景年習画帖 第4
A Meiji-era Japanese drawing manual (ehon) of 1905 by Imao Keinen, published by Yamada Unsodo, offering model studies for students of painting. The pictures are monochrome ink-style sketches of plants and insects, with bold black masses for magnolia petals and leaves, fine grass strokes, and a praying mantis against brush-sketched grass. A designer might borrow the economical brushwork, the contrast between solid dark shapes and sparse outlines, and the open white ground around each motif.
