As stated in our “About Us”, the Needle and I have hoped that this blog would lead to more artistic endeavors as well. I’ve always been ridiculously frustrated trying to find posters for my dorm room – everyone has the same posters (sorry, but John Belushi is a bit played out) and none of the posters really depict artists I want to hang on my wall. So when preparing for Duke a couple of years ago, I hit eBay (the greatest site of all time) to find some posters of Outkast, Talib, and Dizzee Rascal. I managed to find some sweet posters, and then ran into the high-cost of either framing them or beating them up beyond repair with 3M mounting strips (something I hate doing to “rare” posters). I did find one diamond in the rough though – Wierd Chief Urban Pop Art – a guy who offered all sorts of less popular artists in a much more unique medium. I picked up a “tryptic” of Outkast at 50 dollars or so – and decided to buy more when I could afford it. Unfortunately, costs rose and typtics were going for upwards of 80, the paintings are cool and all, I just couldn’t see shelling out that much money for something I thought I could make much cheaper. I picked up a Talib Kweli piece at $40, but decided to figure out to how make them on my own. Below is a quick how to of how to make your own for around $25 (with supplies to make many more). I’ve written the tutorial assuming a general knowledge of Photoshop, so if you need more specifics, feel free to email me at askthegroove@gmail.com.
Step One : Find Image
Any image will do – I prefer Flickr to find thousands of concert images at high quality. You’ll find a typical google image search to by highly unrewarding. I chose a picture of Wale from his feature in GQ. This image is nice because the background is already all white, making the next steps a lot easier.
Step Two : Set Up Canvas
Open the image in Photoshop (other free programs might work, but I only have experience with Photoshop). Create a new file at the dimensions you wish to make your pop-art piece. I chose a size of 24 inches by 24 inches because it made the material I planned on painting on easier to cut, and it seemed like a reasonable size. You’ll want to set the resolution somewhere higher than 150 pixels/inch. Copy the image and paste it into this new document. You’ll most likely need to Free Transform it (Ctrl + T), to increase it in size. Also, reposition it into the area of the canvas that you want the image to appear.
Step Three : Separate Background from Image
In Photoshop, separate the artist(s) from the erroneous background images. This can be done with several tools in Photoshop, all with varying degrees of accuracy and time consumption.
1) If the image has a solid background color, the Magic Wand tool can be used (make sure to check “Contiguous” so you don’t remove any wanted sections of the image). This is the quickest method, but also the least likely to work.
2) The magnetic lasso tool. Using this tool, you can trace around the artist(s), removing pieces of background as you work around the image. More often than not, the tool can distinguish between foreground and background – it just takes a bit of practice.
3) If one and two don’t work, you’ll have to resort to the pen tool. The pen tool takes a lot of practice and will be extremely frustating as you first get used to it.
Once you have the image separated from its background, you can proceed to the next step.
Step Four : Desaturate the Image
To desaturate the image – Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate. This will convert the image into black & white.
Step Five : Copy Separated Image Onto Several Different Layers
Pretty self-explanatory, copy the image so that you have it in multiple layers (at least 3).
Step Six : Use Threshold to Black Out Border of Foreground
Keep the bottom-most copy of the image pristine, and work with the layer on top of it.
Use the Threshold command (found in Image -> Adjustments -> Threshold) to convert entire background image to black. This can be done easily by sliding the scroll bar all the way to the right.
Select the threshold layer and the one it’s applied to using the Shift key, right-click, and select “Merge Layers”. Title this layer – “Artist Black”.
Step Seven : Use Threshold to Add Highlights to Image
Using the next layer (should be third from the bottom) use the threshold command again. This time, rather than blacking out the whole image, slide the bar until you reach a satisfactory image. There is no correct spot – you’ll likely settle on something with a balance of black and white, that makes the image identifiable – despite it only being depicted in black and white.
If you’d like to tweak some areas, select the layer the threshold is applied to (not the threshold layer itself). You can then use the burn/dodge tool to add shadows/highlights respectively to the image.
Like the previous step, select the threshold layer, as well as the layer it was applied to, right-click and select “Merge Layers”. Title this layer “Artist Highlights”.
Use the “Magic Wand” tool (uncheck “Contiguous” this time) and select and delete all black on this layer (the black from “Artist Black” will still be present).
Step Eight : Blur Edges
Use the Gaussian Blur (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur) to soften the edges on the layers from Steps Six and Seven – this give you more flexibility/ambiguity when cutting out the stencils later.
Hold Up, Stop, Wait a Minute
Take a look at the image you’ve created. Do you like it? This will more or less be what you set out to create. If you don’t like it, find another image or rework the thresholds.
If you do like it – you have several options on how to proceed. You need to be able to print the two layers, “Artist Black” and “Artist Highlights” at full size. I found the easiest way to do this was to first print it to a .pdf, and then to print it from Adobe Reader. From Photoshop you can print to a pdf – only have the layer you want printed visible and selected (so you’ll need to do this twice) – make sure you change the paper size to the custom dimensions you set for your piece. You’ll want to change the color of the “Artist Highlights” layer to black when printing (use the Magic Wand and Fill tools).
Step Nine : Print the Two Templates
Open the two .pdf’s and print them at full size (select “None” under Scaling). These will become your stencils.
Step Ten : Cut Out the Stencils
Tape the sheets together and cut out the black portions of your stencil. Be cautious of “islands” – pieces of white surrounded by black – they’ll need to remain attached via small strips of paper. This process will take a long time – you’ll have to use an X-acto Knife and a cutting board if there is a lot of detail.
Step Eleven : Buy Supplies
All supplies can likely be found at a Home Depot or Lowe’s. You’ll need three colors of spray paint and your “canvas”. I chose a composite wood sheet used for backing pieces of furniture. It cost a little over $12 for a 8′ x 12′ sheet and the guy at the store cut it into 8 2′ x 2′ squares at no cost. It will also be helpful to have a container of spray adhesive.
Step Twelve : Apply Base Coat
You’ll need to apply your first coat of paint to the entirety of your canvas. This will be the color that is covered up by your two stencils. Due to issues with islands, I cut the inverse of my “Artist Black” layer and needed to spray my entire canvas black.
Step Thirteen : Apply Second Coat
After your base coat has dried you can lay down your first stencil. Apply a small amount of spray adhesive to its back so that detailed edges will stick (they’ll easily pull up as well). Lay down the adhesive and spray with your second color of paint. Ensure the canvas is properly covered – as you won’t be able to come back and apply a second coat. Once you’re finished spraying, lift up your stencil immediately and let the piece dry.
Step Fourteen : Apply Final Coat
Repeat step twelve with your second stencil and enjoy your masterpiece! Be careful when placing the second stencil, be sure to line up the cutouts very carefully – as any indescrepancies will be very noticeable in the final product.
It should be noted that Wierd Chief has gotten a lot more advanced since I first bought from him – but with some practice and the techniques below, similar effects can be achieved for much cheaper. Also, I’m by no means an expert – this just seemed the easiest way to pull off the desired effect. If you have any pointers feel free to send them my way. I’m trying to figure out better materials to print the stencils with and other ways to cut them out. Its dissappointing to spend hours cutting out a stencil, only to throw it away after one use.
Hope you all enjoyed this – I’m going to work on uploading some pdf’s – so that all you have to do is print and spray.
Posted by the Groove
