What are stencils?

The Definition for Stencils

sten·cil

ˈstensəl/

noun

noun: stencil; plural noun: stencils

1. 1.

   a thin sheet of cardboard, plastic, or metal with a pattern or letters cut out of it, used to produce the cut design on the surface below by the application of ink or paint through the holes.

   • a design produced by a stencil.

     "a floral stencil around the top of the room"

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Stencils, Paint and brushes

Stencils:

A medium for which an image can be painted onto the surface of anything even yourself. Create temporary tattoos, make a cool t-shirt, decorate your furniture, Make our own unique style, we offer a wide range of stencil graphics that are precision cut, ready to apply and come with easy to use application instructions.

Stencil Painting Techniques Part 3

Dry Rolling

The best way to use a roller when painting a stencil is to use a lightweight foam roller with very little paint. the drawback to this method is the time it take to build up layers with very little paint. If you are doing a large stencil it would be best to use the dappling method for all of the cut outs of the stencil and then roll the middle portions. This will create a barrier of paint so that you do not get serious bleed through.

Stenciling Painting Methods

There are several different ways to paint a stencil. Stencil can come in a variety of materials; cardboard, vinyl, mylar, polycarbonate even paper. Some painting methods will give you crisp clear results and other painting methods will give you an antique type look. All stencil will have some bleed through which is just the nature of stencil. Picking the best method for your application will save some serious fix it time.

Airbrushing

Airbrushing Stencil is an very effective method to produce clean rounded lines. Be careful not to point the airstream to close to the stencil as it may force paint under the stencil causing bleed through streaking. Some material can come with a hold it temporary adhesive that will just hold the stencil in place and have less bleed through effect.  

www.SignMountain.com offers a couple of materials with temporary hold it adhesive. We carry a catalog of 1000's of stencil images, that are pre-masked, ready to apply, each order comes with free stencil samples and a set of easy to use stencil application instructions. 

All stencil materials are suitable solutions for airbrushing. Airbrushing is all about technique so practice on a sample piece before making your final masterpiece. Airbrushing is a forgiving and flexible stencil painting technique. The downfall to airbrushing stencil is the time is would take to cover a large area. The Next post will cover the best method for semi large areas that still want that airbrush look.

 

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