Cthulhu Stencil & Tiki Head Stencil (Guerilla Art)

NM 222, Fall 2016
Spray Paint, Paper, Polyester film, Adobe Illustrator

For my project, I used the guerilla art style to create and present my project directly to the public without need for a gallery or a formal setting. I used a guerilla art style to complement the design of my illustrations.

Each stencil started out as inked illustrations on paper. Illustrator was then used to turn the drawings into vectors to make them easy to print. The stencils are made from thin plastic cut out with an x­acto knife. Before creating the stencils from plastic, I used paper. The paper stencils were used to test each design on poster board. I used the plastic stencils on “Free Walls” in Asheville to display each illustration. I experimented cutting out the negative or the positive space of each design to achieve multiple looks.

I enjoyed creating this piece since it is a very different style of art than what I am used to. Most of my projects are created and stay on a computer but it was great to take something that was a single drawing and make into a form that can be easily spread in the physical world. Going into this project, I did not know what materials I would need besides spray paint. By talking to other students, I was able to better prepare by learning about the proper materials and techniques to create a stencil.