Japanese Woodcut Engravings of Birds – Images and Vectors

I’ve got some more vintage images and vectors to share. Here is a collection of 7 stylized Japanese wooodcut engravings with birds as the subject. Each one is a masterwork in line art, the use of positive and negative space, and overall composition. Each one beautifully captures the spirit of the animal in a simple, elegant setting. There are no wasted strokes. The earliest of the engraved bird images is a Japanese woodcut from 1720, based on an image by the Chinese artist Muh Ki of the 12th century. Vintage indeed.

I hope you find some use for the 21st century color interpretations I made. They too can be used for personal and commercial works. It was a fun design exercise, adding textures and colors in a freestyle manner – just to see different results without overthinking it.

The download includes both color and grayscale Photoshop files with transparent backgrounds, as well as vector EPS files, for a total of 21 bird images. Types of bird include crows in the moonlight, a falcon on a perch, a pheasant and bamboo, a swallow on a willow tree, and large water bird.

Tagged as: Bamboo, Birds, Color, Crows, Falcons, Japanese, Moon, Pheasant, Swallows, Woodcuts