My Japanese Sketchbook

Book Description
From kimonos to manga, this sketchbook offers a refreshing look at Japan in charming watercolors depicting temples in Kyoto and the striking modernist architecture of Tokyo, women in elaborate traditional kimonos and girls in eccentric pop culture fashions. This is Japan today, rendered by a watercolorist's eye in vibrant yet soothing poetry of color.
My Japanese Sketchbook is a highly personal account of a country that exerts great fascination in the West. Fontaine's fresh text and contemporary sketches capture the essence of this land of contrasts and contradictions perfectly.


About the Author
Cloé Fontaine is an architect whose final degree project, an examination of color schemes used in houses around the world, took her to all four corners of the globe. While studying in Japan, she compiled the watercolors that formed the basis of this book.



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A land of contrasts, Japan surprises and fascinates the visitor. For Cloe Fontaine, the teeming city of Tokyo is a haven of peace: in the midst of noise and crowds she finds silence and serenity. With her brush and pen in hand, Cloe journeys from the streets of Tokyo to the shrines of Kyoto and the rolling hills on the island of Shikoku. Temples and tatamis, parasols and teapots, fountains and waterlilies -- every striking detail comes to life on these pages. From Zen temples to modernist architecture, and from traditional geishas in elaborate kimonos to teenagers in eccentric and brightly-colored outfits, this is a personal and engaging encounter with a culture and its people. In her charming watercolors, modern collages, personal stories, and selection of traditional haikus Cloe captures and reflects the many juxtapositions of East and West, old and new.


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