Hi! First things first, I wanna say your art is beautiful! But I also come here to ask. Do you have any tips for doing that spray paint thing where you cut out the paper and then spray paint it over. iβve been looking for ways toβ¦..letβs say, put upβ¦. some anti-fascist, anti-ice, and progressive messages around my little conservative town. especially those that arenβt as removable as my current strategy. That being using those hello, my name is name stickers and hand writing out things like βFCK ICEβ over and over and over again with a pink pen, which is also slowly killing my hand. Currently, it is fitting the size of the stuff that Iβm doing, like Iβm only really making these like once or twice a month, using a few handing them out to a few people. But itβs not a consistent design, which I do want I want it to be like the good ones that I make and not have to either rework or even sometimes potentially throw away the pieces that I make(sometimes it just becomes unreadable).
Literally, any tips would be amazing!οΏΌοΏΌοΏΌοΏΌοΏΌοΏΌοΏΌ
sorry, Subnautica 2 came out & I got distracted lol I'll @fishtank-thinktank so you see this
thanks!! & yeah, I can explain, no problem! for the record, this is how I learned how to do it at alt school ("troubled kid" school, basically, yes that's a thing & they did immediately teach me how to graffiti & farm in my backyard lol) during my art semester. I'll use the Monterey Bay Aquarium logo as an example, skip to rundown if you want
DISCLAIMERS:
this is just how I do it now, I'll put the "official" way to do it in as well if you have the money for it
none of the examples have words or letters but it's the same idea
I haven't tried with markers so I'm not sure how well it works but I don't see why it wouldn't
making your own stencils is still pretty painful but it does help with doing one design multiple times mostly consistently without causing even more wrist pain
I will over-explain but it's actually pretty simple & you can change the process to be easier for you, there is no "correct" way to do it!
for video examples you can search up "spray paint stencil tutorial" & have a look at what other people are doing, see what looks best to you
okay so here is the simplified process for a single layer piece including the original logo & finished piece:
NECESSARY TOOLS: pencil, boxcutter or Xacto knife (I use both depending on how fine the details are. you can get an xacto knife bundled with those green cutting boards), bristol board or cardboard (bristol is easier to cut), something to hold the stencil flat while spraying like painter's tape or some kind of blocks, paint (I use spray paint from anywhere but Michael's), RESPIRATOR FOR PAINT FUMES DO NOT SKIP THIS ONE IF YOU ARE USING SPRAY PAINT IT'S THE ONE WITH THE PINK FILTERS, a safe & flat place to store the stencils
OPTIONAL: tracing paper, graphite paper (these make the transfer from source image to bristol board easier but are not technically necessary), rubber gloves (highly recommend but also not technically needed)
can go as cheap as possible on everything it doesn't make a difference as far as I can tell
RUNDOWN OF THIS IMAGE:
IMAGE ONE:
make a sketch, doesn't matter if it's digital or on paper, just as long as you have a way to transfer it to the bristol board
make sure there's no pieces where the paper would be "floating" with no way to attach to the main stencil
messy stage, doesn't need to look good
IMAGE TWO:
transfer phase, either trace it directly from the screen or paper with a bright light behind it
you want the cut of board to be at least as large as whatever canvas you're using, or in the case of putting it directly onto a wall, you can just use the whole board with the image as centered as possible. you can also use cardboard but it is a pain in the ass to cut & tears more easily on the finer details
if using tracing paper: (example below with my old dakotaraptor stencil) no light required as tracing paper is see-through. once the full design is on the tracing paper, tape the graphite paper graphite-side down on the bristol board, tape the tracing paper with the design on top of the graphite paper, & trace back over the design already on the tracing paper. I usually use coloured pencils for the first trace & a regular pencil for the transfer so I know what I've already gone over. doesn't require much pressure, always lift up one corner to see if it fully transferred before removing the paper from the board
IMAGE THREE
cut the design out. easier said than done. make sure to take stretch breaks often & hold delicate pieces in place so it doesn't tear
rounded corners are harder then sharp ones & squiggly lines are harder than straight ones. take your time with stuff that's harder
IMAGE FOUR:
painting phase! hold the bristol board down with blocks, rocks, or tape. make sure every piece is at least mostly flat, then paint on whatever surface you've chosen
for spray paint specifically, follow instructions on can. if in public, shake the can for as long as it says before you go to wherever you're spraying & always shake the can before using. you can also remove the cap beforehand since I struggle with taking them off sometimes. if you need to take a cap off quickly kneel on the ground with the can between your legs & use both hands
I have a large piece of cardboard I test spray on, seen in the process photos above. I highly recommend practicing this way before doing anything since "hold can X distance for X time" doesn't really help me figure it out. spraying in quick lines is a good way to do it. don't hold the can too close if you want it to come out smooth & even. starting too far away is better than starting too close
you can do it in whatever way makes the art look best to you, & this includes messing it up on purpose
an example would be: paint with different colours in layers &, while it's still wet, take a piece of newspaper that was crumpled up & then reflattened & lay it over the paint, patting lightly. it will result in the type of patterns pictured below
for the one on the right I did the design, then placed a can over it & painted the rest of the canvas black, left it to dry, then did the white speckles, so opposite of everything else I've described basically lol
& that's it. TLDR: trace a design onto bristol board (or any stiff paper resistant to ink bleeding), cut it out, tape it to your canvas, paint
what tracing paper method will look like, each colour being a different layer:
if there's any more questions or I forgot to mention something or made something confusing feel free to ask for clarification!
