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So basically, IBM (or Lenovo) Thinkpads have the most boring
lids ever. My T43 was begging for some character, so I gave it some.
I've always liked Hokusai's
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and since it is a woodcut, I figured
it would make a good stencil. Stencils are fairly easy to make, but require
some...well a lot of patience and careful cutting. An easier stencil is
one with less sharp turns and small cutouts. However, I really wanted this
picture on the black canvas of my laptop, so I went for it. Sorry this how-to
isn't more step by step, but this page was sort of an after thought to the
project.
| The first thing to do is pick a graphic. Like I said,
I chose Hokusai's Wave . Once you find a suitable picture,
go into Photoshop or some similar photo editing program to turn it
into a stencil. The first thing to do is remove any unwanted background,
like the picture on the right. This helps the next step go smoothly. |
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| Now we can apply a threshold modifier to the image.
In Photoshop CS, you can do Image>Adjustments>Threshold, which will
convert your image into a soley black and white image. Mess with the
slider until you get a stencil you like. The black part is what you
cut out, and the white part forms the mask. The scattered white pixels
in the black area are just artifacts of the threshold, and you can
just ignore them. Also, be sure to thoroughly check the image for
"islands" of white. When you cut out the stencil, any islands will
just become stray pieces, connected to nothing. So, I just made sure
to connect them with a thin little bridge when I was cutting, but
you can paint little white bridges in Photoshop, or draw them in
when you print the image. |
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Now its time to make the stencil. Print out your picture,
at the corrrect size for your computer, and tape it to a manila
folder. Since it's thick and sturdy, it will withstand all the cutting
and painting. Once your picture is attached to the folder, start cutting
out the black portions with a craft knife. After a long while (depending
on your image) all the black will be gone, and you can detach the printout
from the folder. Make sure the surface is clean before you do anything
to the computer. Also, it's probably a good idea to test the stencil
on some scrap wood or something first. Now comes the hardest part--attaching
the stencil to the laptop for painting. There's probably better ways
to do this, but the best I could think of was to spray the backside
of the stencil with spray adhesive and wait for about 5 minutes, until
the adhesive is tacky, but not sticky. Then I lined up the stencil and
stuck it to my laptop. This way, the stencil stays flush against the
surface and doesn't move around. Using spray paint (spray paint for
plastics would probably be best), spray over the stencil (make sure
you mask anything you don't want painted) using light coats,
and going evenly. Do that a couple of times until you have nice solid
color on your computer. Wait for the paint to completely dry before
removing the stencil. Then observe the beauty you've created! After a while, the paint
will probably start to scratch off, but not if you take care of your
computer and used plastic spray paint. To make multicolored pictures,
make separate stencils for each color, and when you paint the computer,
do one color at a time, making sure to mask other parts and line up everything
else. |
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| Once I got bored of the Wave on my laptop, I wiped it off with some sort of rubber cement thinner, but any noxious thinner should work, so long as it doesn't melt the laptop plastic. I had access to a lasercutter, which made cutting the new stencil much easier. After the new stencil was made, the spraypaint procedure was pretty much the same. Now, I have a brand-spankin new design on my laptop. I'm not actually sure where it's from, so if it's yours and you want credit, drop me a line.
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| I may add the concentric circles later, but for now this is it. I'm happy with the way it turned out--it's a lot cleaner than the hand-cut stencil, but there was still some overspray from the painting. |
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Please sign my guestbook!
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