One of my favorite forms of street art is stencil art, or stencil graffiti. Stenciling usually involves a detailed, hand-cut stencil and spray paint. A lot of great stencil artists, like Banksy and Above have mastered putting stencil art in ironic situations to really enhance their pieces. In fact, the reason I became such a huge Banksy fan in the first place was his stencils.
Above's "Help Thy Neighbor"
This is a piece taken from the street artist, Above’s website. It was created as part of the artist’s donation contributions to Haiti relief.
In this piece, the artist went Above (get it?) and beyond the average stencil to create a multi-colored stencil. Personally, I’ve never tried a multi-colored stencil piece, because they are probably one of the most tedious forms of street art out there, and I barely have the patience to make a regular stencil. Each individual color in the piece requires its own hand-made stencil. So, technically, when Above made the decision to make this an 8 color piece, he also made the very-devoted decision to create 8 full pieces of art to benefit this one piece.
The time and energy it takes to master stencil graffiti is extreme, but so are the results. If the artist
Mircea Cantor's "I am Still Alive" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
can’t control the stencil or doesn’t have the right cuts in their stencil, than a whole piece can be ruined. And fixing designs can be nearly impossible, especially when an artist is out in the street with only a couple cans of spray paint and one oversized stencil.
This photo, called “I am Still Alive” by Mircea Cantor, is spray painted directly on the wall of the Modern Exhibit in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I have to say, as far as stencils go, this one is really lacking. Cantor did a bad job making the paint even across the whole piece, so there are darker spots in several spots of the hair. Usually heavier spray paint spots can lead to dripping, which ruins all of the white in the rest of the piece. Cantor’s piece also has blurred lines, which usually happens when the stencil isn’t flat against the painted surface. The spray paint will fly underneath the stencil and create the blurs like you see in the right shoulder and in the top part of the hair.
Stencils are always fun to try, but not easy to master. When you do catch a good one, however, they stick in your brain.
Painted Philly 