Adam Loves Stencils

In Which the Bleach Stencil Process is Demystified

2011-07-10T11:06:00.001-04:00

As nice as fabric paint is for stenciling shirts, it will always eventually fade/flake off. If you're looking for a more permanent design or if you're just looking for a different look for your designs, then bleaching might be the way to go. I've made several shirts using this method before, and I now reveal all the secrets involved therein.

Here is everything needed:

-T-shirt (Preferably 100% cotton, but a 50/50 blend will do)
-Bleach
-Masking Tape
-Newspaper
-Empty Spray Bottle
-Spray Adhesive
-Xacto Knife
-Ventilation Mask (optional)
-Latex gloves (optional)
-Stencil

STEP ONE: Get your stencil image, obviously. I picked a random Boba Fett image I found on google images. Bring your image into photoshop and drop the opacity of the image down to 20% or so before printing to save yourself some ink cartridges.

STEP TWO: Print out your stencil. You can go two ways with this: Either print the image directly out onto some heavy cardstock, or go the cheaper way: Print it out on normal paper, then tape that image onto a manila folder, then cut.

STEP THREE: Flip your stencil upside down. Hold your spray adhesive about 6-10 inches away and spray on a full, even coat. Let this sit for about 5 minutes or so to get tacky. (Mask and/or outdoors recommended)

STEP FOUR: Lay your shirt out flat, and press your stencil down. Be sure and pat it down well, especially for stencils with a lot of smaller details.

STEP FIVE: Stuff several layers of newspaper under your stencil inside to shirt, to prevent leakage through to the back (though this can be a neat effect to experiment with). Fold up all other exposed shirt parts behind.

STEP SIX: Tape newspaper over any remaining exposed fabric. Seal this well with masking tape.

STEP SEVEN: Load up your spray bottle with some bleach. Get on the gloves if you are so inclined.

STEP EIGHT: Here's the meat of it. Give your shirt a few good sprays, then dab quickly and softly. Repeat, allowing a decent amount of drying/bleaching time in between each spray volley. I usually go for about 4-5 coats. The goal here is to get the bleach onto the shirt, but to also be getting it off the stencil template. Manila folders don't hold up too well after being soaked. Once the paper gets too wet, the outlines will start to bleed. Keep in mind that the bleach will still be working on the shirt, even if it's not sopping wet, so err on the side of dryness.

STEP NINE: Peel off all the paper. Initially (especially during spraying), the bleach will appear to not do much. It will eat into the shirt's color over time though, so have patience, young padawan. The images below have a time difference of about 10 minutes. The longer it sits, the more it eats in. This can be exploited for lighter shades of stenciling for shading.

FINISH:

Your shirt is done! This process takes a lot of trial and error with all the different factors (shirt type/color, bleach drying time, etc), so keep at it to get your best results. SEVERAL WORDS OF CAUTION:Don't keep bleach in a small sealed container, or it will burst. Always pour the remaining bleach from your spray bottle back into the main container.

I'm in the process of finding a better template material, as the folders are not always reliable (you can see some of the thinner spaces on Boba get a bit scrunched on this one) I usually turn on the shower and soak the shirt a bit and get the bleach out before I toss it in the wash. Then it's a nice permanent design.

Process Walkthrough, Disturbed Stencil

2010-09-11T11:38:00.001-04:00

I made a piece for my brother for his birthday. He's a fan of the band Disturbed, so I grabbed some imagery from them and started up on a stencil. Figured I'd finally post some process work. More after the jump:

First, I bought a smooth wood panel from Home Depot and used a roller to spread black gesso evenly. About 2-3 coats.

Got my hands on a projector and projected my image at size onto the panel. Then I taped up sheets of bristol board and traced each element of the design onto a different set of sheets.

The resulting traces:

A short time lapse video of me cutting out the pieces. I wasn't sure at this point if I was going to use the cut outs or negatives of the text, so I saved both.

The final elements after cutting:

Outside is best to spray. Got all my paints ready ahead of time:

Before pressing each piece down onto the board, I gave their backs a layer of spray adhesive and let it get tacky for about 5-6 minutes.

Sprayed in the background:

Put down the next element and continued spraying, after laying down some newspaper:

Wrapping up the character with the details of the mouth, eyes, and then lettering:

The image thus far. I had originally planned on stopping here, but it seemed to still be a little too plain.

I decided to put some drips on the lettering to make things more interesting. In order to keep the drips controlled, I used a glossy coated take out menu, and sprayed some paint in the valley of it. Then I would carefully pour it out at the spot on the letter I wanted the drip from. If I put too much paint on, I would stop the drip length using a q-tip.

Some of the drips didn't quite reach a good stopping point, so I would nudge them on a little further with more q-tip action.

I wanted some splattering to finish the whole piece off. I donned some thick rubber gloves and sprayed havey onto the finger tips, and carefully flicked on the spatters. A little goes a long way here, so I went little by little until the build up was acceptable.

And again, the final result:

More Samus

2010-04-27T09:12:00.001-04:00

For a friend's birthday gift. Approx 29" x 12"

A Few More

2009-09-27T17:22:00.004-04:00

Did a few of these splatter ones. Gave the other ones away.

A cleaner Rorschach, in comparison to my previous splattered version:

Einstein and Comic Books

2009-09-18T21:41:00.003-04:00

Einstein shows up thanks to some fabric paint:

Rorschach appears with some bleach spray action:

In the year 20XX...

2009-07-08T12:32:00.003-04:00

Newest Shirt, featuring the blue bomber. Also, the first shirt I've done two colors on.

An Update

2009-07-07T22:59:00.004-04:00

Stencil works featured in the "Monochromaddicts" show. Held at the Godine Family Gallery at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Spring 2008. All works done with acrylic paint.

"Forward", ( Particle board, 3' x 2' each)

"Forward" top panel

"Forward" middle panel

"Forward" bottom panel

"You'll Be Laughing", ( Particle board, 3' x 2' each)

"You'll Be Laughing" top panel

"You'll Be Laughing" middle panel

"You'll Be Laughing" bottom panel

"Motion Study: Hop, Skip, Tumble", ( Particle board, 3' x 2' each)

"Motion Study: Hop, Skip, Tumble", skip panel

"Motion Study: Hop, Skip, Tumble", tumble panel

"Motion Study: Hop, Skip, Tumble", hop panel

"Brothers", ( Particle board, 3" x 2" each)

"Brothers" top panel

"Brothers" middle panel

"Brothers" bottom panel

"Inspirations: Brendan's Panel" ( Masonite, 18" x 24")

"Inspirations: Danny's Panel" ( Masonite, 18" x 24")

"Inspirations: Adam's Panel" ( Masonite, 18" x 24")

2007: A Shirt Odyssey

2007-11-25T00:11:00.000-05:00

It's Not Multiple Choice

2007-04-06T19:43:00.000-04:00

So, I'm a big fan of comic books, as if you can't tell already. This week's "52" (issue number 48) had this on the cover:

And of course, I couldn't resist, though I took the liberty of making the hand less confusing:

Metroid and Fixing Past Mistakes

2007-04-03T22:12:00.000-04:00

The shirt's base looks stained because it was still wet from the rinsing, and i was impatient to take the photo.

Redid the shirt from this earlier post. This time, I laid down fabric paint first, then sprayed the orange on top. I enjoy the result immensely.

Great Race

2007-04-03T18:16:00.000-04:00

For a charity event I entered with a friend. We didn't recieve the shirts until half an hour before the event started, so it turned out a bit messy, due to rushing. Everyone elese was jealous, though.

Birthday Presents for Dad

2007-04-03T18:01:00.001-04:00

Dad works at a cemetary. Hopefully he'll get a kick out of this one:

Dad loves the Lone Ranger. Adhesive screwed up on this one bad, but i still like the result.

Dad also loves Edgar Allen Poe. First time I tried using bleach instead of spray paint. I enjoy the results.

Spray Paint in A Half Shell

2007-04-03T17:58:00.000-04:00

I was debating continuing the design onto the back and having shredder standing on a mountain. I futzed up on some of the rocks and Don's arm due to the adhesive not working.

Up, Up and A Shirt

2007-04-03T17:56:00.000-04:00

This is MADNESS.

2007-04-03T17:53:00.000-04:00

Done on a messenger bag: