19th cent. Japanese woodblock

 i've always been very interested in Japanese woodblock prints, and decided to use this assignment as an excuse to spend more time with them. i found myself focusing on the interpretation and portrayal of landscapes - especially mountains and trees.
these woodblock prints are by 2 major 19 century Japanese masters - Hokusai and Hiroshige. 

to compare, below are some examples from Western traditions of landscape drawing:
17-18 century drawings -

 below is a contemporary piece by Maya Lin, a reminder to how in today's Western world we use topographical maps to describe landscape in a very specific visual language and interpretation of space -

 and also some technical drawings of landscape, in the spirit of architectural drawings (also a very different way to describe space)

thinking about form as we discussed in class, the different approach in Western landscape drawing vs. Japanese woodblock in depicting depth of field and various textures of a landscape are interesting.
one stricking example is the way the Japanese masters convey the structure of a mountain, or the mass of leaves on a tree vs. that in a "classic" Seurat or 18th century Dutch drawings.