Airbrushed Jacket
Stencilled Wooden Bat
This is a jacket design I painted. In it I had to include this "bitten" baseball bat but because of the small size and type of wood, I came up with a fairly simple stencilling idea to simulate the woodgrain. Obviously this jacket is black, but I am just gonna show the basic technique that was used, but on a white background. You will need 1 or 2 sheets of bristol board or showcard for the stencils. (I used loose hand held masks for this project) Colours are: White base (if painting on any colour other than white) A Pine or Ash colour - I used a Sand beige Transparent Dark Brown Transparent Gold (or Golden Brown) - add white, sand and yellow to the dk brown Trans Black
1 sketch stencil03
1. Start by drawing out the baseball bat design on your mask board. draw the outlines and cut lines for the woodgrain sections. Pre-cut the stencil, make sure you don't lose any parts. Glue or securely mount the outer "negative" stencil to your worksurface. At this stage you will remove all inside "positive" pieces.
2 stencil 102
2. Begin by laying down your base colour (sand beige) (Start with a white base, if painting on a coloured background) Replace the positve stencil within the "bite" area.
3 stencil 202
3. Once the base colour for the Bat as been applied, replace all "positive" masks. Begin by removing one "woodgrain layer" at a time, starting in the background.
4 stencil 3 w inset
4. Spray a light Dark Brown edge to the the next mask layer. Follow with a wider spray of Golden Brown creating a gradient "Wood grain layer". Continue by removing the next "layer" and repeating the painting procedure. (Moving, one by one, to the foreground layers)
5 stencil 4
5. Continue removing each stencil "layer" working towards the foreground. Try to increase the intensity of the colour as you move "forward". Increasing the amount of dark brown will help.
6 stencil 5
6. Pay attention to the woodgrain postion and keep your shading/colour consistent. The gradient is positioned from the stencil edge outwards regardless of its position.
7 stencil 7 shade brown
7. When all the "grain layers" are completed, intensify the foreground shading with dark brown and golden brown. Spraying up from the lower side of the bat will create a more 3D (rounded) effect to the bat.
8 stencil 8 bite closeup
8. Remove the stencil mask from the "bite" area and shade the outer edges with dark brown. Add some ridge lines to the bite area using daggers strokes pulling from the outside inwards.
9 bite final and highlight
9. Mix a little white with the base colour (sand beige) to create a highlight colour for the edges of the "bite mark". This will create a contrast separation and will create depth to the bite area.
10 final shading
10. Shade the "bite" area with a little more Golden Brown. Using White, create a highlight line along the length of the Bat and to create the rounded end of the Bat*. *(A simple curved dagger stroke with a circular blast!) Follow up with some trans Black along the bottom of the Bat, to intensify the shading.
11 logo and shading
11. Add a manufacturer Logo to the bat. A simple cutout stencil (not too detailed) held in place and sprayed with the Dark Brown / Black mixture. Keep the stencil mask loose to create a softer edge to the logo. Remember to go back and add the highlight white over the logo. (The logo should remain soft, slightly blurred and a little transparent for realism)
Finally...remove the outer (negative) mask and shade the Bat into the background. In this case, a trans Black surface shadow and blend along the bottom of the Bat.