The stencil is a stamping technique.
Stencil is a term from the English language that is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). Its equivalent in Spanish is stenciling , the technique and result of stenciling.
This verb ( stencil ), for its part, refers to the action of stamping something with the help of a template that presents an already cut design . The process consists of throwing the paint or ink through the cutout: in this way, the shape of the stencil is stamped.
History of the stencil
It is said that the stencil emerged during the time of the Roman Empire . However, it only became popular in the 1960s in the United States and France as a form of street art , similar to graffiti . Nowadays, the stencil is usually used to capture drawings with political or social content on walls.
Among the most important historical examples of the stencil is one that has been discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and is about 40,000 years old. However, also interesting is the set of stenciled hands that can be found in the Cuevas de las Manos , in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz and which date back to 7,500 BC. c.
It is possible to find artistic expressions made with stencils in many places.
Some examples
Let's look at an example to understand what a stencil is. Suppose a person draws a car on a cardboard. With the help of a cutter, cut out the design : in this way, the car is captured as an open area, surrounded by cardboard.
The individual then rests the cardboard stencil on a sheet of paper and applies paint to the surface. In this way, only the paint that passes through the cut-out hole in the cardboard reaches the paper. The result of the process will be the car stencil.
It is important to know that it is used in many countries around the world and with very different functions. Thus, for example, works made with stencils can be found scattered on the walls of different streets in cities around the world. They are used to shape spectacular tiles. They have become a key piece of the so-called Dutch naïve art . In Asia they were used and They are used as stamps to mark packaging…
Currently, the technique in question has become so popular that it is even used to carry out everything from decorating the walls of any room to shaping t-shirts and clothing of all kinds and even for different crafts of another kind. .
stencil artists
Several artists achieved fame thanks to the stencil. The American Shepard Fairey (also known as OBEY ) and the Englishman Banksy (whose real name is unknown) are some of them.
To these two artists we should add a third who is also a distinguished figure in the world of stencils. We are referring to the Frenchman Blek le Rat , who has filled the streets of Paris with his works and has achieved such success that his works have even been exhibited in the Georges Pompidou Museum of Modern Art .