How to Draw Japan

About this book

Every koi drawing fails the same way: you start with the beautiful red patches, and the fish underneath them bends, grows and shrinks until the pattern decorates a fish that never existed. This book — made in Japan by a Japanese author and a Japanese publisher — teaches the order the professionals use: body first, pattern second. One hundred subjects in six fully illustrated steps each, plus a practice page for every one: twenty koi varieties from kohaku to butterfly koi, drawn on a blueprint of centre line, back line and belly line that never moves; twenty goldfish from the slim wakin to the hooded oranda, the finless ranchu and the bubble eye; twenty ponds seen from directly above, the way koi are actually bred to be seen; twenty pond plants and edges with the fish always at home in the picture; and a whole year of pond life, from eggs on the plant roots to the oldest fish under the winter ice. Place the pattern only at Step 4, let the water itself arrive at Step 5, and any fish or pond you will ever meet composes itself.