According to the Bostonist, the London based Banksy – stencil and street artist estrordinaire – has made his mark in our fair city. some speculate this is the latest stop on what appears to be a North American tour. Banksy Hits Boston – Highsnobiety Banksy in Boston – Bostonist
Banksy in the Bean Read Post »
So, in our last stencil demo, we promised a future one showing how to do lettering with contained white spaces. After watching my people’s video for First Wave Panama – We got the perfect example to do a follow up demo. So, we’ll do the “How About Now?” stencil with the centers of the letters NOT cut out. As always, please use the following information responsibly. So, how to do a better stencil: 1) Starts out the same way as before. With a simple image and a simple print out. Stencil 1 – Prints Tiled Across 2 8.5×11 Pages 2) The main difference is that when you get to letters that have enclosed white space or “counters” (Q, R, O, P, A, D, B, 4, 6, 8, 9, 0 etc…) you need to leave the middle space attacjed with a small strip to the rest of the stencil. You can do this any number of ways but the most traditional is a thin vertical line. Note the way the triangle of the “A” or the middle of the “B” or “O” are connected to the outside of the letter. Also not the copious tape – proof that you can mess up and cut too much and fix it with tape and cutting again. 3) When you have everything cut ouy it should look like this. With all the totally enclosed white connected with little struts to the rest of the stencil. Then paint and on to the next one.
Stencil: How About Now? Read Post »
In honor of May Day and in light of Arizona’s recent racist ass Immigration Law, We wanted to show you how to make your own “Do I Look Illegal?” stencil – a slogan some of the many activists working around this issue have put forward as a rallying call. Stencils are a great way to put a message on just about anything. Please use the following resources responsibly. So, How to make a Stencil: 1) Make a design. You can draw it or print it or both. This one’s real simple. Some big words typed on a computer, printed on two sheets of scrap paper. You could print it on acetate or cardstock for a more durable stencil, or affix it to a stronger backing. But for us, plain old paper works fine. Stencil 1 – Prints Tiled Across 2 8.5×11 Pages 2) Cut the stencil out. Now this is where it gets tricky. The most important thing to consider is enclossed white spoace (like in the middle of an “o”). You can either disregard them (as we do here) resulting in a blocky font with no counters or leave small strips attaching them to the rest of the stencil. (check for an example of that in a later post). 3) When you have everything cut out the way you want it, its ready for deployment. We like to tape ours down with masking tape since its flimsy paper. But if you did it on oak tag or cardboard (or even if you didn’t) you can just hold it up in front of whatever surface. 4) Ummm Paint it. Duh. If you are using spray paint, use thin even coats, not one heavy slow one. If you don’t have a can you can use any kind of liquid paint with a roller or sponge or wide brush. 5) Pull your stencil back and go do the next one. If you took the time to make a really nice stencil (on a durable surface) you can use it almost indefinitely. Also, check out what other folks, like my girl Sofia Snow with First Wave Panama, are doing around this:
Stencil: Do I Look Illegal? Read Post »
