Stencil Graffiti Art - A Guide by 'The Stencil Factory'

Cool. Its great you have found our canvas & stencil art cooperative 'The Stencil Factory'. Our art has lots of roots in the subversive street are scene (see Banksy, Nick Walker et al) and we just love cutting and hand spraying stencils. The art you see on our canvases are like the urban art you see in the streets, each stencil spray is different depending on the gust of wind, the nozzle on the spray can and the speed of the of the execution. Thats why people love an actual stencil on a canvas or wall, the blobs and bubbles that unexpectedly appear give the artwork its uniqueness and identity.

Our customers value the canvas stencil art that they buy from us as we sell actual handsprayed stencils and not just a canvas print of a stencil - thats what most of our un-original competitors seem to do! This is a small guide to our art form, and the way we approach the creation of our canvases. Its not the definitive perfect way to produce stencil graffiti, but hey, it works for us.

Stencil Ideas

Any good stencil starts with a great idea. Our stencils range from the purely aesthetic and decorative kind to the more submersive and political themes. We often think about the background before we overlay the stencil image. If the background is a formal rigid pattern then we try and create contrast with an overlayed object with movement and pace. The backgrounds we spraypaint on can be purchased individiually from our store as canvases -  so buying a stencil from us is kind of like a 2 for 1 deal. You get an exlusive canvas artwork for the background as well as the foreground!

To progress any stencil idea we pull out the old school white paper and thick black marker and start sketching. Breaking down the object into its purest form... either shadow in black or light in white... mainly no greys, no inbetween tones. Probably after 5 or 6 drafts we will have something thats good enough to transform into a stencil.

Stencil Cutting

This bit takes a long time... its wrist breaking and takes a lot of visual concentration. Set up the table and spread out your tools. A cutting matt is essential, particularly if your cutting stencils at home on the dining room table - ouch! A few very sharp Stanley knives , your liable to break a few of these on sharp detailed areas of the stencil. You may also have to do 3 or 4 layers to get the design that you want right.. the less layers you need means the quicker the stencil to spray. Your get better at this with practice, for spraypainting the streets make sure you can get it done as quickly as you possibly can and always seek wall holders permission (obviously). Once you have completed the graffiti stencil be content to know that its possible to get between 5 - 10 decent uses out of it. Anymore than that and a layer of paint tends to build up around the edges that kills the card.

Stencil Spraying

Getting you hands dirty time! Well, based on experience always wear surgical gloves... spray paint can last for weeks on delicate human skin, years on walls. This is the fun bit to the art of stencilling, its like getting a new toy. You've invested lots of time sweat and tears in your stencil and you want to see the finished article, before this point all the work has really been a leap of faith. Get your base layer down first, we tend to spray white then cover with the black once dry, wait 5 mins at least between layers. Dont be afraid with your spraycan, keep at least 10cm away for the point of contact... dont worry about any blobs or blotches, when you take the stencil off this is what might actually make the artwork stand out from the stencil crowd. Be quick when pulling the stencil away from the wall or canvas... try to avoid the smudges that 'slow take up'can cause to the contrasts of blacks and whites.

Our Stencils and Artists.

Every stencil artwork we produce is 'different but similar' to the images you can see and buy from our website. Some have been produced and sprayed maybe five times, others just the once. This is the lottery we like as a business, and we hope you take the gamble with us. We have several artists in residence that actually do they spraying but we brand each canvas with an exclusive 'Art By People' tag... as our range of stencils on canvas grows, we are hoping the value of your graffiti or decorative canvas grows also.

What the heck... email us if you have any further queries, commission ideas or any other further information. We would love to help: artbypeople@googlemail.com

 VIEW THE STENCIL FACTORY ARTWORK