Keeping up with street art and stencil books gets a bit overwhelming, especially when a search on Amazon for "stencil graffiti books" gets a few direct hits, along with books about tattoos, comic art, and yet another book trying to make money off of Banksy.
Today, an upcoming book by C215 (here is his Stencil Archive) caught our eye on social media, mostly because it is a how-to book that appears to be made with love and full of tips, encouragement, artist stories, and all that other funs stuff Stencil Archive loves to share and spread around.
We did it with our own book "Stencil Nation", and we have had a "Make Stencils" category on this site since 2004. Searching around the web today, we saw that Tristan Manco (who may have written the first modern book about street art stencils in 2002) did it again in 2020 with his latest book "The Stencil Graffiti Handbook" (Though this is the UK publisher's link, I'm sure it's available on Amazon, etc.).
Christian Guémy has created a similarly-titled book, "The Stencil Graffiti Manual" for 2023. Brooklyn Street Art's Jaime Rojo got an advanced copy and teased the book here.
According to the BSA post, "'The book that you are holding in your hands is therefore, a manual, an inventory of techniques to be appropriated in order to get yourself started in the art, or to help you develop stenciling’s potential. Stencils have no limits and can be adapted to all styles,' says the author in his introduction."
Here is the plug directly from Guémy's publisher:
Stencils are a technique with unlimited aesthetic adaptability and possibility—from ancient cave painting to contemporary graffiti. Beyond their unique stylistic expression, stencils offer practical benefits, including precision, unlimited duplication of a message or pattern, and speed. In this info-packed manual, artist C215 shares not only his expertise with stencils, but the stories and works of 16 leading stencil graffiti and street artists around the world, showing how far it goes creatively beyond mere reproduction. Learn about materials and tools, bridges and frames, creating stencils with Photoshop and Illustrator, techniques for painting, and the specifics of text-based work, patterns, and abstract work. Hundreds of photos, detailed how-tos, and interviews with artists in the US, England, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Colombia show a wide range of styles, techniques, and contexts. Three ready-to-use stencils are included.
C215's book will be available on Jan 17, 2023 for $30 USD.