Berlin Street Art: Stencils

Everybody knows what a stencil is. At the most basic level you cut a shape out of cardboard or paper and then spray paint the cut out bit to create an image. These simple stencils can be put up very quickly, and the same stencil can be used over and over.

Most of the stencil artists I take pictures of go considerably beyond these basics though. First of all, anybody can buy or print out a simple stencil. Real artists design their own. Many of them use multiple colours, and often multi-layered stencils for shading and overlapping colours.

These stencils in Berlin are done by an artist that goes by the mouthful Plotterrobotor KEN. You can see how he's using multiple layers to add light and shadow, and they make for much more complex pieces.

These two are from Rome done by French master-stencilist C215, who, as far as I can tell, uses a mix of multiple layers and painting things in by hand. I don't think I've seen any of his stencils in Berlin, but he deserves to be mentioned as he is one of the best and most widespread.

Likewise, Bristol artist Banksy deserves mention. He is the most well-known street artist in the world, and his fame is probably more for the message of his stencils than the actual artwork. He's largely moved onto other projects lately, so his stuff isn't all around Europe like the others, but you can find his art all over the internet.