any graffiti artists here?
 

I'm about to go put up some stencil art tonight for the first time and wondered if anyone had any tips

Yeah I do some graffities on my spare time

Use a lot of airbrush for extra umph

Not a graffiti artist, that creative outlet died out with the fines and my horrible drawing skills.

However:
Use cardboard or something a bit more solid than paper. I've seen too many people fuck this up for some reason.
It's better to use less paint than too much, dripping sucks and will most likely ruin the image of whatever you're trying to paint if you use too much. Might want to practice a bit beforehand to get a feel for the right amount, shouldn't take more than a couple tries to get a grasp of it.
If you plan to do this a lot: use a mask and gloves, those fumes are toxic as shit and have fucked people up for the rest of their life. If it stays on your hands for some time it'll seep into your skin and eventually your blood/system. I mean, nothing to care about if it's just tonight but ye. Serious health hazards if you're gonna do it a lot.

good lord this takes me back to my youth

never been a huge fan of stencils tbh

pics go without saying

objective got the right idea though; only instead of cardboard plastic and eventually wood would be better (you can use the same thing more times) depending on how serious you are about it

I dunno what they would call it stateside but a Stanley knife or craftknife/box cutter would be better than scissors

keep a decent sized safety border away from the main stencil/cut out hole/border to avoid drips/leaks

remember a lot of shapes need bridges in the middle, prob best to keep these fairly thick, they also add to the look of the stencil but stop the stencils being so flimsy and liable to tear under repeated use... keep that in mind, it'll save you time later on re-doing the same image (again, wood > plastics > cardboard > paper)

remember to stretch and push hard against the wall to avoid leaks/drips


gloves would be best to use as you'll often need to stretch/press down the stencils - avoid getting shit on your hands, not just because of the paints toxicity but if you're ever caught - you don't want it to be 'red-handed', literally

3M gas mask with a niosh filter (black stripe) if your serious about doing this

paintwise I'd recommend the Ironlak or Spanish Montana MTN 94 line, they're better for stencils because they're mid/low pressure cans (better for stencils)

new York fat caps would serve you well, good for thin/thick lines and good coverage

type of cap/distance from wall/pressure applied/speed of cap will all determine your spray trace

trial and error before you head out my friend

you wanna aim to keep the can maybe 6-12 inches away from the stencil

don't hold the stencil away from the wall and spray, it will just make the stencil blurry. you need to stretch and press that shit hard to the wall. even if you spray correctly, if you're holding the stencil away from the wall it will suck.


a lot of people cant draw. easiest thing to do it find a magazine with a pic on the front... mark out all the shade side of the pic with a sharpie or marker pen... cut out the shades you marked and it will form the volume of the stencil already for you to tidy up

either that or grab an image from the net, open photoshop, select black and white (command + shift + U / ctrl + shift + U)



happy hunting bruh!

http://imgur.com/9rZwBz1.jpg
http://imgur.com/75fiGz1.jpg

maybe a mod can resize those lol @Sharp

What is it ? Two ladies

Yeah needs re-sized, can't make out what it is lol

I can't do any kind of artistic shit at all, everything I draw looks like a tree, so I have a lot of respect for people who can, I'd love to be able to do it.

it's Anne frank and her sister

that's deep

I like it

thanks!

thought it was a Banksy at first

I fuck around with paint markers, but have way too many hobbies to be mediocre at as it is

used to be, in highschool back when i lived in philly. got pretty good and then just grew away from it.

I can see it now actually, I think I was looking at it wrong...this is nice man, and yeah it is quite banksy-esque. Banksy the best artist in the world to me tho, so I'm feeling this.

if you like Banksy, look into blek the rat, the dude who Banksy stole his entire style from