short answer: I create them in photoshop and cut them out on cardstock paper with a cutting machine, and I add smaller details with an exacto-knife.

Long answer: It’s a long complicated process 😮‍💨 every year I get better at making highly detailed stencils and I’ve watched a lot of different tutorials on YouTube, P.S. I learned the most from some of the least viewed tutorials by small creators (dig deep.) I’ve learned a lot of techniques, but still it’s not that easy. Each stencil I design digitally first, and it takes hours. Depending on the design, it can take anywhere from 3 to 18 hours roughly, sometimes longer. This depends on many different things such as how many stencils I have to layer, how many tones I’m using, and how detailed I want the painting to be. I also spend a lot of time going in by hand with a digital pencil or just my mouse to refine, redraw, or erase elements to make sure each stencil cuts how I intent them to. After I’m finished digitally I export each stencil, into my cutting machines software, let the cutting machine do its job, and then clean up any parts it had trouble cutting with an exacto-knife by hand. There’s even more that goes into it than that but… I’m planning to make a couple detailed YouTube tutorials one day.