Burning down the house

That Edwardian house stencil was kicking my butt today! After getting the birds in the upper left corner sorted out, it was just a flick of the wrist in positioning the red outlined Edwardians. No probs getting them in the right place, sponging them on was not so easy!

Oh, by the way, this is how stencils work:
after cutting out an image on heavy card (spray shellaced 'em so that paint wouldn't soak thru and ruin 'em)
and with a paint sponge (another one of my favorite tools - next to the overhead projector (OHP), remember?) you dab the stencil with thin applications of paint. Thick dabs will end up making the stencil really blotchy which goes against one of the reasons why you end up using stencils in the first place - clean, sharp lines.

Stencil graffiti is more often done with spray paint, which, believe it or not, does not last long, compared to murals painted from good, sturdy mural paint from Precita Eyes Mural Arts.

So, now you know, why don't you try it? Okaaaaay?

Flat surfaces work best for stencils, but, just my luck, the wall I'm painting the mural on is composed of wood siding that has big gaps in between each plank. So, not so easy to tape stencils on really flat, but, take heart, dear friends, yours truly took up the challenge and managed to stencil the bubbles, trees, and even the mountains this way.
But, in cutting out the Edwardians, I knew that all the small details in their designs would mean more time sponging...and that time came today.
They all came out blotchy for some reason...but in fine-tuning the first house using thin brushes with the primer paint, it came out really sharp!

Alas, dear folks, by the time I finished, my arm was ready to fall off from spending all this time on the houses, and I had only enough strength left to take this shot ...and, yes, it was only 5:30pm sometime shortly after the Sun clocked out from her day shift.


Bonus tracks...
Street stencil art is "in," people! In San Francisco alone you walk by about 3 or 4 of 'em on one block of downtown sidewalk alone. Hey, take a shot of some of your favorites with your cell phone and I'll post some good ones on this blog...whaddya say?

I personally really dig stencil art and not necessarily the graffiti type either (it's kind of a continuation of my love for making & cutting out shadow puppets) and the guy who made them a big hit that kids in Iowa are even trying to copy his style is that famous Bristol artist Banksy. Saw a bunch of his work while living in London and while I was working in Bristol too. Here's a short primer on the enigma that is Banksy from several years ago...