Naomi Okamoto was born near Tokyo, Japan in 1951 and is a Member of the Federal Association of Artists (BBK). She studied painting, calligraphy, aesthetics, history of art and literature in Tokyo and moved to Germany in 1976. Naomi has studied under famous Japanese and Chinese masters of ink painting and works in various techniques from both the West and the East. She has exhibited in Tokyo, Kyoto, Westerland/Sylt, Hamburg, Dortmund, Bonn, Cologne, Mannheim, Saarbrücken, Stuttgart, Munich and Münster, and she teaches numerous courses in Germany, ink painting in Germany and the USA, and also under the pseudonym of Emi Akamatsu.

Artist and educator Okamoto’s guide explores sumi-e, a type of Japanese ink drawing done exclusively with brushes and ink washes that combines calligraphic lines and blank space in subtle drawings and paintings. In this quiet, restrained art form related to Zen Buddhism, reality is conveyed through suggestion and simplification rather than through detail or precision. Numbered, sequenced drawings guide the reader’s hand in projects presented step-by-step. Lots of written description accompanies these designs for a gentle introduction to the technique. Materials, special techniques, composition, and color are discussed. Subject matter includes still life, landscapes, figures, flowers, and animals. VERDICT Artistically inclined readers hoping to try something different will find many possibilities in this volume.

Naomi Okamoto was born near Tokyo, Japan in 1951 and is a Member of the Federal Association of Artists (BBK). She studied painting, calligraphy, aesthetics, history of art and literature in Tokyo and moved to Germany in 1976. Naomi has studied under famous Japanese and Chinese masters of ink painting and works in various techniques from both the West and the East. She has exhibited in Tokyo, Kyoto, Westerland/Sylt, Hamburg, Dortmund, Bonn, Cologne, Mannheim, Saarbrücken, Stuttgart, Munich and Münster, and she teaches numerous courses in Germany, ink painting in Germany and the USA, and also under the pseudonym of Emi Akamatsu.

Artist and educator Okamoto’s guide explores sumi-e, a type of Japanese ink drawing done exclusively with brushes and ink washes that combines calligraphic lines and blank space in subtle drawings and paintings. In this quiet, restrained art form related to Zen Buddhism, reality is conveyed through suggestion and simplification rather than through detail or precision. Numbered, sequenced drawings guide the reader’s hand in projects presented step-by-step. Lots of written description accompanies these designs for a gentle introduction to the technique. Materials, special techniques, composition, and color are discussed. Subject matter includes still life, landscapes, figures, flowers, and animals. VERDICT Artistically inclined readers hoping to try something different will find many possibilities in this volume.