Introduction to Building Drawing and Painting by Nobuo Suzuki

Screen Shot 2019-04-30 at 9.55.42.png

This 1991 bilingual Japanese/English guide to rendering drawings of buildings dispenses with blocks of text to explain concepts like perspective, movement in pictures, composition, materials and expression, in favor of illustrations with captions. It’s an approach that works well, and while I didn’t feel I learnt anything groundbreaking, it reinforced my understanding and interest in what would now be called urban sketching. Good stuff, with invaluable tips and sketches of building types found in Japan.

No. 21 of 100 books I intend to read and review in 2019.

* * *

Patrick Sherriff publishes a monthly newsletter highlighting good fiction about Japan and featuring an original painting or sketch. He lives in Abiko, Japan, with his wife and two daughters.

Advertisement