Dare to Make It: Holiday

How to Make a Semiphotorealistic Three-Shade Print

Lee Meredith, contributor

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It's a wacky, semiphotorealistic portrait of Christopher Walken!

Lee Meredith

Any object with well-defined lines like this camera will make a great stencil!

Lee Meredith

This three-shade process is so magical because once you put the three stencils together, your image will appear!

Lee Meredith

It's a wacky, semiphotorealistic portrait of Christopher Walken!

Photo: Lee Meredith

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Here is an example of an image a bit easier to make into a stencil. See how most of the shapes are well defined with straight lines:

This is the image postediting, with pure black, pure white, and some in-between gray.

For that image, my order was different: first was gray, second was black, and third was white.

Any object with well-defined lines like this camera will make a great stencil!

So that's my crazy three-shade printing invention. I'll show you some examples of regular one-color freezer-paper stencil prints, which take a lot less time and still turn out totally great looking (and would be a good first-time way to try out stenciling if you're new to it).

I did this print based on a photograph, on a shirt for my DJ brother.

Here is an example of an image that had a ton of island shapes—to carve out all those islands and place them correctly when ironing would have been way too tricky! So I added "bridges" to most of the island shapes, meaning narrow pieces in the stencil connecting the island to the rest of the stencil.

A sports-related print might be perfect for a guy on your gift list!

View 3 member project galleries

Freezer Paper...
InspiredAmanda

Dave Matthews
cabaute

Freezer Paper...
Minimeg

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Comments (7)

Keren_D writes: Hi Lee,

This is a great tutorial. I've seen a lot of craft/sewing tutorials and this one is fascinating, well-explained, and well-photographed. Excellent!

BTW, do you have a blog?

Keren (www.sewlavie.com)
Posted: 1:23 am on December 17th

Jetmuis writes: wooow what a great tute you have made!!!!
awesome too your designs , well done.
love this!!!! thank you too for the sharing, your very gifted and rocking;-D!!!!!!
Posted: 4:54 am on December 12th

christineblint writes: Far away and far out idea and execution. My congrats to you and your creativity--you are a professional.
Posted: 1:33 pm on December 13th

OTorres writes: Lee, this is just so cool, thanks
Posted: 10:46 am on December 13th

crafty1900 writes: this is great! very thorough.
Posted: 7:16 pm on December 10th

ohbrooke writes: Okay, THIS is BRILLIANT. I'm going to do it, and I'll be sure to send pictures. My husband would LOVE this!
Posted: 3:27 pm on December 10th

TipiLady writes: Is it possible to get giddy over crafting? I can hardly keep the smile off my face. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! This is going to save a bundle on Christmas presents and a whole lot of other occassions. This is incredibly generous of you to share this information and your talent. I can't wait to try it.
Posted: 1:00 pm on December 10th

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