Lesson 3: Using Multiple Overlay Stencils
What to do When Overlays Overlap
Sometimes you will discover that some elements of a stencil design intentionally overlap, even though you have multiple overlays which would normally prevent that. And with freeform stencils it's almost inevitable that you will have overlapping elements.
In composing a stencil you have to decide what you want to appear to be in the foreground and what is background. Things in the background should appear behind and even partly hidden by things in the foreground. Sometimes the stencil design will already have this worked out. But if you are trying to customize the stencil, or if you are using a free form stencil, you will have to work things out for yourself.
If you are using liquid acrylics this is rarely a problem. Just go ahead and stencil and there should be enough pigment in the paint to hide whatever you are painting over. But often you'll find that with other types of paint, with certain colors, and especially when stenciling a dark over a light, the bottom color shows through.
This isn't always undesirable. If the top element is one that would normally be somewhat transparent, then you have the effect you need. But if the element is very opaque, different measures are called for.
For example, let's say you are stenciling what will be a small grove of bamboo using a freeform stencil. On occasion, the bamboo culms may cross each other – and if that happens where the bamboo has a knot, which is dark in color – you may see the knot through a cane that supposedly is crossing in front of it. You have few choices here.
- The first is to decide that the offending culm really belongs behind the one that would otherwise show through. Then carefully avoid painting the area of the overlay that contains the previously painted culm. It's tricky, but do-able if it will not affect the realism of your design. You can carefully mask what you don't want painted over, or simply rely on having a steady hand and brush.
- The second is to paint the area where the two culms cross with white paint, let dry and then continue painting over it with the bamboo color.
- The third, only useful if you are using the slower drying gels and crèmes, is to carefully wipe away the underlying paint (it can't be quite dry or it won't come off). You can also use a damp stencil brush to remove the underlying color. This method will only work if you are working on a hard surface like a wall.
- Sometimes when you want an object to be in the foreground you discover, too late, that an element that you decide to add later is going to go right over the "foreground" element. Stenciling it over what you already have painted will instead make it appear to be in the foreground.
Say you have a rose and some vining leaves. You clearly want the rose to be in the foreground, with all parts of the flower visible, and the vine and leaves to be behind it. If you have the mask – the cutout portion that formed the rose – you can place it over the stenciled rose, holding it in place with a bit of low tack masking tape. Then just go ahead and stencil. Nothing that goes out of bounds and onto the mask will show when that mask is removed.
