Self Publishing: The Stencil

In this process and production session we learnt how to make our own stencils and then use them to create propaganda posters. The propaganda theme was the French revolution in 1968 and each of us had the task of pulling out a word from a bag which gives a specific theme from 1968 to focus on.

I pulled out the word "Police man" so I looked up the police from the French riots and I decided to use the basic look of the uniform they used to wear as an icon.

The next step was to draw an image on A3 paper which then can be cut out using a craft knife. After sketching ideas I came up with a simple drawing of the police man's helmet with the goggles on and then next to that another drawing of the rifles they used to carry. When I finished cutting out both my drawings I had my stencil which I placed on another sheet of A3 paper and painted over it with a paint roller so both my images were displayed in red paint.

Now I pulled out song lyrics from another bag which I made another stencil with to add to my poster. My lyrics were "Drown me in your sweet submission" and these words act as a slogan for my propaganda poster. When I cut out my words with a craft knife I was happy that I managed to finish but it took me a long time and I struggled to make it neat. Before I started cutting with a craft knife I wasn't very confident because before this session I can never recall ever using a craft knife so it was something that was new to me. Next I painted over this stencil in blue adding it to my poster.

I have recently seen stencil work similar to this which made me really intrigued to try it so I am grateful to have done this session. The stencil work I saw was from a video game named "Infamous Second Sun" where the protagonist of the game spreads his propaganda around the city of the Seattle either trying to expose the corrupt government in power or using it to make the citizens fear him depending on what the player wants to do. The character of the game is portrayed as a punk who likes to put up street art so his methods to producing propaganda is using stencils out of cardboard that he supposedly finds around the city and spray paint.

I really enjoyed this process and production session because I liked painting over a stencil I made and the results look really good. Using a craft knife to cut with is interesting as well but I became frustrated at times because I needed sometime to get use to how it worked. In the future I could enjoy doing this more regularly which will give me the practice with a craft knife.