Multi Colored Self Portrait Stencils

This week in Art One we are working on Muti-colored Self Portrait Stencils (see above).  We've done stencils before but always using only one cut out.

This year we are a little ambitious  going for three or four different cuts out to complete the portraits. I've never done this before ... the students have never done this before... so its all new to everybody and nobody is really sure if it will even work.. But I think we are off to a good start.

Check out the process so far...

We started the adventure up in the computer lab by importing a photograph into Photoshop. There, we applied the cutout filter to break the image down into basic shapes. Then we applied a gradient map to match the colors of the spray paint. I've created a video tutorial you can watch here.

Next, we projected the resulting image onto tag board. Each color was traced onto a separate sheet. That's what is going on in the photo above.

All the fun comes when each piece of tag board needs to have the negative space cut away from it. We use x-acto blades. Boy is this part fun! Now where is my tongue? Oh, here it is. firmly embedded into my cheek.

The final step takes very little time, especially compared to the rest of the process. Each piece of tag board is placed on a background and the chosen color sprayed though. Pretty simple.

Above you see the second layer being applied.

Here you see the work with two layers sprayed.

This is the same piece with three layers sprayed.

Jess is now adding the final layer, the white spray paint.

This is the final version after spraying. We might take these to the next level by adding color pencil, marker or pastels on top of the sprayed images. Stay tuned!!

To better understand what we did in the computer lab, watch or share with your class the video below.

Creating a Stencil Reference from iansands on Vimeo.