How to Draw Japan

About this book

100 SCENES. 6 STEPS EACH. 600 STEP-BY-STEP DRAWINGS. EVERY SCENE BUILT THE WAY A REAL DAY IS BUILT — PLACE, PERSON, GOODS, DETAILS, FINISH.

A bakery counter in the morning. A ramen chef behind the noren. A barber's mirror, a station gate, a potter's wheel, a bathhouse desk, a shutter coming down at night.

Your characters have to LIVE somewhere — and now their days will look real. Every scene in this book is built the same honest way: one floor line, one work-surface line and one person line that never move, the place (shelf wall, window front, noren counter, stall, kitchen, tatami room, workbench, service desk, driver's cab, garden corner), the person whose trade sign sits on their head, the goods that tell you which shop this is, and the small details that prove a real day happened — price tags, a wall clock, steam, lanterns, a calendar. Nothing moves between steps — the counter you draw in Step 2 is the exact counter the hands rest on in Step 6.

Inside: 20 scenes at home · 25 shops you enter every day · 20 counters and stalls from the working side · 20 workplaces and services · 15 scenes out in the town day. Every scene is named in English, Japanese and romaji — this book is also a walk through the words of daily life.

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

No real shop, chain, uniform, logo or product is drawn anywhere in this book — every place is a generic trade or room, so the days you invent with this system are completely yours. All you need is a pencil and an eraser.