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If you are particularly artistic, you may decide to use your own design as a basis for your stencil rather than referring to a photograph. Before you outline your design on cardstock, it's a good idea to flesh out your design and make sure that it would work as a stencil. Draw your design on scrap paper using a pencil so that you will be able to adjust it. Be aware that if you are just beginning, you may find it easier to use a photograph as the basis for your stencil rather than trying to make a compelling stencil from a freehand drawing. Use a pencil to lightly shade the areas of the design you will be cutting out and spraying. If you are using multiple colors, color your design accordingly using different colored markers When you are done, the shaded or colored areas will be the parts of the design that you will cut out and spray paint through. The other areas of your design won't be painted, and will be the color of the wall or canvas that you are working on. There are several important factors to consider when fleshing out your design, the most important being the concept of bridges. You may need to make bridges in certain areas of your design to ensure that it will look correct and hold up when you cut out the stencil. The easiest way to understand bridges is to think of the letter O. If you are creating a stencil containing a shape like an O, you may try to cut a black loop out of the paper. However, if you cut out a loop that goes all the way around, the white middle section of the O will fall away as well as the loop you cut out, leaving you with a large black circle instead of the letter O. To stop the white middle section from falling away, you have to create bridges in your design, which are vertical sections that connect the space surrounding the O with the white middle part of the O. This will make the black part of the O that you will cut away look like a pair of parenthesis, rather than a black loop. Look at your design with a critical eye. If you see any sections that need bridges to keep the elements inside the cut out areas intact, erase parts of the shaded in sections to make bridges in the design. When you are just beginning making stencils, it can be hard to tell what makes for a good design. Many times, unifying sections of your design looks better than having complex areas that don't translate as well. For instance, if you are making a design of a face, you may first make a black outline of the face, then outline each facial feature. A more compelling way to create a face is to shade and cut out a shadow, which extends from the jaw, up the cheeks and over to the mouth, then goes up the side of the face until it reaches the eye. This shadow that you made not only unites the features and makes a more interesting design, it also adds dimension to the face. When you are finished with your design, copy the design onto a piece of cardstock, poster paper or acetate. Shade in the areas of the design you are cutting out, and leave a border of at least 2 inches (5.08 cm) to give the stencil stability. If you are using multiple colors in your design, use as many sheets of cardstock as you have colors in the design. Create the outline of your design on the exact same spot on each sheet of cardstock, then assign one color to each sheet of cardstock. Use a marker to add the color where it should be on each sheet, so that if you were to overlap them, you would have the full color image. For instance, say you were making a cherry design with three colors: black, red and green. You would draw the thin outline of the cherry on the same spot on each page of cardstock. On one sheet of cardstock you would use black marker to thicken the outline of the cherry, making bridges as necessary. On another, you would color in the red fruit of the cherry. On the last sheet, you would color in the green stem and leaves.
Sketch your design on scrap paper. Shade the areas of your design that you will cut out. Make bridges as necessary in your design. Simplify complex parts of your design. Copy the final design onto cardstock. Create multiple boards if doing a design with more than one color.