How to Draw Japan

About this book

100 SUBJECTS. 6 STEPS EACH. 600 STEP-BY-STEP DRAWINGS. EVERY BUILDING BUILT THE WAY BUILDINGS ARE BUILT — SITE, STRUCTURE, DETAIL, SEASON, FINISH.

A five-story keep above its great stone wall. A vermilion torii standing in a still pond. A pagoda climbing in shrinking roofs, a tea house waiting for the moon, a machiya townhouse behind its lattice.

Your characters have to LIVE somewhere — and now their world will stand up properly. Every subject in this book is built the same honest way: one horizon line, one ground line and one building line that never move, the site the building stands on (stone wall, gravel court, moat, pond, stone steps), the building itself (keep, sanctuary, hall, pagoda, gate, townhouse), the roof and ornament that give it its job and its name, and the season and air that turn it from a model into a place — petals, snow, mist, moonlight, incense smoke. Nothing moves between steps — the stone wall you draw in Step 2 is the exact wall the keep stands on in Step 6.

Inside: 25 castles · 25 shrines · 25 temples · 25 town & garden buildings. Every subject is named in English, Japanese and romaji — this book is also a walk through the words of Japanese architecture.

And after every subject: a practice page. Trace the faint scene, then draw your own version in the empty frame. 100 subjects, 100 practice pages.

Every building in this book is a generic Japanese form — no real castle, shrine or temple is copied, and no crest or inscription is drawn — so the places you invent with this system are completely yours. All you need is a pencil and an eraser.