Airbrush Stencils: 3 Ways to Build a Unique Collection and Keep Your Artwork Fresh

Airbrush stencils are one of the best tools for making eye catching airbrush art. Whether you’re painting a large mural, applying a logo to a tiny figurine, or body painting at a music festival, stencils can help make your designs pop.

In addition, airbrush stenciling makes many designs and concepts easy and accessible for beginners. If you are a beginner airbrush artist or body painter, I would recommend reading my other article about how to start airbrush body painting with little to no artistic background.

After body painting and airbrushing for many years, I have built up a sizable stencil collection. Even with my oldest stencils, I keep finding new ways to use them and create different effects. I encourage you to start collecting stencils because your choice of stencils will define your artwork’s style and uniqueness. 

Airbrush stencil collection method #1: Cut out your own stencils by hand

This is the cheapest and easiest way to get some airbrush stencils into your collection. Cutting out your own stencils takes time but saves you a lot of money.

Step 1: Print out a cool design that you found on the internet or draw your own design. Try to get a design that connects all of the “positives” to the background. That is, make sure that no “islands” will fall away when you cut away the “negatives”. If you need to take a sharpy to visually connect the islands, that is fine, but just double check that they are all connected. It sucks to spend hours cutting out a stencil only to have it fall apart.

Step 2: Take a role of frisket film and apply the clear coating to both sides of the piece of paper that has your design on it.

Make sure that the coating doesn’t have any creases or wrinkles. If any water or paint gets under the clear coating, the stencil will start to break down. A vinyl squeegee can help with making your stencils smooth and crease-less. If you don’t have a vinyl squeegee, you can also use your hand to carefully apply the frisket film coating.

Step 3: Grab an old cutting board, a craft exacto knife and cut away all the negatives of the design.

Step 4: Cut away the excess coating around the outside edges of the stencil. You want to make the stencil small enough to handle, but leave enough of a border to protect from over spray.

The hand-cut stenciling method is great if you’re new and cheap (like I was as a beginner), or if you only need a few stencils for select projects. If you’re relying on stenciling to make the majority of your airbrush artwork, hand cutting stencils can become extremely time consuming.

For those that need to make stencils in bulk there’s a better option – using a vinyl cutter.

Airbrush stencil collection method #2: Cut out your own using a vinyl cutter for stencils

Vinyl cutters have several advantages over hand cutting stencils:

1. Cutting takes 1/100th of the time it takes to cut them out by hand
2. The vinyl cutter servo makes the cut 10 times more accurate than a human hand
3. You can use sturdy plastic materials that don’t break down from paint exposure

Really, the only downsides of vinyl cutters are the finicky digital components and the initial investment. But once you learn how to use one of these bad boys, you’ll be able to take digital designs from your computer and turn them into physical stencils at the click of a button. 

Although I still use hand cut stencils that I made years ago, the bulk of my stencil collection is now made up of vinyl cutter made stencils. The speed, control over design, and accuracy of the cut make this method too convenient to pass up.

There is one other method of stencil collection that is even more convenient than hand cutting or using a vinyl cutter – buying pre-made airbrush stencils.

Airbrush stencil collection method #3: Buy pre-made airbrush stencils

Pre-made airbrush stencils are fantastic. They’re creative, detailed, well thought out, and made with great materials. However, I included this method as the last option on this list for two reasons:

1. They’re generally very expensive
2. Anyone can buy them and use them which means less individual expression

As an airbrush artist, I personally use pre-made stencils as a last resort. But sometimes I can’t help myself when I walk into an airbrushing store and see some of the amazing stencils they have on display.

I urge you to make your own stencils and merely supplement with premades. Even if you don’t care as much about individuality, your wallet will thank you.

With that being said, you can order some pretty cool airbrush stencils online. You can also find some cheaper, more generic stencils of various sizes from your local craft store.

If you’re buying stencils on a really tight budget, you could even look for patterned craft supplies or garden decorations at your local dollar store. Get creative!

Keep it fresh by updating your stencil collection

You’re going to get tired of using the same stencils over and over. As an airbrush body painting artist, sometimes I paint 50 – 100 people a night. At this rate, it doesn’t take long before I get tired of one set and need to switch things up.

Whether you’re cutting out your own stencils by hand, using a vinyl cutter for stencils, or buying some pre-mades, I recommend adding new stencils to your collection regularly. 

As well, don’t be afraid to throw out old ones when you get sick of them. I usually bring 100 – 200 stencils to body painting events, and I probably have close to 500 that I keep at home.

It doesn’t hurt to have some old ones lying around, but you’ll know when it’s time for a change. When its time, let go of the old and bring in the new. Switching it up keeps your artwork fresh and fun!