Can i buy graffiti stencils?

I watched "Friends With Benefits" the other day, and there's a couple instances of really cool stencil art.

Got me looking more into it.

Being that i have a car with exceedingly E36 M3ty paint, i'm looking at this as an opportunity.

I have a couple images in mind, already seen them as graffiti art in google images, but i lack the resources and artistic talent to generate such stencils myself.

Where do i just buy them?

Vinyl is the answer. Or comission someone on stencilrevolution. Vinyl is the answer.

You could find some one who owns a sign shop and ask them to cut you a few out of vinyl. It would be cheaper if you supply the vector art images.

Freddy Mercury?

I would buy that self-laminating film you can buy at office supply stores, print out the above image in the size you want, laminate the printed image, use exacto knife to cut out all the black areas, tape to car and paint. You can re-use it. Remove the stencil before the paint dries. Several light coats are better than one heavy coat. Take pics! You can also get colored vinyl from most print shops, get some of that and you can carry the image over onto the glass.

Most artists just make their own using the wonders of Kinko's or the like.

If this art is your cup o' tea then I would highly recommend the documentary/movie- "Exit through the gift shop: A film by Banksy".

It has a whole lot of this type of art and is pretty interesting in the methods they use to make it. It streams on Netflix, that's where I watched it.

I told you son- bring that E36 M3 by my place and I'll get the rattle and vinyl out and knock it down.

Also check out a site called 12ozprophets. Or any graf forum. They got a LOT of cats that are into stencils and can tell you how to get it on. Warning though- stencils on cars got played when hoodrides went under.

I'm watching the aforementioned street art documentary. I'm hooked.

In reply to Taiden:

After you're done watching make sure you read the Wiki on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_Through_the_Gift_Shop

It definitely adds to the mystique as to how much was real. Nonetheless, the art is still pretty cool.

mndsm wrote: Also check out a site called 12ozprophets. Or any graf forum. They got a LOT of cats that are into stencils and can tell you how to get it on. Warning though- stencils on cars got played when hoodrides went under.

VW drivers ruin everything.

This was one of my skateboards a few years ago:

I googled "Beatles stencil" and went to town with an X-Acto knife for a bit.

I'm guessing most stencils need to be made rather than bought. If you can find a pattern online, it's not so hard to just trace it with a knife. Just be sure to use a brand new blade.

Vector-based artwork would be the easiest to make into stencils. Find an image you like using the googles, open it up in Illustrator, turn everything you want to cut out black, print it out on some card stock, cut it with an X-Acto, and boom. Stencil. Vector based artwork can be scaled to any size and is generally designed to be plotted, not printed, so all the shapes are closed.

You can use also pull an image into Autocad and trace it by hand, or into Illustrator and use the trace tool and tweak it by hand.

The easy way is to find someone with a vinyl cutter, buy some masking vinyl, print out a bunch of stencils, put them where you want them on the car, paint, and peel off the masking. But it won't be as raw looking.

Thanks guys.

I've got a few ideas i'm throwing around.

I'm not worried about it being "dead."

Hoodride, rat rods, etc... it's all a bit different from what i'm HOPING this would turn out to be.

More artsy fartsy stuff

http://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-Complex-Spraypaint-Stencils-by-Hand/