If you have ever rubbed a pencil lead on a piece of paper covering a leaf as a school project, you will use the same process for this how to make rubbed stencil art. Learning how to make rubbed stencil art can be a relaxing way to spend the afternoon or evening.
Please read the bolded notes before starting your rubbed stencil art piece. Those notes in this how to make rubbed stencil art will help you while creating your piece.
Materials Needed for Rubbed Stencil Art
Sketch Pad – You can use any size of sketch pad for making a rubbed stencil art.
Stencils – You can use any stencil and of any size to make this art project. You can buy the stencils at any craft store or use the ones you find online for free. If you find while looking at the stencils, you come up with an idea for your art piece, buy or print as many as you need. If you are printing the stencils from the internet, you can trace them onto a stencil plastic and cut them out from that or just cut out the areas from the paper you printed them onto.
Sketching Pencils – The most common sketching pencils are graphite and charcoal. There are a few color sketching pencils available in some of the craft stores. You could use colored pencils if you want to have colorful piece of art. The sketching pencil or colored pencils will need to be sharpened.
Colored Chalk – If you prefer you could use colored chalk to make the rubbed stencil art.
Transparent Tape – You will need the tape to hold the stencil in place while you rub across the stencil.
Making the Rubbed Stencil Art
Now that you have all your supplies you are going to start by deciding where on the sketch pad paper you want the stencil to be placed. You can move the stencil around the sketch pad until you find a spot where you like it. If it would work better for you to cut the stencil down, you can do that too.
If you came up with your own art piece while looking at the stencils like mentioned under the materials needed section for stencils, start with one stencil. If you don’t want to cut the stencil down, place a piece of paper or something else over the sections you don’t want to use. See note below for taping your stencils in place.
NOTE: Tape it down onto the sketch pad in the place you pictured in your head. Just be careful not to press it down too hard because you don’t want to tear the paper when the stencil is removed.
Now that you have the stencil taped down to the sketch pad, use your sketching pencil laid on its side or at an angle enough to where you can rub across the openings of the stencil. If you have ever laid a piece of paper over a leaf and rubbed a pencil over it to get the leaf onto the paper, this is what you are doing with the stencil on top of the sketch pad. The best thing about doing this kind of rubbing is you can do it as light or as hard as needed to get the proper shading or coloring you want for your art work.
Gently remove the taped down stencil from the sketch pad. Try not to tear the paper while you are removing the tape. The paper may be a little ruffed up where you had the tape. You may be able to cover that area with another stenciled part of your art work. Just don’t tape over what you have already done.
NOTE: If you are using the colored chalk or colored pencils, use it in the same manner as I mentioned above with the pencils. There is one exception to using the colored pencils or chalk, you can change colors at any time during the rubbing process.
If you haven’t shaded in the area or parts of an area dark enough, you can go back over the area at any time with the instrument you are using. If you have other stencils you are going to use for your art work, follow the above instructions for each stencil or piece of stencil you are using until the art piece is finished.
After you have finished your art work, you can frame it. Once framed, hang it in your home as part of your home decor.
