Information about stencil

Visual diagram of a basic stencil.

Graffiti
Graffiti Art Stencil Art Spray paint art Screen printing Guerrilla art Woodblock graffiti
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A stencil is a template used to draw or paint identical letters, symbols, shapes, or patterns every time it is used. Stencil technique in visual art is also referred to as pochoir. Stencils are formed by removing sections from template material in the form of text or an image. This creates what is essentially a physical negative. The template can then be used to create impressions of the stenciled image, by applying pigment on the surface of the template and through the removed sections, leaving a reproduction of the stencil on the underlying surface. Aerosol or painting stencils must remain contiguous after the image is removed, in order for the template to remain functional. Sections of the remaining template which are isolated inside removed parts of the image are called islands. All islands must be connected to other parts of the template with bridges, or additional sections of narrow template material which are not removed.

A related technique (which has found applicability in some surrealist compositions) is aerography, in which spray-painting is done around a three-dimensional object. This technique is similar to cave paintings dating back tens of thousands of years, where hand print outlines are found surrounded by other artwork, such as paintings of animals. The artist would spray pigment around his hand with his mouth. A hollow bone or reed may have also been employed to direct the stream of pigment.

Silk-screen printing also uses a stencil process, as does mimeography. The masters from which mimeographed pages are printed are often called "stencils." Stencils can be made with one or many colour layers using different techniqes, with most stencils designed to be applied as solid colours. In silk-screening and mimeography, images to be stenciled will be broken down into color layers and multiple stencils are used on the same surface to produce multi-colored images.

Aerosol stencils

Stenciled warning sign in Singapore

Aerosol stencils have many practical applications and the stencil concept is used frequently in industrial, commercial, artistic, residential and recreational settings, as well as by the military, government and infrastructure management. A template is used to create an outline for the image. Stencils templates can be made from any material which will hold its form, ranging from plain paper, cardboard, plastic sheets, metals and wood.

Official use

"Happy 1984" - Stencil on the Berlin Wall

Stencils are frequently used by official organizations, including the military, utility companies and governments, to quickly and clearly label objects, vehicles and locations. Stencils for official application can be customized, or purchased as individual letters, numbers and symbols. This allows the user to arrange words, phrases and other labels from one set of templates, unique to the item being labeled. When objects are labeled using a single template alphabet, it makes it easier to identify their affiliation or source.

Street stencils

Main article: Stencil graffiti

Stencils have also become popular for graffiti, since stencil art using spray-paint can be produced quickly and easily. These qualities are important for graffiti artists where stenciling is illegal or quasi-legal, depending on the city and stenciling surface. The extensive lettering possible with stencils makes it especially attractive to political artists. For example, the anarcho-punk band Crass used stencils of anti-war, anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist messages in a long-term graffiti campaign around the London Underground system and on advertising billboards. [1] Also well known for their use of stencil art are Blek le Rat from France, Banksy, a British artist and New York artist John Fekner.

Home stenciling

A common tradition for stencils is in home decorating and arts & crafts. Home decor stencils are an important part of the DIY (Do It Yourself) industry. There are prefabricated stencil templates available for home decoration projects from hardware stores, arts & crafts stores and through the internet. Stencils are usually applied in the home with a paint or roller brush along wall borders and as trim. They can also be applied with a painted sponge for a textured effect.

Stencils templates can be purchased or constructed individually. Prefabricated stencils are most commonly made of flexible plastics, including acetate, mylar and vinyl. Some stencils are sold as children's toys.

Other stencil forms

Main article: Screen-printing

A stencil, intended for street art being cut. Note the scalpel as a cutting tool.

A stencil technique is employed in screenprinting which uses a tightly woven mesh screen coated in a thin layer of emulsion to reproduce the original image. As the stencil is attached to the screen, a contiguous template is not necessary.

Main article: Airbrush

A stencil used in airbrushing called a frisket is pressed directly on the artwork. It can be used control or contain overspray, create sharp or complex shapes, but is not designed to be used more than once.

A multi-laid multi-colored stencil

History

Stencils may have been used to color cloth for a very long time; the technique probably reached its peak of sophistication in Katazome and other techniques used on silks for clothes during the Edo period in Japan. In Europe, from about 1450 they were very commonly used to colour old master prints printed in black and white, usually woodcuts. This was especially the case with playing-cards, which continued to be coloured by stencil long after most other subjects for prints were left in black and white. Stenciling back in the 2600 BC's was different. They used color from plants and flowers such as indigo (which extracts blue). Stencils were used for mass publications, as the type didn't have to be hand-written. The first book to be printed using stencils was the bible.

External links

Graffiti

List of street artists - List of stencil artists - List of wheatpaste artists - List of poster artists

Graffiti culture

Activism - Culture jamming - Direct action - Graffiti terminology - Graffiti uses - Guerrilla art - Hip hop culture - Installation art - Murals - Propaganda - Screenprinting - Spray paint art - Stencil - Woodblock graffiti

Graffiti-related articles

Built environment - MTA - Direct Action - Public art - Public space - Psychogeography - Rapid transit - Street party - Urban Planning - Vandalism

Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or any form of marking on property that does not belong to the artist.
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Spray paint art is an artform utilizing spray paint and performed on posterboard or wood. It differs from traditional graffiti in that graffiti is performed on buildings, trains and the like, as opposed to more traditional art surfaces.
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Screenprinting, silkscreening, or serigraphy is a printmaking technique that creates a sharp-edged image using a stencil. A screenprint or serigraph is an image created using this technique.
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Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to art of an illicit nature, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives.
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Graffiti

Graffiti Art
Stencil Art
Spray paint art
Screen printing
Guerrilla art
Woodblock graffiti

WikiProject Graffiti Woodblock
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Template may mean:

a stencil, pattern or overlay used in graphic arts (drawing, painting, etc) and sewing to replicate letters, shapes or designs
a pre-developed page layout in electronic or paper media used to create new pages from the same design, pattern, or style

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Painting, meant literally, is the practice of applying color to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer or concrete. However, when used in an artistic sense, the term "painting" means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and
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letter is an element in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Each letter in the written language is usually associated with one or two phonemes (sounds) in the spoken form of the language.
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Symbols are objects, characters, or other concrete representations of ideas, concepts, or other abstractions. For example, in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, a red octagon is a symbol for the traffic sign meaning "STOP".
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Shape (OE. sceap Eng. created thing), refers to the external two-dimensional outline, appearance or configuration of some thing — in contrast to the matter or content or substance of which it is composed.
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The pattern is a form, template, or model (or, more abstractly, a set of ) which can be used to make or to generate things or parts of a thing, especially if the things that are created have enough in common for the underlying pattern to be inferred, in which case the things are
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negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.

A negative

Film for common 35mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical coated plastic.
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pigment is a material that changes the color of light it reflects as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light.
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Aerosol paint (spray paint) – Paint in a sealed pressurized container that is released in a fine spray mist when depressing a valve button located on the top of the can.
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Surrealism
Surrealism and film
Surrealism and music
Surrealist Manifesto
Surrealist techniques
Surrealist games
Surrealist humor

Surrealism in art, poetry, and literature utilizes numerous unique techniques and games to provide inspiration.
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Aerography is a surrealist method in which a stencil, which would have been used in spraypainting, is replaced by a three-dimensional object. Examples can be seen in the works of Man Ray.

Stencil

Aerosol stencils

Official use

Street stencils

Home stenciling

Other stencil forms

History

See also

External links

A negative

See also