Need (?) a brick stencil

I have my first paid belly painting this next weekend so if I order this it will have to be today...she wants a brick wall with the name of her future child as graffiti on the wall with her two little boys the guilty party...sounds like it will be cute. I've tried the craft stores in town and no brick patterns.

Has anyone had experience with any of the brick pattern stencils sold at face paint suppliers? It's hard to tell if the bricks will be big enough (I'm thinking 30% of actual size) to look good. I don't want tiny bricks because the name is short and will be pretty big on the belly.

Maybe a body painting stencil you've seen that has bigger bricks? Anyway...I might just have to free hand it or carve something from a large sponge or a couple of sponges in different sizes.

(And yes, I've done a google search...LOL! Best brick patterns I saw were huge ones from concrete companies.)

D.

The BEST thing I have found for bricks are cellulose sponges - those really porous ones that swell when they get wet.

Cut it into the size of brick you want and then stamp with it... PERFECT bricks with texture.

Good. I'm glad you've tried it. I was thinking that might be the only way to get them as big as I wanted. The stencils for face painting are too tiny from what I can see. Thanks Shannon!

man i cant waite to see this one..i use to draw pics like that all the time as a teen!

I'm excited to see what the photographer does with it! Should be cute with the other two boys in it.

D.

I got a set of 12 stencils they sell at Walmart and michaels for a couple bucks, one is brick like. http://mobile.walmart.com/m/phoenix#ip/Plaid-Craft-Stencils-Backgrounds-7-x-10/17300171
The ones at michaels are the same but out of a better material like the sillyfarm stencils. I think with a 40% coupon I paid 2.10 there.

Never mind, they would be big enough anyway

Denise this is my idea:
1. Ask the mom for her measurements : ribcage to pelvis usually is 13 to 15 inches
2. Draw the design
3. Make a stencil with contact paper and stick it to the belly like a glitter tattoo stencil, paint the background and linework the design.
This work great for me, specially when is a lot of composition on the design, it helps to have everything on place.

That's clever. That would definitely be a lot easier to cut at home than a stencil. I always worry about messing up the design when I move the stencil. I'll probably end up with the sponge method just because she wanted it more of a softer brick pattern so I'll probably make it a lighter color scheme like grey and white.

D.

Okay, here's my color study. It turned out really well. I'm going to send her a couple of pictures and let her decide between the brown and the white...or should I? I like the white bricks.

Thanks for the suggestion Shannon. It turned out really well. I ended up making the sponge one-stroke size and it's creating a shading feeling automatically.

Here's a link the album that has step-by-steps of the graffiti.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4249524919028.177399.1312867240&type=1&l=bb65432e1d

I love it so far Denise, it will look's grate, please post pictures later.
Well, for any question we have, I always wait until see Shanon's answer, you rock girl!!

Looks awesome Denise, you are very talented.

Hope you find what you need. Hope to see the pics..

I didn't get any pictures but these two because OF COURSE I was late because I had to cut out the useless prop stencils...oh, well. I wanted it out of cardboard colored paper so it would be more street so I ended up with a trip to Dollar Tree...wah, wah. Should of done it the day before....

Anyway, here the brick pattern and the finished graffiti. It ended up being a mix of both styles. I went over the one-stroke cake bricks with pearl white and it softened the look and I was able to get the texture back that I lost when I pounced the color on:

Oooh, fun! Great idea to use the shape of the sponge itself to stamp on bricks! I Just stumbled upon this string a bit late, but in case anyone else is looking for bricks, Bad@$$ makes a nice brick stencil. Too small for the belly painting scale, but it looks great on cheeks, arms, etc. Click HERE to see the stencil on my website and a sample swatch of what it looks like with paint. The stencil is actually cut to create the cement lines between the bricks, so what I did was paint the base color area, used a porous stipple sponge to create texture with other shades, and then put the brick stencil over it to make the "lines."

I made a brick stamp for my gig last Saturday... I cut a cellulose sponge into about six rows of bricks about 1" by 1/2"... which I then stamped to create this

https://www.facebook.com/ShannonFennell.MakeUp#!/photo.php?fbid=405108072876794&set=pb.191063437614593.-2207520000.1349395134&type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/ShannonFennell.MakeUp/photos_stream#!/photo.php?fbid=405108116210123&set=pb.191063437614593.-2207520000.1349395213&type=1&theater

I used a ruler and a lino knife... worked perfectly. cut the long rows first on the dry sponge, then wet the sponge and bent it to easily cut out the grout lines. Let it dry over night, then cut the individual bricks out across the rows, then wet it and cut out the grout again with the scissors. Perfect bricks.

That turned out really cool. So you cut it out of a large sponge so you'd have more bricks at once? I'd love the see the sponge. I like the effect of the sponge...they are so "bricky"

I'll take a photo once the sponges are clean (I still have two buckets of sponges soaking from Saturday )

I blogged about making my brick stamp

http://shannonfennell.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/how-to-make-a-brick-stamp/

That is really cool looking! Thanks for following up, even better than just a picture.