Stencil

A stencil is a letter, number, cartoon, typographical symbol, illustration, or any other shape or image in cut-out form (it can be cut out of paper, cardboard, metal or other material). Stencils are used to create sharp-edged paintings of the desired image, by applying paint on the surface with the cut-out, leaving a painting of that shape on the underlying surface.

Silk-screen printing also uses a stencil process, as does mimeography. The masters from which mimeographed pages are printed are often called "stencils". In silk-screening and mimeography, multiple stencils are often used on the same surface to produce multi-colored images.

A special kind of paint is sometimes used for stencils.

A related surrealist technique is aerography, in which spray-painting is done around a three-dimensional object.

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