I enjoy stenciling. When I say stenciling, I refer to the process of reducing an image from it's original shades and hues to areas of solid white and black - an image one could simply cut out in order to produce a stencil. Though I believe this can be done fairly effortlessly in many photo editting software packages, the satisfaction comes from doing it by hand. By this I mean taking a digital photo and putting it into Flash or Powerpoint and then creating the areas of black and white oneself, using a freeform shape tool. This means one has to interpret the areas of light and shade oneself. You have total control not only in the balance of shadow in the resulting stencil, but also over the smoothness of the lines and the definition of the picture's detail. Images can be wonderfully complex, or simple enough to be easily printed, cut out, and then sprayed or painted. It's also entertaining to experiment with inventing areas of light and shade that are not present in the original image. Chosing the original image carefully is important, as a direct light source makes it much easier to highlight the texture of aspects such as the wrinkles and folds of clothing. Though it takes a little getting used to, the process is relatively easy, fun, satisfying, and can produce some striking results. This style is extensively used in gaphic novels such as Sin City and is well known in connection with brands such as Emily Strange and Max Payne, to name a few. The above picture features myself and my brother Angus.