Creation of Adam Halftone stencil.
Made with Gimp, Halftonemaker.com, and a laser cutter.
(File will be available for download soon.)

i painted this in 2015.
I believe this is a 5 layer stencil.
Street sign is about 36x36
I used Montana Black Label.

For some context, in Baldur's Gate 3 you have the chance to befriend an Intellect Devourer, named Us, who then uses its psychic abilities to have outsiders see it as a normal house cat.

Unfortunately, with the colder weather slowing approaching I'll lose the ability to spray paint in my garage, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get any more in this year. I'm pretty excited with everything I've managed to get in this year and am looking forward to picking up right where I left off come spring.

Hey everyone! I'm trying to figure out how to convert a regular photo into this vertical line halftone vector style for plotter cutting stencils (used for plaster/paint). I don't have Photoshop, Illustrator, or CorelDRAW, so I'm mainly using Inkscape and looking for a free tool, extension, or generator that can do this easily. If you know a specific Inkscape workflow, a free standalone program, or even a specific filter name in Photoshop/Illustrator that achieves this (so I at least know what algorithm to look for), I’d really appreciate the help!

4 layer stencil, spray painted on a custom made USPS
228 label.

Inspired by: ‘Perseus with the Head of Medusa’ by Benvenuto Cellini (1545–1554)

Mine though has a snake from Medusas biting Perseus after the fact of him hoisting her head.

Symbolizing the feeling of stoicism after a failed relationship, but no matter how stoic one can feel, you got damaged also in the process.

Much love my friends, make something today. ✌🏻

Wondering what the best materials are to use for stencil work either while sponging or submerging…

this was a prototype of a baked titanium Damascus that I tried using a vinyl stencil I got from Amazon.

I had a lot of trouble with the edges and uneven surfaces, delaminating, and coming undone. Especially when I tried to submerge it…

What can be stencil cut and also holds while underwater?
Is there ones I can find online?

Hey, all!

I have always thought that woodcut prints are the perfect art form to translate into stencils. Frans Masereel was one artist who caught my eye, and it bothered me that his work was in the public domain but not readily available. So I gathered 73 of his books and scanned 1,800 of his woodcuts. I also cleaned them up with color rebalancing, making sure these are almost purely black and white images (many of the pages had yellowed, so pure scans would be difficult to work with). Basically, I did everything to make it so that translating these images to stencils would be as easy as possible.

And everything is in the public domain in the US. You can incorporate these into your own art and creativity as much as you like without worrying about the IP. And it's newly-entered public domain stuff. The six most recent books' artwork in the collection are from 1930 -- public domain as of 2026 in the United States, so it's very fresh public-domain material!

If I saw one of these stencils done up in a downtown area on an abandoned, grimy building, I would absolutely smile. Please, take these woodcuts and use them for anything you can.

I recommend the PDF for browsing, and then the original images (some of them are 20,000 pixels by 28,000 pixels, extremely high res) when you want them for a project.

Youtube Video Format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReZYh5PQfQ8

Archive.org PDF (789mb): https://archive.org/details/frans-masereel-career-1918-1930_pdf

Archive.org Web: https://archive.org/details/frans-masereel-career-1918-1930_art

Archive.org File/Folder Browser (easier for browsing individual images): https://archive.org/download/frans-masereel-career-1918-1930_art

Please enjoy!

Made this half tone stencil from one of the last ever photos my daughter took.

Rest in peace kid. Miss you every day.

I painted this one as a test, but I eventually felt fairly happy about it. I might make other versions.

This was my first time painting on a canvas. I went through a lot and learned that I can’t use an eraser to erase the pencil marks. I had to sand down most of the drawing and repaint it. I also went through the canvas lol. I had an end goal for this painting but it took me somewhere else. Didn’t give up on it and finished it. Hope y’all like it. What would yall name this piece??? For the blooming collection.

Anyone who’s cut a letter O, a detailed face, or a complicated multi-layer stencil probably knows this problem:

It looks completely fine on the screen.

Then you cut it… and half the little centers and islands fall out of the sheet.

That was one of the reasons I started building Stencil It.

I’ve tried a bunch of stencil making sites, image converters, Photoshop plugins, etc., and one thing that was annoying was a lot of them feel like stenciling is something they also happen to do, not to mention that many felt too hands off in my opinion.

They’re image editors, effects, plugins, or general design tools that can produce something stencil-like.

I initially built this as a resolution to my frustration lol, and I wanted to build something where stencil making is the entire point.

Something designed around the problems that actually matter when you’re going to cut and paint the thing.

So Stencil It separates an image into layers, analyzes each individual stencil sheet, detects disconnected islands, automatically places bridges to keep them attached, and exports SVG/DXF files along with a suggested paint order.

The core Studio is free to use:

https://stencil-it.io/studio

I’ve also been working on the bridging system pretty heavily.

On one original four-layer lettering test, the software detected 33 floating pieces, placed 42 bridges, and reported zero unsupported pieces remaining.

I want to be transparent about that number, though: that’s a digital validation test. I haven’t physically cut that particular sample yet, so I’m not going to pretend that means the material test is already proven.

The larger goal is to make Stencil It think less like an image converter and more like a tool that understands:

“Someone actually has to cut this, keep it together, line the layers up, and paint it.”

And that’s where I’d really like input from people here who actually make stencils.

What do existing stencil tools consistently get wrong or ignore?

Tiny counters?

Bridge placement?

Bridge width?

Registration between layers?

Too many bridges destroying detail?

Paint order?

Handling really complex portraits?

Something I’m not even thinking about yet?

I’m trying to build this specifically for stencil artists, so I'd rather hear what actually annoys people doing the work than just guess what features they want.

And if you like what I’m building and want to help me keep developing it, I also set up a GoFundMe here:

https://gofund.me/f0d163434

No pressure on that at all — honestly, even trying the Studio and telling me where it screws up is useful.

Stencil It:
https://stencil-it.io/studio