Banksy Style Graffiti – A Photoshop Stencil Manipulation

I’ve always been a huge fan of graffiti artist Banksy and his thought evoking urban artwork so for this next piece I wanted to create my own Banksy inspired art using Photoshop.  This was a two part project that involved 1) Creating a stencil from a regular photo and 2) Overlaying the stencil in a photorealistic manner.

Original Image:

Part 1: Spray Paint Stencil

Step 1 – Creating a Black & White Image: This step can be done in a number of ways but I prefer to use the Black and White Image adjustment by pressing Alt + Shift + Ctrl + B.  This method preserves the color information from the original and will allow us to make some quick adjustments in the next step.

Step 2 – Enhancing the Contrast:  At this point the image looks flat and washed over, so the next step is to enrich the black and white color balance/contrast.  Because we used the Black & White adjustment, the color information from the original is still present, meaning we can easily modify the color influences using the color sliders in the adjustment window.  Try messing around with the color sliders to see what I mean.  Every image will be different, so there are no set guidelines, however, the ultimate goal is to bring back and re-create a level of richness in the black and white photo.  For this particular image I dropped the Red and Magenta levels and boosted the Yellows and Greens to achieve the crisp contrast below.

Step 3 – Exaggerating the Contrast: This next step may seem counter-intuitive, but in order to prepare the image for Step 4, we actually need to destroy the image integrity and increase the contrast/exposure to an exaggerated level.  The goal of this step is to drop out the grey areas and create strong defined black areas that will become our stencil cutouts.  To achieve this effect, try upping the Brightness and Contrast and gradually increase the Exposure, Offset, and Gamma Correction, keeping in mind, we want to preserve the black areas while whitewashing the greys.  To further heighten this effect, try creating an S curve in the Curves Adjustment tab and play with the balance between the Black, Grey, and White sliders by drawing them closer together in the Levels Adjustment tab.  Essentially, we want the key details of the image to stand out while dropping the background noise.  If you start to lose details or notice the image shifting from a solid black to a washed out grey, try making smaller corrections and using different Adjustment tabs until you’re comfortable with the cause and effect relationship each one has on your image.

Step 4 – Adjusting the Threshold:  Here is where the stencil starts to come together. Under the Image >Adjustments tab, select Threshold.  Right away you will notice a dramatic pixelated effect.  Adjust the slider back and forth until you get something that looks like the image below:

*Note, it’s okay if the image looks harsh at this point.

Step 5 – Smoothing the Edges/ Adding Detail:  To reduce the large amount of speckles an restore a small level of detail, use the Gaussian Blur Filter.  I’d suggest a Gaussian Blur radius somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0.

Step 6 – Removing the Background:  From here, removing the background should be fairly simple. For the larger areas, using the polygonal lasso tool, select an area, press delete, and fill with solid white.  For the finer details, using a white hard round brush, paint over the remaining background elements making sure not to paint over any details you want to keep.

Step 7 – Naturalistic Spray-Paint Effect:  The goal of this next step is to create the soft blurred edges present in a real-life spray painted stencil work of art.  First, duplicate the original layer twice and change the blend mode of the top layer to Darken.  Next, select the middle layer and apply a Gaussian Blur.  Try adjusting the slider between a Radius of 1.0-2.0 until you achieve a subtle haze around the image.  At this point, our stencil is complete.

The high-res can be seen in my “Photoshop” section by clicking the image below:

Part 2: Applying the Stencil to a Natural Environment

*Original Image (credited to Banksy):

Step 1 – Photo Selection/Preparation: When selecting an image to lay your spray-paint graphic, the simpler/cleaner the original image, the easier it will be to overlay our spray-paint graphic realistically.  For this project, I used a high-res shot of one of Banky’s famous works “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?”  In order to remove the current spray-painted graphic, using the Patch Tool, select small sections at a time of the area you wish to “clean” and drag the selection over an area with a similar texture.

It’s useful to note, the Patch tool will auto correct colors based on the edges of your original selection so it isn’t necessary to match the color of the target area.  Keeping this in mind, make sure your original selection area doesn’t physically touch or cross through the black areas we are trying to remove, otherwise you will notice a significant color bleed into the newly patched area.

Example:

Also to note, when re-creating an area it’s important to preserve the same textures/defined edges as the original image.  For example, you’ll note the defined brick line above “WHAT ARE” in this image.  When using the Patch tool to re-create a hard edge line, select a target area that has the same line style/angle to keep this detail consistent.  As a disclaimer, it can be challenging to find a single line section that matches the angle exactly, in which case, try building the line in smaller sections from either side of the target area and cloning/healing where appropriate to achieve a smooth, natural looking straight edge.

Example:

Step 2 – Stencil Overlay:  Next, drop in the stencil layer we created in Part I and place it over the background layer.  Change the blend mode of the stencil layer to Multiply and adjust the size/location to fit naturally with the background.  *Note, if your wall or background subject is at an angle, Transform the image (Ctrl + T), right click the image/select the Skew or Perspective tool and adjust the image’s perspective to match the background in a realistic manner.

Step 3 – Adding Texture/Detail: At this point the matte black stencil is missing a level of dimension, so the goal in this step is to bring back the original wall textures that would be present if we actually spray-painted it.  To do this, copy a rectangular section of the background layer slightly larger than the size of the stencil and paste it in a new layer above the Stencil Layer.  Apply a Black & White Adjustment to this new layer and change the Blend Mode to Pin Light. (If the edges look sharp, use a large soft brush to gently erase and blend the new layer with the background).  The image will look washed out at this point, so to bring back the dark color of the stencil, lower the new layer opacity around 65%.  Next, using the Burn Tool, with the Range set to Midtones and Exposure around 5-10%, paint over the Pin Light Layer with a large soft brush.  The darker you go, the less texture you’ll see, so try playing around with this for a bit until you’re able to find a balance.  If you want to bring back or add more texture, switch to the Dodge tool and paint over the affected areas to lighten them.  Your results should make the spray painted stencil look much more natural.

Step 4 – Banksy Style Painting:  To add the final Banksy-eque dimension, create a series of paint layers beneath the stencil layer.  Using a small brush with around a 50% opacity, pick a color and paint in the areas of the image you want to bring color to.  Create a new layer for each color and adjust the opacities until you’re satisfied with the end result.  If you notice a loss of texture, repeat the Pin Light Layer effect from Step 3 for each isolated area.

The high-res can be seen in my “Photoshop” section by clicking the image below: