STENCILS AND LAYERS OF TEXTURE

USING BOTH NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE STENCILS

THAT YOU CUT YOURSELF

As you probably know already, the negative space in a composition is any part that's NOT the subject...it's the space surrounding the subject.

 

When you cut a stencil of your own design, if you want to use both the "background" and the "hole" shape, you may have to do some patching--I know I did! I cut two stencils together in a "sandwich" so I'd have a spare. But I don't recommend that! My stencils aren't perfect by any means! Below is the positive, cut from scrapbooking paper, and the spotty magenta one with the hole cut out.

I didn't discard anything, in case I needed it.

For the finished collage below, I used spray paint and acrylics, and three different patterned stencils besides the figure stencil. Some pattern was added to my substrate before the figures were included, and some pattern came afterward.

Both a positive and negative in one artwork.

You might wish to try two different canvases with this idea, creating a diptych, displaying them side by side!