Portrait on canvas

Stencil - stunning, simple and effective

The disadvantage of my diverse interests is that I am not a professional in any of the fields of decoration that I try out. One advantage, however, is that I can remain flexible and simply try out different techniques without being held back by the knowledge of how things should actually be done to achieve the best possible result. Of course, this also means that my results are far from perfect. Practice makes perfect, but a student who is willing to make mistakes and learn enjoys some advantages, which are reflected in the fact that there are no limits to the imagination and the desire to try out new things.

That's exactly what I've done here, with the portrait inspired by the stencil art technique (stencil) - stencil freely interpreted.

What do you need?

• canvas

• Enlarged printout of a photo (preferably on colored paper)

• cutter

• Acrylic paint

• paintbrush

I had a photo of a woman with a hat as a template and chose a section that I enlarged and printed out in black and white using my printer at home. Depending on the situation, it can be helpful to increase the contrast of the photo a little. Slightly thicker paper makes the work easier. You can also mount the printout on thin colored paper. Then, with patience and a sharp cutter, I cut out the darkest areas of the photo to create cut-outs in these places. This took quite a while, partly because you have to make sure when cutting that you don't create isolated islands that would fall off, but that paper bridges remain everywhere. When I was happy with the result, I stuck the resulting template to the canvas with adhesive tape (washi tape or masking tape) and started tracing the cut-outs with a flat brush. Be careful not to accidentally lift the edge with too decisive brushstrokes or let too much paint flow under the stencil. I used a mixture of gold and bronze acrylic paint that I had at home, but of course any other type of paint would work, or even spray paint from aerosol cans like Stencil or Aerograf etc.

What do you think of the idea? Would you also like to have a portrait like this or would you like to give one as a gift? I look forward to hearing from you - feel free to write to me if you have any questions or doubts or are at a loss. I'm here for you. A hug and see you soon.

Portrait auf Leinwand