In museums overseas, you can often see artists sketching exhibits. Here in Japan, few museums allow sketching, so it's a rare sight. There's something fascinating about sketches, where a few quickly drawn lines, as if recording, are said to capture the essence of something. It's also meaningful to consider the lines of those who came before us. To explore this appeal, we held a sketching session with two artists.
Yamatane Museum of Art (Ebisu, Tokyo)
Charlotte always visits Japan's first art museum specializing in Japanese paintings.
First, they went to the Yamatane Museum of Art, where Charlotte frequents, which was holding an exhibition on the day of the interview, focusing on works from the Fukuda Heihachiro x Rinpa collection. The two first carefully examined each piece, then began sketching works that caught their eye. Yann, who was particularly drawn to depictions of animals in motion, focused on birds.
Upper left: Mandarin ducks from Suzuki Kiitsu's "Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons" (19th century), an Edo Rinpa painting.
Bottom right: Heron from Sakai Hōitsu's "Snow-white Heron in Flight" (19th century). "I am always inspired by the 'gestures' that are also common in calligraphy, and the way of expression that conveys the movement of the hand." (Yang)
Upper left: A waterfowl of the grebe family from Tawaraya Sotatsu's Waterfowl in a Lotus Pond (17th century, private collection). "I thought it was amazing how the depiction made it possible to feel the entire movement from the head to the neck to the body as one." (Yan)
Bottom left: In Fukuda Heihachiro's Ayu (Sweetfish) (1956), Yang painted three fish that particularly caught his eye.
Right: Yang captured the deer from Tawaraya Sotatsu's ink painting "Deer and Moon" (17th century, private collection) using lines of two colors.
"If you look closely, you'll see that some parts are merely marked, but you realize that you can capture the essence without having to draw everything. When you sketch, you feel like you're inside the artist's head. Rather than copying the shapes and lines of the work exactly, interpreting it with your own sensibilities and style can sometimes give you new ideas and help you improve your own style."
Meanwhile, Charlotte repeatedly painted the puppy from Tawaraya Sotatsu's "Puppy Picture."
Above: Rooster and chicks from "Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons."
Upper left: Fukuda Heihachiro's later work, "Colorful Autumnal Pipit" (1971, private collection), also focuses on birds.
Bottom left: Tawaraya Sotatsu's deer from "Fragment of the New Kokinshu Waka Scroll with Deer Illustrations."
Charlotte continued to paint the puppy from Tawaraya Sotatsu's Dog (17th century, private collection), a favorite subject of hers. Her monochrome ink paintings also take on a style that is characteristic of her.
"The vague contours that are unique to ink painting, combined with the free-flowing style, are appealing. It's an expression that focuses on form, not line. When you sketch, you naturally end up spending a long time with the work. It's completely different from just looking at it or taking a photograph. By slowing down your pace and facing the work deeply, you can notice the details."
Intermediatheque (Tokyo/Marunouchi)
The University of Tokyo's rare collections: a paradise for specimens of all genres
Next up was the Intermediatheque. For Yan, who is involved in a wide range of fields from art to design and whose style changes constantly, this space, filled with specimens from a variety of genres, is a treasure trove of inspiration.
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"I don't want to limit my activities to one category, so this place, which condenses my wide-ranging curiosity and spirit of inquiry, is perfect for me. When I sketch, I try to create my own story, whatever the subject. Even if it's a diagram of lice, I draw it with my own interpretation. Sometimes this will influence a larger-scale project later on. Every sketch is an important process that leads to my next creation."
Above: Yan's sketch of a giant spider crab specimen measuring approximately 3.5 meters spans two pages, as if to convey the impact of its size.
Below: A sketch of a descriptive illustration of lice, expressed in Yang's own style.
A diagram of a Branchiosaurus skeleton (left), a diagram of a fish skull (top right), and a dog skeleton (bottom right). "The African masks are displayed next to the skeletons and minerals, creating a strange combination that really inspired me to get started," says Yan.
For Charlotte, who had previously focused on sketching stuffed animals, this was an opportunity to find her own way of approaching a challenging subject.
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"I tried to start with the eyes, but I struggled with the artificial eyes of stuffed animals. But the beauty of sketching is that you can leave your mistakes intact and paint them raw and honest. They can sometimes reveal more humanity than a refined work and evoke empathy. I've recently started painting watercolors again, and I've only just come to accept my sketchbooks, which are like unedited books containing both my successes and failures."
Left and bottom right: Hares, bottom: Domestic rabbit (female). Ever since discovering that it was possible to draw stuffed animals from behind, Charlotte has continued to draw them from behind. 
These include a fox (top and bottom left) and a baby Asiatic black bear (center left). Charlotte is usually drawn to uncontrollable animals and tends to paint them intuitively, so you can see the trial and error involved in drawing the lifeless stuffed animals. Charlotte first started drawing the eyes of the baby squirrel (bottom right), and seemed quite unsure.
After finishing their sketches, the participants reviewed and praised each other's work, bringing the autumn sketching event held at a Tokyo museum to a close.
The two show each other their sketches and exchange opinions.
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They developed a friendship through impromptu sessions in Tokyo.
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