Wani & Waves

Studying Hokusai


Wani & Waves is the first in a series of videos produced by Hidn Studio, where drawing is featured as meditation rather than instruction. In a world of “how-to” videos that have flooded YouTube to the point of suffocation, we wanted to share the other side of drawing—the calm, deliberate effort of practice and study.

Follow along from start to finish as Hori-Ema (Asher Emerson) develops the shading for a Japanese tattoo design.

The image depicts Wani and Waves. Wani (鰐) translates ambiguously into english as “sea creature” or “crocodile”.

This design originates from Katsushika Hokusai and was published in “Hokusai’s Lost Manga” by Sarah E. Thompson (MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

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