StencilGirl® Creative Team - Typography - June 2020

Hello Friends,

I am here to share my StencilGirl® Creative Team project for June 2020. The challenge theme was 'Typography'. To me, typography means to use images of letters and numbers in your art in a graphic way. So I decided to make some wall art using craft gift bags. Not to be used as gift bags (although you could if you want) but to be hung on the wall. I have a set of three of these art bits on my wall in the kitchen and they look great and are easy to hang with just a thumb tack. So let's get to the process! If you prefer to watch a video of my process there is one here -

So the first think I did was get out some great StencilGirl® stencils that had letters and numbers or words in a interesting graphic way. I used L400Letter Mania and L592 Alpha Jumbe Large as well as a stencil from the August StencilClub 2019 offering to make my monoprints. I used coffee and tea colors like burnt sienna, raw umber and some metallics as well. I used coffee stained papers an kraft colored deli paper to pull my prints.

Next I got out a kraft colored blank gift sack. Of course, you could re-use one from the grocery or resturant as well and just put your art right over their logo! I taped off the edges to create myself a framed area using some painter's tape.

Then I got out my pile of gel printed graphic typography papers and started to tear them up. I learned from Mary Beth Shaw, owner of StencilGirl® Products, to use a metal ruler to aid in my tearing. I just made square and rectangle shapes. Thinking more about what color and pattern I wanted to highlight then what shape I was making. 

I attached the layers of my papers over lapping and up to the edge of the tape using some UHU glue stick. Then I peeled off the tape and sealed the whole background to the edge with some fluid matte medium.

Now I needed a focal point. I was going for a coffee theme for my art. The love or obsession with coffee that so many Americans have. At first I thought of a regular cup with a saucer and maybe a spoon. But then I was thinking about kraft bags and take out and our disposable society and I changed my idea to a take out coffee cup instead. There are some great stencils you could use for this step...but sadly I did not have any of them so I had to draw instead.

So I drew my coffee cup with a lid and transfered it onto some watercolor paper. then I used a payne's grey and a black watercolor pigment to color and shade my cup.  

Next I needed to add my color contrast piece as the part of the cup that keeps your hand from getting too hot. I first stenciled words like 'coffee' 'latte' 'expresso' and 'americano' onto the print using some archival ink, a stencil brush, and the Alpha Jumble stencil.

To finish up. I cut out my coffee cup, attached the sleeve part which I cut out and then glued the whole thing to my bag with heavy glue. I used a dark brown Pitt artist brush pen, a water tank brush, and a white fine tip Posca pen to add shading, highlights and little details like the heart shaped steam coming off the top of the lid.

I hope you have enjoyed this month's StencilGirl® Creative Team project using fun letter and number stencils! Be sure to leave me a comment here or on my Youtube Video.

Thanks! Shel C