How to Draw Japan

About this book

Learn to draw the sacred beasts of Japan — by building them the way the tradition itself does: from a fixed blueprint. 100 original subjects, each taught in 6 calm steps from a blueprint that never moves — centre point, centre lines, bounding shapes, and a ground, water or cloud line that decides how every leg, fin and wing must work. Twenty dragons of heaven and waters, from the Azure Dragon of the eastern sea to a hatchling asleep in an egg of cloud; twenty beasts of good omen — the gentle kirin, the five-plumed phoenix, the dream-eating baku drawn as pure form, and the gods of the four directions; twenty guardians you can meet on any walk in Japan, from the lion-dogs of the shrine steps to the dragon of the purification fountain; twenty chimeras and night beasts drawn as anatomy, not as storybook characters; and twenty beasts of sky, sea and deep mountains — ending with a hundredth guardian left open for your own hand. Every subject is named in English, Japanese and romaji, carries the story of its design, and ends with a trace-and-draw practice page. Every beast is an original generalised form made for this book — no game, anime or film beast is copied — so everything you learn can be used freely in your own manga, illustration and crafts.