Andrew Pomeroy

I've seen several graffiti works based on pixel art, including some innovative work by Space Invader using small ceramic tiles to create pixel mosaics. But as far as using stencils to create pixel art, I hadn't ever seen a method that seemed solid. So I came up with my own, using a few basic materials.
As long as you don't skimp on the quality of paint, you can end up with a very clean image.


The most critical supply in this process is an industrial lighting diffuser. It's basically a giant plastic grid made up of about 1cm x 1cm squares. I used this as the basis of my pixel-grid system, and for each color of pixel that I needed, I covered up all the cells that I didn't want colored in.
The way I achieved this was by first determining which pixels I needed blocked out for each color, marking a piece of paper which I laid underneath the diffuser, and then started masking the appropriate squares: first by using duct tape to fill the larger gaps, and then silicone expanding foam to quickly fill individual gaps.

Then it was as simple as laying down the diffuser on the painting surface, and spraying a coat of each stencil's particular color.
For the green and blue coats, however, I ended up with quite a bit of peeling and unevenness to the finish, as the paint I was using was cheap Krylon as opposed to higher-quality spraypaint.

A timelapse of the process:

Timelapse - Stenciling Pixel Art from Andrew Pomeroy on Vimeo.