Cut Out + Keep

Stencil Graffiti

A straightforward way to glorify musicians you love too much

https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/stencil-graffiti • Posted by Missy El

This is a stencil graffiti I made of the famous photograph of Morrissey and Marr from the Smiths. I've made a few more of these which I intend to upload. If anyone is interested in how to make them, I'll be more than happy to do my FIRST how-to for this project. It is painstaking and time consuming, but it's really rewarding at the end of it.

You will need

Project Budget
Cheap

Time

5 h 00

Difficulty

Nice & Simple
Medium momast1 1213915449

Description

This is a stencil graffiti I made of the famous photograph of Morrissey and Marr from the Smiths. I've made a few more of these which I intend to upload. If anyone is interested in how to make them, I'll be more than happy to do my FIRST how-to for this project. It is painstaking and time consuming, but it's really rewarding at the end of it.

Instructions

  1. Aw! It's great to see people so eager! I'll see if I can add more pictures along the way! Well, what you do is you have to pick a picture on your computer to spray paint. Pick something that is clear, distinctive and iconic (if possible).

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    Turn the picture into GREYSCALE on your image editor. Then, go into the BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST option of your image editor and set the image to 100% contrast. Adjust the brightness appropriately so you can see a clear image. At this stage, it's probably best to cut out material in the background that really detracts from the image. Then print the image onto a white A4 piece of paper. Do your best to make sure that the image covers a good proportion of the A4 piece of paper. Don't worry if the image is a little bit pixelated, it'll add to the effect.

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    Once you have your image printed, cut out an A4 piece of tracing paper and place it over your image. Secure the tracing paper down with bluetack. Then, in black pen, carefully outline all the white areas on the page. You have to think that you're drawing around all the BLACK in the image. Be conscious of the idea that you have to make all the white areas on the page "connect". This way, when you cut out your stencil, you know where everything fits together.

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    Once you have completed tracing your image, photocopy your tracing paper onto a white A4 piece of paper. This will be your stencil. With the guide of the original image, use manicure scissors to cut out all the BLACK in the photocopied image. This is usually the most intricate and time-consuming part of the project. This is also the most hazardous as you can very easily cut your stencil in half without realising it.

  5. Once you have cut out your stencil, lay it back-to-front on a piece of newspaper. Then, spray the stencil with spray-adhesive. This is basically glue in a can. You can buy this from craft stores. You can also use a glue stick or blue-tack. Place your stencil, glue-side down on the canvas. Put your tracing paper on top of the stencil and press down gently. Make sure the outline stencil on the canvas matches the one on the tracing paper.

  6. Once your stencil is attached to the canvas, place your canvas on an easel (or music stand, in my case) and SPRAY! Spray evenly in horizontal stripes, around 10 cm away from the canvas. You'll have to go a few coats to get an even finish. If the spray drips, it means that you're spraying too close to the canvas. Wipe it up quickly!

  7. Leave the canvas to dry for 15 minutes and the peel to reveal your artwork!