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THE ART LIGHTING THROUGH A STENCIL SAMPLE with Alain THOMAS |
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The stencil sample, a thousand-year-old procedure, has its origin in the 5th century. This is the only technique which makes possible to recreate a miniature without changing neither its freshness nor its matter. This is almost an unknown technique. We may read the following definition in the dictionary: “sheet made of cardboard or metal that is cut out to colour with a paintbrush a design which has the outline of the cut silhouette”.
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The artist who colours the piece returns the exact shades and the subtlest nuances. |
Even though the principle is simple we are far way from the multiple applications of such a basic procedure, whose different expressions reached their zenith less than fifty years ago. Without any other means or support but hand skills, the artistic sense at the designer’s service, savoir-faire and workshop techniques, the colourist artist restores the exact shades, the smallest nuances, the subtlest values and always using the same colour used by the painter, whether watercolour or gouache.
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After the analysis of the colours of the original, the colourist artist, or the person that cuts out the stencil samples, restores the necessary shapes by drawing the silhouette of the future “templates” or stencil samples. Next, they are cut out with a penknife and they are given to the colourist artist. With the help of different types of brushes, stencil sample after stencil sample, the consecutive coats of painting, shade over shade or by juxtaposition, and all their nuances, the final appearance is achieved.
The limited number of colourist artist, the importance of repeating the different coats and the patient rhythm of hand painting impose long periods of production. Stencil samples work is a handmade work only; that is the reason why it is so difficult and strange. It is also one of the essential compounds which assure the perennial character and the value of this type of edition. |
It is a process that requires a great deal of gentleness in order to avoid the dripping of the colours. |
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 Extract from book
"Perceval le Gallois"
Editions du cadran 1993
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By working on the illustration of books on Marco Polo and Perceval the Gaul, Alain Thomas and the colouring artists have discovered the stencil samples technique which provides to his watercolour designs replicas that have the same matter and colour that the original pieces.
No other technique offers similar results. Every replica requires an average of 25 stencil samples. However, some original compositions made by Alain Thomas require up to 125! In this case, every stencil sample does not correspond to a colour, but to a nuance. Thus, we may have up to 10 different types of green in the same watercolour.
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 Extract from book
"Marco Polo"
Editions du cadran 1987
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A certificate of authenticity is signed by Alain Thomas and by the colouring artist when a piece is purchased in order to guarantee the limited edition for the whole world.
Alain
Thomas and Patrick Mégret.
a close collaboration between the painter and the colouring artist. |
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