STENCILRY

Here’s how I make my multi-layered stencils in jasc paint shop pro. I’m only going to do 5 layers - black, shadow, mid-tone, highlight, white. I duplicated the main photo layer so that I had an un-edited backup. I turned the original layer’s visibility off. I used noose select tool to select the background and delete it.

I desaturated the image using either, desaturate tool (photoshop), hue/saturation tool (paint shop pro/photoshop) or convert to greyscale tool.

I then found the ‘levels’ adjustment, which is usually located in the brightness/contrast tools menu, and played around with it until I had a higher contrast in the mid-tones of the face and body, but still had definable black areas for hair/eyes/tux etc.

I used noose select to select a black area

I created a new layer called ‘black’ and painted into the selected area using brush tool

Once Ive got all of the black layer done, I can do my mid-tone.

For this, I simply have the whole tonal area, in this case the skin - I’m not going to bother with the tux or hair today, because they look better solid black.

For my tonal layers, I always put a white background layer in, filling it all in white with the fill tool. Create a new layer call it ‘mid-tone’ and use brush tool to select the skin. Remember that it will be underneath your black layer (black will almost always be the top layer) and so you must overlap it with the black at the edges to ensure a clean edge. Remember to move the layer down below the black layer using the layer pallet.

I then use the dropper tool to select a suitable mid-tone from the base image layer. It must be mid-way between the darkest color and the lightest color. You don’t have to be exact. Then fill it in.

Now you do EXACTLY the same thing that you did with your black layer, but you select the shadowed areas. You want to select the bits that are darker than your mid-tone shade. Then create another layer, call it mid-tone, position the layer in between black and mid-tone. Double click on your mid-tone color in the color pallet, then select a slightly darker shade. You only want a subtle difference in tone, so that it looks natural and not too dark.

Fill in your selected area in your new layer.

Do the same with the white.

I decided that her dress and bag, and his trousers looked wrong in white, so I added a highlight layer and colored them in a highlight tone (slightly lighter than the mid-tone)

Finally, I added a layer called ‘reg marks’. This is for my registration marks. I make two crosses which I will cut out of every layer. I then put masking tape on the canvas/wall where the crosses will be, and spray them on every layer. That way, it lets me line up the layers perfectly. I would paint this in this order: Mid-tone, shadow, highlight, white, black.