Stencilling produces an image or pattern by applying pigment to a surface over an intermediate object with designed gaps in it which create the pattern or image by only allowing the pigment to reach some parts of the surface. The stencil is both the resulting image or pattern and the intermediate object; the context in which stencil is used makes clear which meaning is intended. In practice, the (object) stencil is usually a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, wood or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material.
Stencil technique in visual art is
also referred to as pochoir. A related technique (which has found
applicability in some surrealist compositions)
is aerography, in
which spray-painting is done around a three-dimensional object
to create a negative of the object instead of a positive of a stencil design.
This technique was used in cave paintings dating to 10,000 BC, where human
hands were used in painting handprint outlines among paintings of animals and
other objects. The artist sprayed pigment around his hand by using a hollow
bone, blown by mouth to direct a stream of pigment.