Stenciling 101

Lesson 2: Practice Run - Getting the Basics Down

Single Overlay using Multiple Colors

Let's say you really want to use this stencil for your design, but want to use two colors instead of a single one. Say you chose a stencil of a sprig of holly and really want those berries to be red. You can do it. It just takes a bit of care.

First, you will need separate brushes for each color. If, in looking at the design, you can see that the one color is all very small areas and the second color is made up of large areas, choose a small brush for one and a larger for the other. In this grape stencil, for instance, you can see that the grapes often get very close to the stems of the vine. If your hand is steady and your brushes the right size you may be able to simply go ahead and paint without masking. Do one color first, then go back and fill in with the second color.

But if you tend to slip and wobble with the brush, or if the elements in different colors are very close to each other, you may want to mask off the color you are doing second using small bits of masking tape. Then you can paint your first color fearlessly. You will need to be careful that the paint on the stencil is dry before removing the masking and blocking out any potentially dangerous spots that you want to protect from the second color. And if you remove the stencil, you need to replace it very carefully, in exactly the same position as it was in when you did that first color. This is another reason those registration marks come in handy.

Don't forget that what you just did with the one color single overlay - adding shadows, highlights and complimentary or contrasting colors - applies equally to doing the single overlay stencil in two or more basic colors. This time, if you plan on shading do it now, while the stencil is in place. There is no need to remove the stencil and come back to it later. Slightly wet paint shades better and more easily anyway. So add any shade or highlight colors to the unmasked areas now while you have things all lined up and in place.

When using a single overlay stencil and more than one color, most people find it easiest to complete the entire run of repeats using the first color, before going back to fill in color number two. So with this stencil you may choose to do all the leaves first, shading a bit as you go, and leaving the grapes masked with tape wherever there is danger of paint overlap. Then mask the stems and go back and fill in your grapes. This is faster and more foolproof, even if the initial results may not be as gratifying. All that suspense before you get to see that the whole thing looks like! But it's worth it.

  1  2  3  4  5  6  7