page_title: Stencil
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Stencil / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Hands at the Cuevas de las Manos upon Río Pinturas, near the town of Perito Moreno in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Picture taken by me in 2005. Español: Impresiones en la Cuevas de las Manos sobre el Río Pinturas en la provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina. Foto tomada por mí en 2005. Italiano: Impressioni di mani nella Cuevas de las Manos sul Río Pinturas fiume vicino al popolo di Perito Moreno nella provincia di Santa Cruz, Argentina. Fotografia presa da me nel 2005. Slovenščina: Odtis rok v Cueva de las Manos jami ob reki Río Pinturas, blizu Perito Moreno vasi v Santa Cruz provinci, Argentina. Poslikal sem fotografijo leta 2005. Hrvatski: Otisci ruku u spilji Cueva de las Manos uz rijeku Río Pinturas blizu grada Perito Moreno, pokrajina Santa Cruz, Argentina. Snimio sam fotografiju 2005. godine. Српски / srpski: Утисак рука у Куева де лас Манос јами уз реке Рио Пинтурас близу града Перито Морено, Санта Цруз Провинциа, Аргентина. Посликао сам фотографију године 2005. Svenska: Handavtryck vid Cuevas de las Manos på Río Pinturas, nära staden Perito Moreno i Santa Cruz-Provinsen, Argentina. Bild tagen av mig 2005.
context_page_description: Stencilling produces an image or pattern by applying pigment to a surface over an intermediate object with designed gaps in it which create the pattern or image by only allowing the pigment to reach some parts of the surface. The stencil is both the resulting image or pattern and the intermediate object; the context in which stencil is used makes clear which meaning is intended. In practice, the stencil is usually a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, wood or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material.
  The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to repeatedly and rapidly produce the same letters or design. Although aerosol or painting stencils can be made for one-time use, typically they are made with the intention of being reused. To be reusable, they must remain intact after a design is produced and the stencil is removed from the work surface. With some designs, this is done by connecting stencil islands to other parts of the stencil with bridges.
  Stencil technique in visual art is also referred to as pochoir.
context_section_description: Hand stencils, made by blowing pigment over a hand held against a wall, are found from over 35,000 years ago in Asia and Europe, and later prehistoric dates in other continents. After that stenciling has been used as a historic painting technique on all kinds of materials. 
  Stencils may have been used to color cloth for a very long time; the technique probably reached its peak of sophistication in Katazome and other techniques used on silks for clothes during the Edo period in Japan.  In Europe, from about 1450 they were commonly used to color old master prints printed in black and white, usually woodcuts.  This was especially the case with playing-cards, which continued to be colored by stencil long after most other subjects for prints were left in black and white. Stencils were used for mass publications, as the type did not have to be hand-written.
caption: Prehistoric hand stencils, Cueva de las Manos in Argentina
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