Make a Bauhaus Stencil Plate Contact Sheet

Open Lopsy. In the New Document dialog, set Width to 1200 and Height to 1600, choose a White background and click Create.

1. Select Background, set the foreground colour to #E9E4D8 and choose Edit → Fill. With nothing selected it fills the whole layer.
2. Click the top ruler at 60, 600 and 1140 for the side margins and the centre line.
3. Click the left ruler at 60, 228, 270, 990, 1042, 1362 and 1540. From the top, those are the top margin, the header rule, the top and bottom of the print, the top and bottom of the plates, and the bottom margin.

The print is a lighter sheet of paper lying on the page. Rename Layer 1 to Sheet by double-clicking its name.

Pick the Rectangular Marquee (M) and drag from near the 60, 270 guide crossing to near 1140, 990. Snap to Guides is on by default, so both corners land exactly on the guides. Set the foreground to #F7F4EC, choose Edit → Fill and deselect with Cmd+D.

Open the layer's effects with the ✦ button on its row, tick Drop Shadow and set Offset X 0, Offset Y 8, Blur 22 and Opacity 28. Close the drawer.

Each ink gets its own layer. Click Add Layer four times and name the new layers Yellow, Red, Blue and Key, from the bottom up. "Key" is the printer's name for black. Open each layer's effects and set its blend mode to Multiply. Multiply mixes colours the way ink does, so wherever two inks overlap you'll get a darker mix instead of one hiding the other.

The kite is four triangles that meet where the spars cross. Its corners are at about:

• top 553, 363
• left 348, 520
• right 692, 580
• bottom 461, 885
• spars crossing 520, 550

For each triangle, select its layer and pick the Pen tool (P). Click its three corners, then click the first corner again to close the path. In the Paths panel, click Path to Selection, then Delete Path. Fill with the layer's colour and deselect.

• Red: top, left, crossing
• Blue: top, crossing, right
• Yellow: left, bottom, crossing
• Key: crossing, right, bottom

The spars are thin gaps that show the paper through all four inks. Add a layer called Spars. Pick the Brush (B), open the brush presets with the tip thumbnail in the options bar, choose Hard Round and set Size to 10.

Click the kite's top tip, then hold Shift and click its bottom tip. That paints a straight line between the two clicks. Do the same from the left tip to the right tip.

Now Cmd-click the Spars thumbnail in the Layers panel. The two lines become a selection. Select each ink layer in turn, Yellow, Red, Blue and Key, and press Delete on each. Deselect, then delete the Spars layer with the bin button.

Select Yellow. Click once with the Elliptical Marquee and enter the corners 620, 340 and 920, 640. That's a 300 px circle centred at 770, 490. Fill with yellow and deselect. Where the sun overlaps the blue triangle it turns green, and over the black it stays black. That's Multiply at work.

Select Red and make a bigger circle the same way, from 572, 292 to 968, 688. Fill it red. Choose Select → Shrink…, enter 22 and press Delete to clear the middle. You're left with a red ring.

A real stencil can't cut a ring, because the middle would fall out. It keeps thin bridges instead. Deselect, then click once with the Rectangular Marquee and enter 765, 284 to 775, 696. That's a 10 px bar straight down through the sun's centre. Zoom in, hold Shift and drag a matching bar across, from 564, 485 to 976, 495. Press Delete and deselect. The ring now has four gaps.

Select Key and set the foreground to #1C1C1A. Pick the Pen tool and set Stroke to 5 in the options bar.

Start at the kite's bottom tip, 461, 885. For each point, press and drag about 40 px in the direction the curve is heading, which pulls out a smooth handle:

1. down and left to about 405, 925
2. along the bottom to 315, 942
3. curving up through 222, 914 and 152, 852
4. ending at 112, 774

Press Enter. The path is stroked with the foreground colour. Delete the path in the Paths panel.

The bowties sit across the string, with their knots on it at about:

• 387, 931 in red, on the Red layer
• 291, 939 in blue, on Blue
• 203, 902 in yellow, on Yellow
• 138, 830 in red again

Each one is a closed six-point Pen shape, about 72 px wide and 36 px tall. Picture a line through the knot at right angles to the string. The two wing tips on one side sit 36 px out along that line and 18 px either side of it, and the other two mirror them. Between each pair of tips, click a point 4 px from the knot, so the bowtie pinches to an 8 px waist on the string. Go round the six points in order and click the first one again to close the shape. Then use Path to Selection, fill with the layer's colour and deselect.

Stay on Key. Pick the Brush again with Size 5. Click where the spars cross, then Shift-click at 957, 805. This is the line from the kite to the person flying it. Click once with the Elliptical Marquee and enter 510, 540 to 530, 560 for a 20 px circle on the spars' crossing. Fill it black for the bridle knot.

The hill is a quarter of a circle in the sheet's corner. With the Elliptical Marquee, drag from 890, 740 to 1390, 1240. That's a 500 px circle centred on the sheet's bottom-right corner. It's fine for it to run off the canvas. Then hold Shift+Alt and drag a rectangle over the whole sheet. Shift+Alt keeps only the overlap, so the selection becomes a quarter-disc inside the sheet. Fill it black and deselect.

Select Red, deselect, and make a 36 px circle from 939, 787 to 975, 823, at the end of the string, for the flyer. It sits half on the hill. Fill it red.

Back on Key, set the Brush to Size 16. Draw three straight lines with a click and a Shift-click. They all end at x 320, each a little shorter:

• 120, 420 to 320, 420
• 160, 470 to 320, 470
• 200, 520 to 320, 520

Rounded ends and a shrinking stack read as motion, which is why this is a kinetic kite.

So far everything is crisp, like vector art. A sprayed stencil has soft edges and a haze of droplets just past the cut. Do this for each ink layer in turn, starting with Yellow:

1. Choose Filter → Gaussian Blur… with Radius 1.5. That softens the edges a little.
2. Cmd-click the layer's thumbnail to select its shapes.
3. Choose Select → Grow… 16, then Select → Feather… 8.
4. Hold Shift+Alt and drag a rectangle over the sheet, so the haze can't land outside the print.
5. Pick the Spray tool (J). Set Size 70, Density 26 and Opacity 40, leave Softness at 70, and set the foreground to the layer's ink.
6. Sweep back and forth across the whole selection. Only the band around each shape picks up droplets. Inside the shapes they land on solid ink and vanish.
7. Deselect and choose Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 14, Mono and Gaussian. That gives the solid ink a sprayed grain.

Select Key and add a layer called Grain. Select the sheet with the exact-corners dialog (60, 270 to 1140, 990), fill it with #808080 and deselect.

Run Add Noise with Amount 30, Mono and Gaussian. Set the layer's blend mode to Overlay and its opacity to 35%. On Overlay, mid-grey disappears, and only the noise is left to texture the paper and the ink.

Printers line up each plate with registration marks. Add a layer called Marks above Grain.

Pick the Shape tool (U), choose Ellipse, remove the fill and set a #1C1C1A stroke of Width 2. Click once at 92, 302. A Shape Size dialog opens, where you enter 22 × 22. Repeat at 1108, 302 and 92, 958. The bottom-right corner would be under the hill, so it doesn't get a mark.

Pick the Pencil (N) at Size 2. Through each circle, draw a 36 px horizontal and a 36 px vertical line with a click and a Shift-click.

The plates are four boards, 252 px wide with 24 px gutters. Add guides at 312, 336, 588, 612, 864 and 888 on the top ruler.

Select Background and add a layer called Boards, so the boards sit under the print. With the Rectangular Marquee, drag the first board between the guides from 60, 1042 to 312, 1362. Hold Shift and add the other three: 336–588, 612–864 and 888–1140, all from 1042 to 1362. Fill with #8F8B82 and deselect.

Each plate is cut from a copy of its ink at 1:5 scale. Start with yellow.

1. Select Yellow, select the sheet with the exact-corners dialog, and press Cmd+C then Cmd+V. The copy lands in place on a new layer. Rename it Cut 1.
2. Deselect, then select the sheet rectangle again with the exact-corners dialog. Pick the Move tool (V).
3. Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right corner handle up and to the left. Cmd keeps the proportions, and the top-left corner stays put. Stop when the box is 216 × 144 px, with its bottom-right corner at 276, 414. Zoom in on that corner if you need to land it exactly.
4. Press Cmd+D to commit the scale.

Draw a marquee around the small copy, from 60, 270 to 276, 414. With the Move tool, drag it down so its top-left corner sits at 78, 1082. That's 18 px in from the board's left edge and 40 px below its top. Move drags don't snap to guides, so get close, then nudge with the arrow keys to land it exactly. Press Cmd+D.

A used plate has paint around every hole. Cmd-click the Cut 1 thumbnail, choose Select → Grow… 7, and select Boards. With the Spray tool at Size 46, Density 40 and Opacity 45, and yellow as the foreground, zigzag over the cut area.

Cmd-click the Cut 1 thumbnail again and choose Select → Grow… 1. The extra pixel keeps thin parts like the string open once they're scaled down. Select Boards, press Delete, deselect, and delete the Cut 1 layer. The yellow shapes are now holes, and the paper shows through.

Repeat everything from Shrink a copy of the yellow ink to here for each of the other inks. Name the copies Cut 2, Cut 3 and Cut 4, and spray each board with its own ink:

• Plate 2: the Red layer, with its copy's top-left corner at 354, 1082
• Plate 3: the Blue layer, at 630, 1082
• Plate 4: the Key layer, at 906, 1082

The red ring needs its bridges at the small size too. After you move the red copy onto plate 2, drag a 5 px bar down through the small ring's centre (about 496, 1126), Shift-add a 5 px bar across, and press Delete on Cut 2 before you spray and cut.

Each plate needs holes where the print has its crosshairs, scaled by the same 1:5. On plate 1 they're at 84, 1088, 288, 1088 and 84, 1220. On the other plates, add 276, 552 and 828 to the x values.

With Boards selected, Shift-add a 12 px circle at each spot with the Elliptical Marquee. Press Delete and deselect. Then pick the Pencil at Size 1 with #2E2C28, and scratch four short ticks around each hole, like a cross with its middle punched out.

With Boards selected, pick the Text tool (T). Choose Stardos Stencil, Bold, size 96 and #1C1C1A, click in empty space and type 1. Press Tab to finish, then click Rasterize Layer at the bottom of the Layers panel.

Move the number to the bottom-left of plate 1, 22 px in from the edge, with its foot on the line y 1338. Cmd-click its thumbnail, select Boards, press Delete and delete the number layer. Do the same for 2, 3 and 4.

On Boards, make a 116 × 42 px tab at the bottom-right of each plate, from 118 px to 234 px in from its left edge and from y 1296 to 1338. Fill each with its plate's ink.

Select Boards, so each label is created directly above it. Type each label in Space Mono, Bold, size 20: yellow in #1C1C1A, and red, blue and key in #F7F4EC. Rasterize it, centre it on its tab, and choose Layer → Merge Down to bake it into the board. The tab's bottom edge lines up with the foot of the stencil number beside it.

Plates on a bench never sit perfectly straight. Draw a marquee a few pixels outside plate 2. With the Move tool, drag the white circle handle beyond the top-right corner a little counter-clockwise, about 1.5°. Press Cmd+D.

Do the same for plate 3, about 1° clockwise. Keep the turns small so no corner pokes past its gutter.

Open the effects for Boards. Tick Drop Shadow and set Offset X 3, Offset Y 7, Blur 12 and Opacity 40. Tick Inner Glow and set Size 3, Opacity 50 and the colour to #2E2C28. The glow darkens the edge of every hole, so the cuts look like they go through card.

Select Marks and add a layer called Rule. Use the exact-corners dialog for a 6 px bar from 60, 228 to 1140, 234, and fill it with #1C1C1A.

Type kinetic kites in Poppins, Bold, size 112, #1C1C1A, and rename the layer Title. Rasterize it and move it so its left edge is on the 60 guide, with the tops of the k's at y 58. That puts the baseline at 148, the same line the shapes in the next steps stand on. The tall letters poke 2 px above the margin, which reads as optically aligned.

Cmd-click the title's thumbnail. Then, with the Rectangular Marquee, hold Shift+Alt and drag a small box around the dot of the first i. Only the dot stays selected. Fill it with red and deselect. Repeat for the other two i's.

Type a stencil set in four plates · spray light to dark in Space Mono, size 22, and name the layer Subtitle. Rasterize it and place it on the 60 guide, with its top at y 172. That leaves the same space above the rule as there is between the rule and the print.

Add a layer called Trio. Choose View → Show Grid, drag the Grid slider in the options bar all the way left to 4px, and make sure Snap is ticked. Then turn off View → Snap to Guides. Otherwise the plate guides at 864 and 888 pull the circle's corner and squash it into an oval.

Each shape is 84 px, from y 64 to the title's baseline at 148, with 20 px between them:

1. Circle: drag the Elliptical Marquee from 848, 64 to 932, 148 and fill it red.
2. Square: drag the Rectangular Marquee from 1056, 64 to 1140, 148 and fill it blue.
3. Triangle: the Pen ignores the grid, so watch the status bar as you click 952, 148, 994, 64 and 1036, 148. Close the path, then use Path to Selection and fill it yellow.

Turn the grid off and Snap to Guides back on.

Type werkstatt für wind und papier · blatt 04 · massstab 1:5 in Space Mono, size 13, in an empty part of the canvas, and name the layer Margin. Leave it as live text.

With the Move tool, the text layer shows its own handles. Hold Cmd and drag the top-right rotation handle counter-clockwise. Cmd snaps to 15° steps, so stop at 90°. Move the text into the left margin, centred on the print, about 30 px from the page edge. It now reads from bottom to top.

Type two captions in Space Mono, size 14, rasterize them and put both on the 60 guide:

• fig. 5 the pull: four plates, sprayed light to dark, 16 px under the print. Name it Caption 5.
• fig. 1–4 the plates, one per ink, 16 px under the plates. Name it Caption 1-4.

Select Rule and pick the Pencil at Size 2 with #1C1C1A. Click 60, 1412 and Shift-click 1140, 1412 for the footer rule.

Type the plate notes in Space Mono, size 15, as four lines:

• plates: 0.5 mm board, cut at 1:5
• line the punched holes up with the marks
• bridges hold the ring's centre in place
• spray thin coats from 25 cm, light to dark

Name the layer Notes, rasterize it and place it at 60, 1430.

The overprint test shows what Multiply does, so it goes on the real ink layers. Make three 72 px circles with the exact-corners dialog: yellow on Yellow from 1008, 1450 to 1080, 1522, red on Red from 1068, 1450 to 1140, 1522, and blue on Blue from 1038, 1468 to 1110, 1540. The red one touches the right margin. Draw a marquee around the three and run Add Noise (14, Mono, Gaussian) on each of the three layers, so they match the print. Finally type overprint test in Space Mono, size 14, name it Overprint, and right-align it to the 1140 guide at y 1430.

Click Sheet, then Shift-click Marks to select everything from the sheet up to the marks. Choose Layer → Group Layers and name the group Pull. Do the same from Rule up to Overprint and call it Type. The live Margin text sits above them and can stay outside both groups. The overprint circles live on the ink layers, so they belong to Pull too.

Select the Pull group, pick the Move tool and press Shift+→ three times. The whole print moves 30 px, overprint circles included. Press Cmd+Z three times to put it back. Each press of Shift+→ is its own step, so it takes three undos.

Save with File → Save Project, and export with File → Quick Export PNG.