The Department of Arts held an activity with students from Preschool, Primary and High School sections around the topic of Stencil. The objective of this activity was to highlight the different types of ideas that could be obtained using similar techniques according to the different skills and capabilities of the students of each section.
The Stencil is a very antique technique consisting of stamping designs by passing the paint to a surface through a template, it has been reinterpreted during the last decades to advertise, produce pop art and, of course, create street art. The Stencil also represents a way of reproducing images, as with the help of a template and paint you can create different effects and variations of the same image and create a series of it, at the same time, it is the technical basis for more complex processes such as screen printing and airbrushing.
In preschool, the work was based on rupestrian art. Based on hand printing as a reproduction technique, the students used their hands to make animals such as flamingos and giraffes. Also, they used leaves to make stamps out of them. For transition, the ability to cut was strengthened, by using a fish stencil so the students could create an image from it. For first grade, the students used dinosaur stencils as this is the topic for their project.
In the primary section, in second grade, the work was based on elements the students chose and explored by using the positive and negative parts of an image. For third to fifth grade, free drawings were made taking into account the graphic qualities (high black and white contrast) to later turn them into a stencil, then, the spaces that must have color (positive spaces) were cut out and then sprayed with one color or two.
Stencil week in the high school section was experienced as a moment of appreciation of contemporary culture. It was explored with the intention of introducing 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to some techniques known by them, in a space of observation, criticism and analysis. Each student selected an image and from it we began the journey to the technical understanding of graffiti. In these weeks, the students had the opportunity to get closer to their environment through the urban and public context of art.
Each student carried out various tests until reaching a product that achieved their goals and met the characteristics of Stencil and Graffiti.
