First simply open the colour photo or image you will be using in photoshop (fig.1)

Now, once you have your photo opened we need to convert it into a greyscale image by using the ‘desaturate’ feature(fig.2)

Once you have your image desaturated we need to adjust its ‘brightness and contrast’ to make the job a little easier and to increase the contrast between the black and white areas of the image(fig.3)

This is one of the most important steps as the levels of contrast you create here are what will dictate the outcome and effectiveness of the single layered stencil image. Try and visualise the end result by understanding that only the most extreme areas of black will eventually be selected. Adjust the intensity of these black areas by sliding the 2 bars shown until you are happy that the image is still recognisable but there is a sharp difference between the colours(fig.4)

This is the part where there are a few ways to get a similair end result, but I think is one of the easiest and also most accurate. Select the ‘colour range’ of your image(fig.5)

Basically what is happening here is that photoshop will ’select’ a desired colour, highlight, midtone or shadow of your image. Because for this example we are creating a single layered stencil of the positive areas you will need to select ’shadows’,’selection’ and ‘greyscale’ from the selection preview. Just set your Colour Range palette up as shown in (fig.6)Click OK.

Now you will see photoshop has created a selection of the shadow or black areas of your image. Now just create a new layer in the layers palette and using the paint bucket tool fill the selection on your new layer with black.(fig.7) Hide the original layer under the new one you have created and bang! You have now converted a colour image into a useable stencil image. Keep in mind the basic rules of a stencil still applies as covered in the ‘Basic Stencil Cut’ tutorial and you may be required to tweak the image slightly to remove any of those nasty ‘floating islands’ of white areas contained within any of your black areas.

Da Da da, who’s bad?

Pick your wall or sidewalk you want to put your stencil on, and rub it down to make sure there are no leaves or dirt that can hinder your work. Then spray the area with your spray adhesive.

Then place your stencil onto of the area and get some chalk on your roller.

Start rolling, be careful on the little thin strips, always roll with them, never against them if you can help it. You don’t want your roller getting stuck and ruining your stencil. When your done, blow away any access chalk and remove your stencil.

Hopefully it will look like it should. This method works better with stencils with large areas then with detailed ones. I crushed up all the colors of chalk i had to try and achieve the darkest color of chalk i could. If you want your color darker, try adding some crushed charcoal into the mix.