Working with Stenciling

For the past two weeks we have been working with stencil prints on textile. This has been a very time consuming and interesting task. The process of cutting out the stencils from cardboard is nerve wrecking because if you make just a tiny little mistake you´ll most likely have to start all over. The printing process is just as bad, since you just have one t-shirt and absolutely no room for mishaps. You really have to concentrate.

 The idea behind the print was that I wanted to make something colorful and bold. I also wanted clean lines mixed with a bit more smoky print. The t shirt I used was pink so I had to make the colors work together. I also knew that I wanted to make some sort of animal and this was the final design before i started cutting out stencils:

A scarlet with a blue & yellow macaw. I later added some swirling prints as you can see on the process pictures and the end result. The composition is based on diagonal lines that are created by the macaws tail feathers. The blue red and yellow also make each other stand out but they don´t crash with the pink background. 
                            The method we used for this stenciling job is called "plantrykk" in Norwegian. I don´t  know the exact translation but it means to print something on an even surface. There are no levels on the plate where the picture is printed. You could say that lithography and offset printing are included in this type of print. You can print on everything from stones to parchment and we printed with stencils on textiles. 
                     Stencils have been used since man first put his mark on a cave wall. Many of the cave paintings we can see today are made of natural stencils. How a stencil works is best explained trough a picture:  
                               

The template is placed on the object that is going to be printed on, lets use a shirt for an example,  and the color from a textile paint for will hit the shirt while the template will keep the paint  off the areas you don´t want color on. a great amount of modern artist use stencils in they´re work. It has especially in the last few years been linked to artist as Banksy and Shepard Fairey. For more info on these two artist or on stencils, click on the links above.


                         
Personally, I´ve always liked the stencil style, both in simple signs and fine art. Stencils can be used over and that makes it easy to create a certain look or style over your prints. This project was interesting, but really demanding. You had to be focused and concentrated pretty much all the time and if you cut the stencil wrong you could possibly destroy hours of work. Which by the way, totally pushes you over the anger threshold limit of containing a major fit of rage. But if was really interesting and I would really like to try out this effect on a concrete wall and with some spray cans. Too bad its illegal most places...
                      


This was a fun assignment and it really challenged your creativity and skills. If I´m ever using stencils again I`m going to


1:       make the image bigger
2:       make less details (bolder stylized image)
3:       buy a pointed narrow sponge for the tricky corners


Hope this was useful, and again check out the Banksy and Fairey by clicking on the links above for some great artwork!


(Final result pics of the tshirt are coming soon, I´m just waiting to get the paint fixated)