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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Stencil Graffiti

12:08 / 28.04.04

Around my hometown, which is pretty much a wasteland when it comes to cool stuff, I have recently seen a load of stencilled graffiti popping up. Some of it is interesting designs with some kind of basic message behind it, some of it is just iconic images from popular culture (there was a really cool image of the Fonz on a wall I passed the other day). So I was wondering if any 'lithers did any stencilled graffiti or knew of any decent sites about, or you could try stencil archive if you want to look at some designs.
The other thing I've noticed is that "traditional" graff artists really look down upon stencillers, viewing it as cheating. I however really like the stencilled stuff and often find it more interesting than the traditional stuff. Whether this is just because the stencilled stuff often seems to have more of a propaganda edge to it, or whether it's just my personal taste I'm not sure

16:10 / 28.04.04

The only stencil artist i know of is banksy whos stuff is featured at
this site
He recently stenciled on an oil paint landscape and hung it in the national gallery. I prefer stencil graffiti to conventioanal grtaffiti only coz it allows for repeatable little glyphs turning up all over the place.

12:22 / 30.04.04

It's interesting you mention Banksy, a lot of people in the community don't have a lot of time for Banksy. I'd guess that is bacause as a lot of stencil graffiti tends to be more explicitly political that the artists concerned tend to view Bansky as a sell out. Then again it could just be the standard back-biting you get against successful artists.

01:15 / 01.05.04

Wow, thanks for telling me about that Bansky guy, his stuff is top notch! And no, I don't think using a stencil is "cheating" any more than making silkscreen prints instead of paintings is "cheating." Stencil artists aren't trying to get the same look as "traditional" graffiti artists, the stencil not only gives them a unique look, but it allows the same thing to be done over and over again, which is a great thing for an art form as "locally based" as graffiti, because it means more people will be exposed to it. Besides, Bansky's stuff is a lot better than the "true" graffiti I usually see anyway - it's raised to the level of high-art I've rarely seen in that medium.

11:47 / 04.05.04

There's a lot of it in Glasgow as well, whilst I've not heard of anyone who designs the stencils (other than Banksy) there's some pics here, mainly taken in Scotland.

If you click on the photos you can see who designed the stencil (if it's known), and links to more of their work, so it seems like a good site if you're interested in what's around...

18:16 / 04.05.04

thats a bit freaky...followed your link and found one of our stencils....we did it because it seemed like a good idea at the time... later covered in paint ,decided it was all a bit shit/pointless ...later still(a year later!) after seeing it getting comments on your website ,the paint covered hands/face/shoes/jacket seem almost worthwhile (almost)

15:27 / 09.05.04

I'm from Tijuana México, but I live in Guadalajara right now. Tijuana is next to the USA, and Guadalajara is like 2,500 km south the border, since my last visit to Tijuana last december, I'v notice a new way of doing graffiti, in Tijuana it's call "neo graffiti", and they're using icons of mexican culture, like "Raul Velasco", he was a TV announcer that had a show for 40 years, or a news bradcaster: Jacobo Sabludosky", he too was in the air for 40 years.
But not only tv people, they use images of Dalí, Zapata, Jose Clemente Orosco,the statue of liberty, etc.

In januany when I got back to Guadalajara, I started noticing the same kind of graffiti, but the topics were differente, until last week when I saw Dalí.

I have a web page: www.fisurafoto.com, it`s not finished but ther's an album called graffiti, you can see what i meen.

I think this started as a way of puting you tag very fast,because when it started it was just a sticker with you tag, so you wouldn't wast time, now it has evolved into a new kind of street art.

Ulic

19:08 / 09.05.04

you can find some cool stuff at acamonchi, a punk rock design/stencil/graffiti zine.

07:37 / 14.05.04

i've got into doing a bit of this myself and wondered if there were any resources type sites where they give advice on what kind of stickers paper to use that can be printed on(specifically). i've been using small stickers and either writing on them or printing with this DIY stamp i bought from WHSmiths.

21:19 / 16.05.04

Banksy's site is back up and running... well kinda... it has two nice pictures and about three sentances... one of which is "access currently suspended due to pending legal considerations." But hopefully we won't have to wait long.

Also, Design is Kinky had this interview with Banksy a while back. Check it out!

13:34 / 20.05.04

You might also want to check out Stencil Graffiti by Tristan Marcos.

THe way I see this whole thing is this - a lot of people started doing graffiti as teenagers, when it first began to get public exposure through hip hop and books like "Subway Art" - the mid to late 80s basically. Graffiti artists tend to start quite young, it being a good way of channeling all that teenage rebellion. I was one such, but knocked it on the head after, I dunno, I discovered drinking (and due to the fact that my mum was going to kill me if I got in graf related trouble again). These days I think a lot of the people who started out at that time (or a bit later) have matured as artists, and are now starting to produce work that's crossing over in graphic design circles. This has been going on for a quite a while actually, but it's only in the last couple of years that I've noticed the kind of graf/graphic design crossover, and I see the stencil stuff as coming out of that - Banksy was a "traditonal" graf artist before his stencil work. You can see a lot of this graf/design crossover if you have a look at "Graphotism" magazine (expensive though it is - £15 - ouch!). There are also two beautiful books called "Scrawl" which document all this stuff. Alongside this you've got a lot of sticker, flyposter and street art. I live just down the road to Old Street which is full of it (in more ways than one). Basically, graffiti grows up a bit, moves to Shoreditch and tries to get work in advertising.

As to anyone that says this is sort of work is not as authentic as trad graf, well I think this is a bit stupid. Lots of graf people are notoriously stick in the mud and a bit pathetic and juvenille abouut "keeping it real" and sticking it to the man. This normally means wearing a big puffa jacket, smoking lots of weed and slagging off anybody who's not been into Hip Hop since 1963. This includes being obsessed with painting on trains rather than any other kind of graphic work, let alone doing something that's *shock* not graffiti, Bit sad and conservative really.

ps for a guide on how to do stencils, check out Banksy's little book, "Banging your head against a brick wall".

13:55 / 20.05.04

On a tradional graf (but a bit more) note, check out this guys work

10:03 / 27.05.04

The only stencil graffiti I remember seeing around Sydney was a logo for "Dogs in Space", the old movie starring Micheal Hutchince. Although I have seen a stencil design for the sacred Dobbshead of the Subgenius, complete with quotation marks and detailed instructions on how not to copy it, cut it out and apply it, just in case one was in danger of accidentally doing so, because graffiti is bad, mmkay?

00:10 / 30.05.04

In my experiance writers do not "look down" on stencil graff its just that it is a very limited meduim, ok you could use several layers and coulers but the most complicated stencil is going to take the same amount of time a most throw ups. and yes you can get very striking effects and intricate designs but the level of skill to achive it isnt that hard to achive.

Most writers just see it as another way of getting them selves up on par with stickers or a nicely placed tag

01:34 / 30.06.04

Actually, I think the level of skill, dexterity and time-commitment it takes to produce a really good stencil is hellishly high - I know some people in Melbourne who'll spend weeks cutting out psychotically intricate designs - like the zebra stencil here.

15:49 / 04.07.04

finally, banksy's site is REALLY back up and running. got some nice stuff there, including a few very interesting news clippings and a mailinglist - get an e-mail invitation to every one of Banksy's works.

12:43 / 07.08.04

Some are saying that stencilled or not, graffiti is fairly worthless. This Guardian column mentions Banksy by name. Do they have a point?

at the scarwash

19:53 / 07.08.04

I don't know, I think that the Guardian column is one of the stupider things I've read about graf in a long time. It's sort of akin to the 60s white blues purist throwing a fit when Muddy Waters recorded a psych-influenced record, or some indie kid not buying the new (insert whoever is the current Yo La Tengo) because it's on a major.

Also, it seems to assume that graffiti evolved to where it is today because of Haring and Basquiat. It didn't cross over from unconscious vandalism to a conscious "This shit is art"-mentality. To my eyes, it seems to have evolved in a way similar to any of the world's calligraphic traditions.

Finally, by saying that graf was only valid when it was an unconscious art, ripe to be appropriated by whatever art-establishment member who was in the mood to go more avant, the author comes very close to otherizing the vandal, turning them into yet another Rousseauian noble-retard of outsider art.

Keith, like a scientist

12:58 / 12.08.04

I'm super super into stencil art right now, both on the streets and off the streets. I've been working on stencils for quite awhile now, and checking Stencil Revolution everyday. This is THE site for stenciling. It's apparently huge in Melbourne, Australia. Go to SR and search for Meggs (my favorite guy right now), Meek, Logan Hicks, etc...lots of great stencillers.

As for it's merits vs. traditional graffiti...hard to say...I see them as pretty different things. They definitely have a different look to them. I personally like stencils better...there is something about quality of the cuts, and the though process regarding layers, cutting, light/dark, shadows, tone...I'm also a graphic designer, so the cleaniness and organization sort of appeals to me more...although Futura 2000 remains one of my favorite artists in the world.

Lastly...if this isn't too smarmy to do...I've done a limited edition print run of 10 of my piece "Sole Mates" and it's available to buy at the Buzz Gallery Store . They aren't too expensive...3 layers/3 colors (blue, dirty red, with silver highlights). Check it out if you get the chance. They ship immediately.

14:58 / 12.08.04

An interesting twist on this reported at SlashDot: inverse graffiti, where a stencil is laid over a dirty surface and sprayed with solvent, rather than paint.

Anyone in Leeds seen any of this guy's work? Interesting implications re: graffiti beautifying/improving public space—which it often does, on an aesthetic level simply by making the space more interesting/vibrant, but is rarely percieved as doing so by civic authorities, who instead see it as an invitation or gateway to other, less aesthetically pleasing acts of vandalism (the so-called "broken window effect").

What's interesting about Moose's work, I think, is that (in theory, anyway) he's having it both ways—he's cleaning up a public space, but doing so in an aesthetically expressive manner.

Thoughts?

09:02 / 13.08.04

To skip back to the Guardian article a second, note that Banksy is the only person that he names (cleverly rhyming it with Wanksy) this shows how much he knows about what he's trying to condemn - nothing. Zilch.

Also, Basquiat and Haring were never graffiti artists in the proper sense of the word - they were never involved in painting trains or even in the gallery scene that span off from the subway painting. Haring did chalk art pieces in subways on empty advertising spaces and Basquiat deliberately tagged near galleries to get noticed by the artsy set. Both were fine artists who were - to a small degree - riding off the vibrancy of the NY subway scene but were in fact nothing to do with it. They're graffiti artists in exactly the same way Mike Skinner/The Streets is a garage MC.

13:41 / 29.10.06

love works miracles

Took me two hours to cut with a #10a scalpel. I used a piece of plastic cut from an A2 presentation folder as the stencil, and used my glorious faber-castell pastels to make the marks. I don't like toxic paint at the best of times and I was so much not going to add the horror of high-level-greenhouse-gas propellant to that: hence pastel not spray cans.

What do other people cut stencils from? I've wondered whether layout film would be good, cos it doesn't tear easily but is easy to trace onto and cut.

14:32 / 29.10.06

I am always on the lookout for better material from which to cut stencils. Manila folders seem to work pretty well if there's not too much fine detail, but in my experience something lighter works better for very delicate work. Most of the time I use regular typing paper. I have thought about using plastic sheet protectors, thinking that as they're a bit staticky they might cling to the surface to be painted, but in the past they've been too slippery to cut easily. There's nothing sadder than having to finally retire a stencil because it's gotten too thick with caked-on paint, except perhaps to ruin a stencil on the first print because of tears or curling.

I use stencils either for silkscreening or with spray paint. Silkscreening gives a better result for fabric, but I can usually pull several more prints out of a stencil that's gotten too thick for screening with spray paint, and I love the look of overspray. It's an unpredictable effect.

Paint fumes are bad for your lungs and eyes, as well as the air. If you've ever coughed up red, silver, and green paint after making a set of cards you'll start protecting your eyes and wearing a mask or at least a cloth over your face.

A dry medium that needs to be rubbed over the stencil would wreck most of mine, but I've been thinking about trying out the technique where you dip an old toothbrush in watercolor and run the tail end of a paintbrush over the bristles, making an attractive spray of unevenly-sized dots of paints. This method is also messy, which I like.

I couldn't find any old photos of my stencils so I made prints of the ones I had lying around. Not that great, but a lot of fun to make.

http://static.flickr.com/107/282398033_84c7be0db9_b.jpg

13:53 / 04.01.07

I like to use thicker like card stock paper for smaller, more detailed things, but when it comes to larger pieces (3' x 3' or bigger) it's hard to go wrong with something like matte board. Just flip it over (or buy white) and it's a pretty firm surface and easy to write/draw on.

Do any of you treat the surface with anything or do you usually use it as a one time stencil? I'm working on a whole series of old women in wheelchairs. Hopefully photos to come soon.

11:15 / 18.01.07

Me and a couple of mates went through a stencilling phase a couple of years ago - I just used to use old cereal packets, a craft knife and whatever spraypaint I could get my hands on. However I did go for really simple images and shapes like the eye of Horus or lettering.

The coolest thing that happened through stencilling was when I stencilled a quote from Helen Walsh's Brass on a wall near the river in my town, forgetting to credit her. I went back a couple of months and someone had stencilled the words " Helen Walsh" underneath.

As for stencilling's merits compared to traditional graffiti, I think that what's important is what an artist does with a medium, not the medium itself. Obviously there are pros and cons with any medium, but it's up to you what you make of it.

04:14 / 08.02.07

Here's my flickr set of a local coffee shop here in Brisbane that allows stencil artists, or anyone with a spray can it seems, to do whatever they like on the wall. It has been like this for over 12 months now, and surprisingly the city council here let's it stay up. We also set up reggae sound systems here on the odd occasion and play till the cops come and shut us down.

An example of some of the work found: