very difficult to cut and usually requires several layers. Photocopy your pattern if you need to reduce or enlarge it. Designing your stencil is a crucial stage of the process as the stencil itself can make it easy or hard later on. When learning to use stencils I suggest you slow down and take each stage carefully as it is a methodical process and requires care and precision. For this teacher directed exercise I have chosen a simple fish photo from our gold fish bowl.

I had already stored this photo on the internet in my Webshots Albums I store as many of my images as I can in this way. Whenever I need an image for a lesson plan it is ready at hand. I saved it into Photoshop Deluxe Business Edition (available to most people who have a digital camera) and turned it into a high contrast black and white photo. By placing it up to the light of a window I could trace around the image. By doing this I had greatly simplified the basic design. When you do this redraw and refine your design until you feel confident that you could cut it out with out too much difficulty. Try not to have too many lines or lines that are too close together as this will cause problems when it comes to the cutting and at the painting stage. Leave as much space as you can between the stencil cutout areas. This will make it easier.

If you wish to overlap images within your design consider using multiple stencils for different objects. Use large blocks of color,and thick lines if you are going to use lines to create edges. I used a second stencil for the eye.

Materials

Stencils can be cut from hard plastic, cardboard, paper or mylar. Cardboard and paper stencils won't hold up to the heavy use that you would subject a plastic one to, however they can be useful for practice purposes and for simpler easier projects. They are suitable as a cost effective method of teaching the idea to children at school. Hard plastic stencils are strong and they will last for years. Mylar is a good medium from which to create stencils. Unlike paper stencils it is long-lasting and can be used many times before giving in to wear and tear. They are also inexpensive.

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