Make a Multi-Layer Stencil Jazz Club Billboard

Open Lopsy and choose File → New. Set Width 1800 and Height 720 in pixels, choose a White background and click Create. At 2.5:1 it has the long, low shape of a roadside billboard.

Click the Background row and pick the Gradient tool. It has no keyboard shortcut, so pick it from the toolbox. Set Type to Linear and click Advanced…. Click the left stop and use the hue strip and color square to pick a deep navy (about #0E1230). Click the right stop and pick a dusky violet (about #2A2360). Click Done.

Drag straight down from the top edge of the canvas to the bottom edge. The top is darkest, as the sky would be, and the bottom glows a little violet.

Double-click Layer 1 and rename it Plywood. Choose Filter → Fibers and set Variance 24 and Strength 40, then click Apply. Open the row's Layer effects (the sparkle button), set Blend to Overlay and close the drawer. Then set the row's opacity to 35%. The grain now tints the sky instead of covering it.

Click the top ruler at x 450, 900 and 1350 to drop guides where the plywood sheets meet. Add two more at 980 and 1740: those are the left and right edges of the type block.

Click Add Layer and name the layer Seams. With the Rectangular Marquee, select a strip 6 px wide and the full canvas height centered on each sheet guide. Fill each strip with #0A0C1E using Edit → Fill. Set Seams to 70%.

Click Add Layer and name it Stage Glow. Press Q to enter Quick Mask. Pick the Gradient tool, switch Type to Radial and open Advanced…. Set the left stop to white and the right stop to black. Then drag from (480, 590) up to (480, 160).

In Quick Mask, white adds to the selection and black leaves it out. So this paints a selection that is strongest behind where the xylophone will stand.

Press Q again to turn the painted mask into a selection. The marching ants show where it passes 50%. Set the foreground to #FF2E88, choose Edit → Fill, then press Cmd+D to deselect. Set the layer's Blend to Screen and its opacity to 45%. You get a soft pink spill of light, like a stage lamp on the hoarding.

Click Add Layer and name it Moon. Set the foreground to #F2E6C8. With the Elliptical Marquee, drag from (110, 60) to (550, 500), then choose Edit → Fill.

Draw a second ellipse from (215, 15) to (635, 435) and press Delete to bite out the crescent. Then select a 5 px strip from (100, 318) to (300, 323) and press Delete again.

That thin gap is a stencil bridge. A real cardboard stencil needs bridges to hold its islands together, and those gaps are a big part of what makes a piece read as sprayed.

Press Cmd+D, open the Moon row's Layer effects and tick Outer Glow. Set the color to #F2E6C8, Size 48, Spread 6 and Opacity 45.

Pick the Magic Wand, untick Contiguous and click the crescent. That selects both halves on either side of the bridge. Click Add Layer and name it Moon Shade. Pick the Gradient tool with Linear type (the stops are still white to black) and drag from (470, 120) to (120, 400) inside the selection.

Then choose Filter → Halftone. Set Dot Size 11, Density 1, Angle 30 and Softness 1, and click Apply.

Press Cmd+D. Open Moon Shade's effects, tick Color Overlay and set it to #FF2E88. Then drop the layer to 60%. The dots print like a screen-printed tone over the cream.

Click the Stage Glow row and add a layer named Stars. Pick the Spray tool and set Size 34, Density 14 and Opacity 75. Click once each at (610, 70), (880, 125), (455, 28) and (930, 330). Give each one a hard core by filling an 8 × 8 ellipse at its center. Then drop the spray to Size 24 and Density 3, and click a few times across the sky for stray paint dust.

Click Moon Shade, then click New Group and name the group Xylophone. Everything for the instrument goes inside it.

Add a layer named Rails. With the Lasso, click four corners for a 16 px-tall rail sloping from (80, 459) to (888, 503) and fill it with cream. Then do a second rail from (80, 631) to (888, 587). The rails slope because the bars get shorter to the right.

Add a layer named Bars. Each bar is 76 px wide with a 20 px gap, starting at x 110, and centered on y 545. The heights step down from 300 to 170: 300, 281, 263, 244, 226, 207, 189, 170. Marquee each bar and fill it, cycling pink, teal and cream from left to right.

Where each bar crosses a rail, draw a 16 × 16 ellipse on the bar's center line and press Delete. Then cut a 5 px-tall bridge right across each bar, 45% of the way down, and press Delete again. These bridges split every bar into two stencil islands.

Press Cmd+D. Pick the Brush at Size 7 and Hardness 100. Draw straight lines 18–55 px long down from the bottom edge of bars 1, 4, 5 and 7, each in its bar's color. End each drip with a small filled ellipse as the bead. Too much paint pooling at the bottom is the classic spray-can tell.

Switch to the Move tool and choose Layer → Duplicate Layer twice. Each copy lands 10 px to the right, so press Shift+Left on each one to line it back up. Rename the three layers, from the bottom up: Key Plate, Overspray and Bars.

Click Key Plate and nudge it 6 px right and 4 px down with the arrow keys. Then add a Color Overlay of #0E0B1A. It reads as a black stencil sheet that was sprayed slightly out of line.

Click Overspray and choose Filter → Gaussian Blur. Set Radius 10, click Apply, and drop the layer to 55%. The soft halo sits just under the crisp bars, like paint that drifted past the stencil edge.

Still on Overspray, pick the Spray tool at Size 40, Density 4 and Opacity 80. Click once or twice near the top corners of each bar in that bar's color. Keep it sparse: a few flecks sell the effect.

Click Bars and add a layer named Cat. With the Lasso, click round a sitting cat facing right: its feet on top of the first bar at about (158, 395), and its pointed ears reaching up to y 220. Fill it with #0E0B1A. It sits right in front of the moon, so the silhouette reads from across the street.

Paint the tail with the Brush at Size 14, curling from the cat's rear out to the left. Then cut the eye as a small 10 × 6 ellipse with Delete, so the moon shows through as a glint. Add one more 16 × 4 bridge across the tail.

Add a layer named Mallet A. Draw a cream 8 px Brush line straight down from (786, 278) to (786, 460) and fill a teal 40 px ellipse at its bottom end for the head. Do the same on Mallet B at x 757, with a pink head.

Marquee Mallet A loosely, switch to the Move tool, and drag the rotate handle just outside the box's top-right corner 40° clockwise. Press Cmd+D to commit.

Rotate Mallet B 40° the other way so the handles cross in an X and each head rests on one of the last two bars. Give both mallets a Drop Shadow of #0E0B1A, Offset X 6, Offset Y 4, Blur 0 and Opacity 100. That matches the key-plate offset.

Add a layer named Note. Lasso a tilted oval head at about (610, 300) and fill it cream. Marquee a 7 × 108 stem up from its right side, then lasso the curved flag. Give it the same hard black Drop Shadow (5, 4).

Marquee the note, press Cmd+C and then Cmd+V. The paste lands in place on a new layer: rename it Note 2. Marquee it again and drag it up and to the left, to about (520, 80). Press Cmd+D.

Marquee Note 2 again and hold Cmd while you drag its bottom-right corner handle inward to about 75%. Holding Cmd keeps the proportions. Press Cmd+D.

Marquee it once more, rotate it 14° clockwise and press Cmd+D. Add a Color Overlay of #19C7B4 and the black Drop Shadow. Then tilt the first note 12° the other way so the pair drifts up out of the mallets.

Click Moon Shade first. With a raster layer active, changing the text options won't restyle an existing text layer. Pick the Text tool, set Size 128 and the font to Allerta Stencil, and set the foreground to cream. Click at (978, 44), type XYLOPHONE and press Tab. It spans the two type guides, from about x 987 to 1740.

Click Moon Shade again. Set the font to Sirin Stencil at Size 165 and the foreground to #FF2E88. Click in empty space lower down, type NOCTURNE and press Tab. With the Move tool, nudge it up with Shift+Up (10 px per press) and the arrow keys until its top sits 22 px under XYLOPHONE and its left edge lines up at x 987.

Click Rasterize Layer in the Layers panel footer. Marquee the word and drag the right-middle handle out to the 1740 guide. Press Cmd+D. The two words now lock together as one block.

On the rasterized NOCTURNE layer, use the 8 px pink Brush plus ellipse beads to hang drips from the N, C, U and E. Make them different lengths, from about 26 to 62 px.

Give NOCTURNE a Drop Shadow of #0E0B1A at offset (7, 5), Blur 0, Opacity 100. Give XYLOPHONE a teal #19C7B4 shadow at (6, 4). Each word now looks sprayed through two sheets that didn't quite line up.

Click Moon Shade. Type live mallet jazz after dark in Yellowtail, Size 50 and pink, somewhere in empty space. Rasterize it and rename it Script. Move it under NOCTURNE so its right edge sits at x 1735. Then marquee it, rotate it about 4° counter-clockwise and press Cmd+D.

Use Black Ops One at Size 36. Put EVERY FRIDAY · 11 PM – 3 AM in cream at y ≈ 478, and THE BLUE MALLET CLUB · 9 CANAL ST in teal at y ≈

1. Nudge both so they start at x 987, and keep the right margin at least 60 px.

Click Moon Shade, add a layer named Ticket, and marquee (1250, 615) at 460 × 72. Fill it with cream.

Delete a 28 × 28 circle centered on each short end for the notches. Then delete a column of 6 × 6 circles every 11 px at x 1333 for the perforation.

With Ticket active, set 07 in pink Black Ops One at Size 30 on the stub. Click Rasterize Layer, then Layer → Merge Down. Do the same with NO COVER · CATS WELCOME at Size 22 in #0E0B1A, centered between the perforation and the right notch.

Marquee the ticket, rotate it 3° clockwise and press Cmd+D. Give it the black key-plate Drop Shadow at (7, 5).

Click Bars and pick the Eraser at Size 16 and Opacity 45. Drag a few short scuffs across some of the bars. Weathered paint is what stops the piece from looking freshly printed.

Click Plywood and add a layer named Mottle. Fill it with #808080, choose Filter → Clouds at Scale 5, set it to Multiply and drop it to 15%. It adds uneven grime to the plywood.

Click XYLOPHONE and add a layer named Grit. Fill it with #808080, then choose Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 30, Mono and Gaussian. Click Apply, then set it to Overlay at 40%.

Collapse the Xylophone group with its arrow. Then drag Grit by its grip handle up above the group row. The fine grain now runs over the paint as well as the wall, so everything looks sprayed onto the same rough surface.

Choose File → Save Project to keep an editable .lopsy file, then File → Quick Export PNG for the finished billboard. For more spray-can techniques, try the stencil street art billboard.