How to Make Multicolor Stencils in Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the application most used by professionals and amateurs to create stencils. Stencils are great for doing any kind of print design work, such as T-shirts, posters and cards. Multi-color, or "multi-layered" stencils are used to create stencil images that require more than one color, as the name implies. You can easily make multi-color stencils with Photoshop using layers and a few other techniques.
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Instructions
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Open Adobe Photoshop and click on "File" then "Open." Select the image you want to make into a stencil and click "Open."
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Use the "Crop" tool to select the area of the stencil. Click on the "Crop" tool in the "Tools" pallet and then click and drag over the area of the image that will be used for the stencil. Click on the "Crop" tool one more time and click "Crop."
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Click on the "Eraser" tool and erase any large parts of the image you do not want in the stencil. Zoom in very tight on the image while doing this to improve accuracy.
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Trace around the fine edges of your image with the "Polygon" lasso tool. Start at any point on the image and continue to trace along the entire image until you return to the starting point. When the two points meet, they will for a selection around the image.
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Click on the "Selection" menu and select "Inverse." Press the "Delete" key to remove the rest of the unwanted area. Press "Ctrl/Command+D" to deselect when you are done.
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Click on "Image" then hover over "Adjustments" and select "Brightness/Contrast." Increase the brightness and contrast levels of the image. Since every image is different, you will have to use your own judgment. Click the "OK" button to apply the changes.
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Click on "Image" then hover over "Mode" and select "Grayscale." This will turn your image black and white.
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Click on the "Filters" menu, hover over "Artistic" and select "Cutout." Set the number of "Levels" to "3," the "Edge Simplicty" to "2" and the "Edge Fidelity" to "1." Click "OK" to apply the filter. You will now have an image that is three different shades of gray.
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Click on the "Layer" menu and select "Flatten Image." Then click on "File" then "Save As," and save the image as "Stencil.psd." You will need to open it again later.
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Use the "Magic Wand" tool to select the areas of the image you erased earlier. Click on the "Magic Wand" tool and then click in a blank section of the image. This should select the area around the outside of your image.
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Create the dark layer. Click on the "Selection" menu and select "Inverse." Go to the "Edit" menu and select "Fill." The "Fill" dialog box will open. Click on the drop-down menu under the "Contents" section and select "Black." Click on "OK" again to apply the fill.
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Click on the "Filters" menu, hover over "Stylize" and select "Find Edges." This will create an outline of the fill you just made.
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Go to "File" then "Save As" and save this image as "DarkOutline.jpg." Close the image.
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Reopen the "Stencil.psd" you saved earlier.
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Use the "Magic Wand" tool to select the medium gray area of the image. Hold the "Shift" key while clicking the areas to make multiple selections.
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Go to the "Selection" menu, select "Inverse" and press the "Delete" key.
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Go to "Filters," hover over "Stylize" and select "Find Edges." Click on "File" then "Save As," and save the image as "MediumOutline.jpg." Close the image.
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Reopen "Stencil.psd" one last time.
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Use the "Magic Wand" tool to select the light gray areas of the image.
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Go to the "Selection" menu, select "Inverse" and press the "Delete" key.
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Go to "Filters," hover over "Stylize" and select "Find Edges." Click on "File" then "Save As," and save the image as "LightOutline.jpg." Close the image.
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Print out the three outlines you just made. You now have a multi-color stencil.
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References
- Photo Credit grafitti in alleyway, santiago image by slyman79 from Fotolia.com
