Cut a Skate Shark Stencil Kit from a Photo

1. Create a new document 2400 × 1600 px.
2. Click Background in the Layers panel, set the foreground colour to #2D5B4C and choose Edit → Fill.

This green is a self-healing cutting mat, the board the stencils are cut on.

A cutting mat has a printed grid. You'll draw one square of it and repeat it.

1. Click Layer 1 and rename it Grid Tile.
2. Pick the Pencil, set Size to 2 and the colour to #9CCBB3.
3. In an empty area near the top left, draw a horizontal line and a vertical line that cross, each about 120 px long. Click to start a line, then hold Shift and click to finish it.
4. Set Size to 1 and draw a second, thinner pair 50 px further right and 50 px further down. These are the half-way lines.
5. Pick the Rectangular Marquee and, with nothing selected, click once (don't drag) on the point where the thick lines cross. A Rectangular Selection dialog opens. Type the crossing point into From X / Y and add 100 to each for To X / Y, so you get an exact 100 × 100 px square, and apply it.
6. Choose Edit → Define Pattern, deselect with Cmd+D, and delete the Grid Tile layer.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Mat Grid.
2. Choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick the tile you just made and click Apply. With nothing selected, the pattern fills the whole canvas.
3. Set the layer's opacity to 45% so the grid sits back.

Cutting mats also print angle guides and heavier lines every few squares.

1. Still on Mat Grid, use the Pencil at size 2 in #9CCBB3.
2. Click in the bottom-left corner, then hold Cmd+Shift and click about four fifths of the way up. Holding Cmd snaps the line to 15° steps, so you get an exact 45°. Draw a steeper 60° line from the same corner, and another 45° line from the bottom-right corner.
3. Set Size to 4 and draw full-length lines on every fifth grid line: down the canvas at x 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000, and across at y 500, 1000 and 1500. Watch X and Y in the status bar to land on them.

1. Click Background and run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 10, Mono and Gaussian.
2. Click Mat Grid, add a layer called Mat Wear and fill it with black. Run Filter → Clouds… with Scale 6.
3. Open the layer's effects drawer, set the blend mode to Soft Light, and set the opacity to 8%. Any stronger and the mat looks like smoke.
4. With Mat Wear active, pick the Text tool and set Space Mono, Size 18, colour #9CCBB3. Click just right of each heavy line along the top edge and type 5, 10, 15 and 20, pressing Tab after each one. Do the same with 5, 10 and 15 down the left edge.
5. Click Mat Grid, Shift-click the top number, choose Layer → Group Layers and name the group Cutting Mat. Click its arrow to collapse it.

Keep Cutting Mat selected, open the photo in your browser or image viewer, copy it and press Cmd+V in Lopsy. It arrives at its full size in the top-left corner on a new layer. Rename the layer Mako Photo and deselect.

The photo stays at this size. You'll cut the plates from it here and scale them down later.

1. Pick the Magic Wand, set Tolerance to 40 and tick Contiguous.
2. Click the bright water near the top left.
3. Hold Shift and click the water in seven or eight more places, from the bright cyan at the top to the deep blue at the bottom and right. Each click adds to the selection.

Zoom in and look closely at the ants round the dorsal fin and the tail. They are dark navy, close to the deep blue water, so the wand can easily take part of them too.

If the ants cut across the base of the dorsal fin or the tail, take them back:

1. Pick the Lasso.
2. Hold Option and drag a tight loop around the dorsal fin. Option-drag subtracts from the selection.
3. Do the same around the tail.

1. Press Delete to clear the water, then deselect.
2. Bubbles and specks are left floating in the water. Lasso a loose outline around the whole shark, choose Select → Inverse, and press Delete again.
3. Deselect and rename the layer Mako Cutout.

The photo cuts off the bottom of the tail. Cut as it is, that would make a straight bar on the stencil instead of a fin.

1. With the Lasso, loop around the tail from the narrow point where it joins the body, and press Delete.
2. Draw the new tail as a lasso shape. Start at the narrow stalk, sweep out to a pointed tip above the body line, curve back in to a notch in the middle, then out to a matching tip below and back to the stalk. A mako's tail is almost symmetrical, like a crescent moon.
3. Fill it with #2C4F7C, a mid blue that will posterize into the dark plates, and deselect.

1. Click Duplicate Layer and rename the copy Tone Map.
2. Run Filter → Desaturate.
3. Run Filter → Gaussian Blur… with Radius 4. This smooths the photo detail into shapes you could actually cut.
4. Run Filter → Brightness/Contrast… with Brightness 4 and Contrast 100.
5. Run Filter → Posterize… with Levels 4.

Black is the shadows, dark grey the mid tones, light grey and white the highlights. The plates come from the two darker tones.

First the base plate, the whole silhouette:

1. Hide Mako Cutout. Cmd-click its thumbnail to load its outline as a selection.
2. Run Select → Shrink… 2, then Select → Grow… 2. Shrinking then growing removes specks smaller than the shrink.
3. Click Tone Map, add a layer called Plate Base and fill it with bone #EDE4CE. Deselect.

Then the mid plate, everything darker than the light grey:

1. Hide Plate Base so you can see the tone map, and click Tone Map. Pick the Magic Wand, set Tolerance to 12 and untick Contiguous.
2. Click a dark grey area, then Shift-click a black area.
3. Shrink 2, Grow 2, click Plate Base, add a layer called Plate Mid and fill it with teal #14918C.

Then the key plate, just the black. Hide Plate Mid too, wand only a black area on Tone Map, shrink and grow 2, click Plate Mid, and fill a new Plate Key layer with #161616. Deselect and show all three plates again.

Hide Tone Map. The three plates now stack into the stencil look you're aiming for: bone underneath, teal over it, black on top.

First add guides for the card layout: two 740 × 600 px card spaces across and two down, with gutters between them, leaving a column on the left for the deck. Click the top ruler at 770, 1510, 1600 and 2340, and the left ruler at 250, 850, 930 and 1530. Each click drops a guide.

You need the plates twice: once to cut the cards and once for the sprayed deck.

1. Click Plate Key, Shift-click Plate Base and choose Layer → Group Layers. Name the group Shark Plates.
2. Click Duplicate Layer. Name the copy group Deck Shark, then hide it for now.

1. Click the Shark Plates group, pick the Move tool and make sure nothing is selected. The Move tool frames all three plates with one transform box.
2. Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right corner handle up and left until the box's right edge reaches about 600 on the top ruler. The shark is then about 530 px long, 54% of its photo size, which fits a card with room to spare. Cmd keeps the proportions.
3. Press Cmd+D to finish the transform.

The guides mark four card spaces: two across and two down, to the right of a column left free for the deck.

1. Click Plate Base and drag it with the Move tool into the middle of the top-left space, a little below centre to leave room for a label.
2. Drag Plate Mid into the top-right space and Plate Key into the bottom-left space.

The plates have to stay in register, so move each one by exactly the same amount relative to its space. The spaces are 830 px apart across and 680 px down. Hover the shark's nose tip on Plate Base and note its X and Y in the status bar. The same point on Plate Mid should end up 830 px further right, and on Plate Key 680 px further down. Drag close, then switch to the Move tool's arrow keys for the last few pixels (Shift moves 10 px).

Real stencils are cut with a knife, so the wand's ragged edges have to go.

1. Zoom in on each plate. Box any tiny floating speck with the Rectangular Marquee and press Delete. Delete the eye and the little gill slits on the key plate too, because they're too small to cut.
2. On each plate, Cmd-click its own thumbnail, run Shrink 4 then Grow 4, choose Select → Inverse and press Delete. This trims the thin, ragged bits.
3. Cmd-click the thumbnail again and run Grow 4 then Shrink 4. Set the foreground to that plate's colour (bone, teal or black) and fill. This fills in the little nicks.

1. Collapse both groups. Click Deck Shark and add a layer called Card 1. It goes above the groups, not inside them.
2. Drag the Rectangular Marquee from the top-left guide corner of the first space to its bottom-right corner. The marquee snaps to the guides.
3. Run Shrink 18 and then Grow 18. Growing a shrunken rectangle gives it round corners.
4. Fill with chipboard #C9A46E and deselect.

1. Expand Shark Plates and Cmd-click the Plate Base thumbnail.
2. Click the Card 1 row and press Delete. The shark becomes a hole, and the mat shows through.
3. Punch two registration holes. Every card gets them in the same two spots, so the plates line up when you spray. Pick the Elliptical Marquee and, with nothing selected, click once near the bottom-left corner. An Elliptical Selection dialog opens. For card 1 type From 801, 793 and To 827, 819, a 26 px circle centred 44 px in from the corner, apply it and press Delete. Do the same 44 px in from the top-right corner (From 1453, 281, To 1479, 307). On the other cards, add the same offsets to the card's corners.
4. Deselect and hide Shark Plates.
5. Finish the card. Run Add Noise at Amount 9, Mono and Gaussian, for a little grain. Open the effects drawer and tick Drop Shadow: Offset X 7, Offset Y 9, Blur 12, Opacity 60, colour #0B1F18. Then tick Stroke: Width 2, colour #8A6A3E, position Inside. The shadow falls into the cut, so the holes look real, and the stroke darkens every cut edge like a knife cut.

Repeat Lay out the first card and Cut the first card for Card 2 in the top-right space, cut with Plate Mid, and Card 3 in the bottom-left space, cut with Plate Key. Click the previous card's row before adding each new card layer.

Before you finish each card, zoom in and look for islands: pieces of card that the cut has separated from the rest. In a real stencil they would fall out. Stencil cutters leave thin straps called bridges to hold them.

1. Pick the Pencil, set Size 7 and the colour #C9A46E.
2. For each loose piece, click on it, then Shift-click on the nearest solid card across the gap to draw a straight strap.
3. Slivers too small to bridge would fall out anyway. Box them with the marquee and delete them so they become part of the hole.

Then give the card the same grain, drop shadow and stroke as card 1.

Zoom out. You have three cards: the whole silhouette, the teal mid tones and the black shadows. The registration holes sit in the same corners on each, and every hole shows the mat with a soft shadow inside.

Make Card 4 above Card 3 the same way, but don't cut it yet. This card holds the lettering plate: an arched MAKO JAWS, a sun disc and SKATE CREW.

1. First set the bottom line, because a click near existing text edits it. Pick the Text tool, choose Stardos Stencil, Bold, size 30, colour #161616, and type SKATE CREW low on the card. Press Tab. In the Text panel set Letter spacing to 3. Switch to the Move tool and nudge it with the arrow keys until it's centred across the card, about 90 px below the card's middle.
2. Pick the Pen tool. The arc is part of a circle with a 150 px radius, centred on the card's middle (1970, 1307 here). That centre is also where the sun disc will go.
3. Press on the left end of the arc, about 145 px left of the centre and 40 px above it, and drag up and to the right along the curve. Press at the top, 150 px straight above the centre, and drag straight right. Press at the right end, mirroring the left one, and drag down and to the right. Dragging pulls out smooth curve handles.
4. Click the ✓ Commit path button in the options bar. It adds the path without painting a stroke.

1. Click the Card 4 row so the next settings don't restyle SKATE CREW.
2. With the Text tool, choose Stardos Stencil, Bold, size 52, click inside the arc and type MAKO JAWS. Press Tab to finish.
3. Set Align to Center, then pick Path 1 in the Path menu of the options bar. The letters jump onto the arc, centred.
4. In the Text panel set Letter spacing to 8 so no letters touch.
5. Open the Paths panel and click Path 1 again to deselect it, so its outline stops drawing over the card.

To cut the letters and the disc in one go, they need to be on one pixel layer.

1. Click MAKO JAWS and add a layer called Plate Type. With the Elliptical Marquee, Cmd-drag a 120 px circle centred on the arc's centre point, fill it with orange #E2662F and deselect. Cmd keeps it round.
2. Click MAKO JAWS, click Duplicate Layer, then the Rasterize Layer button in the Layers panel toolbar. The copy lands below Plate Type, so drag it by its grip until it sits right above Plate Type, then choose Layer → Merge Down.
3. Do the same with SKATE CREW.
4. Hide the two live text layers. Cmd-click Plate Type and fill it with orange, so the letters match the disc.

1. Cmd-click the Plate Type thumbnail, click Card 4 and press Delete.
2. Hide Plate Type, punch the two registration holes, and finish the card with grain, a drop shadow and a stroke as before.

The kit is cut. Now spray a proof.

1. Click Tone Map and add a layer called Deck.
2. With the Elliptical Marquee and nothing selected, click once in the left column. In the dialog type From 213, 250 and To 567, 580 for the nose: an oval 355 px wide and 330 px tall, its top on the first guide.
3. Pick the Rectangular Marquee, hold Shift and drag a rectangle from the left end of the oval's middle (213, 415) to 567, 1305. Shift adds to the selection.
4. Switch back to the Elliptical Marquee and Shift-drag a matching oval for the tail, from 213, 1140 to 567, 1470. The deck is 355 × 1220 px, close to a real board's shape.

1. Fill the selection with maple #D4A877.
2. Add a layer called Wood Grain and run Filter → Fibers… with Variance 30 and Strength 64. The fibres stay inside the selection and run along the board.
3. Deselect, set Wood Grain to Multiply at 40%.
4. On Deck, add Inner Glow (Size 14, Opacity 45, #5A3518), a Stroke (Width 3, #6E4A2A, Inside) for the ply edge, and a Drop Shadow (Offset X 9, Offset Y 12, Blur 16, Opacity 60, #0B1F18).

The deck uses the same plates as the cards, at the same size, so the proof shows exactly what the stencils would print.

1. Click Plate Type, click Duplicate Layer, rename the copy Deck Type and show it.
2. With the Move tool, drag it onto the nose of the deck, centred across the width, with the top of the arch about 130 px below the tip.

The stencils can be held at any angle when you spray, so the deck shark is turned to swim up the board.

1. Show the Deck Shark group and click it. With the Move tool and nothing selected, a box frames all three plates.
2. Drag a round rotation handle just outside a corner so the shark turns about 50° anticlockwise, nose up.

1. Press Cmd+D to finish the rotation.
2. Cmd-drag the bottom-right corner handle in until the box is about 285 × 610 px. That's 54%, the same size as the shark on the cards. Press Cmd+D.

1. With the group still selected, drag the shark onto the deck so its nose sits just below SKATE CREW and its tail ends above the tail of the board.
2. In the Layers panel, drag the Deck Shark row by its grip above Deck Type.
3. Trim the paint to the board. Cmd-click the Deck thumbnail, choose Select → Inverse, then click each plate copy and Deck Type in turn and press Delete.

Flat fills look printed, not sprayed. On each paint layer (the three plate copies and Deck Type):

1. Run Gaussian Blur with Radius 1 and Add Noise at 14, Mono, Gaussian.
2. Set the bone and orange coats to 90%. Set the teal and black coats to Multiply at 85% so the grain shows through.

Then add the overspray. Spray paint drifts a little past the stencil's edge.

1. Click Wood Grain and add a layer called Deck Overspray under the paint.
2. Pick the Spray tool: Size 50, Density 100, Opacity 18, Softness 40.
3. Cmd-click the bone plate copy, run Grow 22, click Deck Overspray, set the colour to bone and spray back and forth over the shark.
4. Do the same around Deck Type in orange at Opacity 10.
5. Cmd-click Deck, choose Select → Inverse and delete the overspray that landed on the mat.

1. Add a layer called Drips and drag it above Deck Shark.
2. Pick the Brush with Hardness 90 and Opacity 100.
3. Set Size 5 and orange. Click on the bottom edge of the sun and Shift-click 25–45 px straight below. Set Size 10 and click once at the end for the bead of paint.
4. Add one more orange drip and one teal drip from the bottom of the shark's pectoral fin.

1. With the Elliptical Marquee, drag a 14 px circle where the first front bolt goes, in the gap between the arch and the sun.
2. Shift-drag three more to make a square about 42 px wide and 52 px tall. Make a second square of four near the tail, below the shark.
3. Click Deck, Wood Grain, Deck Overspray, the three plate copies and Deck Type in turn and press Delete on each, so the holes go through the board and every coat of paint.

Used stencils are covered in paint, heaviest right at the cut edge.

1. Click Card 1 and add a layer called Overspray 1.
2. Cmd-click Plate Base, run Grow 40 and then Select → Feather… 28.
3. Pick the Spray tool: Size 50, Density 100, Opacity 60, Softness 50, in bone. Spray back and forth over the whole shape.
4. Cmd-click Plate Base again, Grow 130, Feather 70, and spray once more at Size 90, Opacity 26. This is the faint outer mist.
5. Clean up: Cmd-click Plate Base and press Delete to clear paint from the hole. Then Cmd-click Card 1, choose Select → Inverse and press Delete to clear paint from the mat.

Repeat for the other cards. Expand Shark Plates so you can reach the plate thumbnails. Each card's overspray layer goes directly above it:

• Card 2: Plate Mid, teal. Pass 1 Grow 40, Feather 28, Opacity 42; pass 2 Grow 130, Feather 70, Opacity 14.
• Card 3: Plate Key, black #141414. Pass 1 the same as card 2; pass 2 Grow 70, Feather 40, Opacity 10. Then set Overspray 3 to Multiply at 65%.
• Card 4: Plate Type, orange. The same passes as card 2.

Pick the Text tool, choose Permanent Marker at size 38 in #2A2320, and write a label 40 px in from the top-left corner of each card: 01 BASE — BONE, 02 MID — TEAL, 03 KEY — BLACK and 04 TYPE — ORANGE. Click the card's overspray layer before each one, so the new label lands above it and no earlier label gets restyled. Rename the four text layers Label 1 to Label 4.

1. Click Deck Type and click Add Mask in the Layers panel toolbar.
2. Click the white mask thumbnail on the Mask row under Deck Type to paint on the mask. In mask editing, the Brush always hides.
3. With the Brush at Size 6, Opacity 85, Hardness 70, drag a few short scrapes over the outer letters near the rails, where a board gets scuffed.
4. Set Size 40, Opacity 30, Hardness 0 and brush once down the right edge of the sun.
5. Click the Deck Type row to leave mask editing.

1. Click Deck Shark, then Cmd-click Drips, Deck Type, Deck Overspray, Wood Grain and Deck.
2. Choose Layer → Group Layers and name the group Deck Proof.
3. With the Move tool and nothing selected, drag a rotation handle to turn the whole deck about 4° anticlockwise, then press Cmd+D and collapse the group.

1. Click Label 4 and add a layer called Chipboard Mottle.
2. Cmd-click Card 1, click Chipboard Mottle and run Filter → Clouds… with Scale 18. Repeat for the other three cards, so the clouds fill only the cards.
3. Deselect, run Add Noise at 30, Mono, Gaussian, and set the layer to Multiply at 7%.

1. Add a layer called Tape 1. Lasso a strip about 150 × 62 px across the top edge of the first card, with short zigzag ends like torn tape.
2. Fill it with #E6D9B4, add noise at 6 and set the layer to 88%.
3. Cmd-click Tape 1 and press Cmd+C. Press Cmd+V: the paste lands in place on a new layer. Name it Tape 2 and drag it to the top edge of card 2. Paste twice more for Tape 3 and Tape 4, on the bottom edges of cards 3 and 4.
4. Turn each tape a few degrees with its rotation handle, some one way and some the other, and give each a slightly different opacity (78–92%).
5. Give every tape a small Drop Shadow: Offset X 2, Offset Y 3, Blur 4, Opacity 35.

1. Type MAKO JAWS in Stardos Stencil, Bold, size 122, along the top, starting above the first card. Name the layer Title Type.
2. Cmd-click the text's thumbnail, hide the text and add a layer called Title Spray.
3. Pick the Spray tool: Size 70, Density 100, Opacity 95, Softness 20, in orange. Spray back and forth across the selection until the letters are solid but still speckled at the edges.
4. Deselect and add an Outer Glow in orange (Size 16, Spread 0, Opacity 40) for the mist.

1. Add a layer called Header Tape and lasso a long tape strip, about 790 × 76 px, to the right of the title. Fill it with tape colour, add noise and a small shadow.
2. Write STENCIL KIT No.1 — 4 PLATES + DECK PROOF on it in Permanent Marker, size 30, and name the layer Kit Label. Switch to the Move tool and centre it on the tape with the arrow keys.
3. Click Header Tape, Shift-click the label text, and rotate both together by about 1.5° with the Move tool.

Contact sheets number every frame. With Space Mono at size 36 in #F47A35, type ▲ 01 to ▲ 04 just above the top-left corner of each card. There's no key for ▲, so copy it from this page and paste it into the text.

1. Click the collapsed Deck Proof group and add a layer called Grease Pencil, so it sits on top of everything.
2. Pick the Brush: Size 10, Opacity 92, Hardness 80, colour #D8322A. In one stroke, draw a loose loop around the deck, starting near the top right and overshooting past where you started.
3. Write 05 — PRINT THIS ONE above the loop in Rock Salt, size 27, in the same red, with two spaces between words. Give it a 2 px Stroke in the same red so it has the weight of a wax pencil.
4. Back on Grease Pencil, draw a tick after the note and a short arrow down into the loop. Then run Add Noise at 18 on the layer for a waxy texture.
5. Type ▲ 05 above the deck in the frame-number style.

Choose Edit → Clear Guides, then File → Quick Export PNG for the finished sheet, and File → Save Project to keep the layers.