I bought this book whilst on a visit to Japan, thinking that it would be of interest to my 14 year old son who was showing some interest in drawing. Of course it's in Japanese and I didn't realise it until some time later that it was actually written by Claudia Nice in English (I have some of her other books). Because it is about sketching and is lavishly illustrated throughout by her pen and ink drawings one can get the gist of things, merely by looking at the pictures. But, clearly, one is also missing a great deal by not being able to access the text. Claudia is certainly very very good with pen and ink and I generally like her style and work. (It's more or less a realist style though she does give some hints about composition and emphasis). She illustrates a variety of techniques from stippling to cross hatching and the subject matter covered in this small book is really astounding. She manages to cover; landscape, animals, buildings, cityscapes, people, trees, water and waves, the seashore, still life, birds, flowers and plants. I do like one of her other books which combines the pen drawing with watercolour washes. But the drawing is clearly the foundation.
If I was buying this anew, I would be buying the English version (because I don't read Japanese). But there are some lovely drawings and some great hints about shading and tone...all done with just a pen. (I don't know if she really did all the stippling of the horses on pp 114-115 but if so it must have taken a long while....Maybe this is where I missed out because of not being able to read the text!. ( )