How to Draw Japan

About this book

100 PLACES. 6 STEPS EACH. 600 STEP-BY-STEP DRAWINGS. EVERY BACKGROUND BUILT IN LAYERS — FAR, MID, NEAR, PROPS, FINISH.

Shrine steps, shopping arcades, country stations, onsen streets, rice terraces, harbours, castles, festival nights.

Your characters have somewhere to live now. Every scene in this book is built the same honest way: one horizon and one vanishing point that never move, a quiet far layer (mountains, sea, a distant castle), the place itself in the mid layer, a near layer that puts the viewer inside the scene (a stone lantern, a torii pillar, a branch overhead, a bridge railing), and a props layer of everyday life — banners, bicycles, crates, laundry, lantern strings. Nothing moves between steps — the horizon you draw in Step 1 is the exact horizon you colour in Step 6.

Inside: 20 shrines & temples · 20 shopping streets, markets & lanes · 15 stations & travelling scenes · 15 onsen towns & bathhouses · 15 fields, villages & mountain hamlets · 15 harbours, castles & festival nights.

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 background from any existing work is copied anywhere in this book — every place is a generic Japanese place-type and every sign is simple strokes, so the backgrounds you invent with this layer system are completely yours. All you need is a pencil and an eraser.