Stencil

The stencil seen here was derived from a photograph of a boat on the sea.  I firstly sectioned off a piece of the photograph which I thought gave the most interesting shapes, I then traced a few of the lines and gradually repeated them and moved them around the page.  When I had got some more interesting shapes, I then sectioned off areas of the tracing until I was happy with the design that I had now formed.  I then copied it onto paper and colored it in the colours of the original photograph.

 

Once I had obtained a design that I was happy with, I then decided to make it into a repeat stencil. I drew the design once more onto a sheet of lining paper and started to manipulate it by removing some areas and extending others.  I wanted the design to flow so I manipulated the shapes further by curving some of the lines to keep a feeling of continuity.

 

I then cut it out with a stencil knife and tried it out with some paint using a stencil brush to see if the design was going to work. I decided to make further changes; I then cut out the painted image and added a few shapes that I had drawn from the stencil that I had previously made.  I was happy at last with this design; I then cut this out with the stencil knife.

 

I had to strengthen the stencil so firstly I coated both sides of the stencil with raw linseed oil and left it to soak in.  After that I shellacked both sides of the stencil and left it to dry.  The stencil was now complete and ready to apply.

 

I then applied the stencil to my panel after deciding where it was going to go.  Measuring the board and drawing a few guiding lines and attaching the stencil with masking tape did this. I then used the stencil brush with the colour to give the finished image. The stencil seen here is taken from my board.

Shona's Painted Glass Work