style 14.1

during the first months in 1995 working on the style development for MULAN I was researching everything I could get from china, books about traditional art, photography of the environment and graphic novels. I call them graphic novels, because they are so different from the comic strips we are used to in our western world. CHEN-YI CHENG, who was responsible for the character design, and myself went through chinatown in L.A. and found after a while treasures of artwork.
below you will find one of these graphic novels, it must have been created by a real master! I wish I knew his name and could see some more of his work. maybe there is one of my chinese viewers who can help.

© ???

poetic simplicity

self-taught artist QIN TIANZHU was born in 1952 in chengdu city, sichuan province, china. he is now a member of the chinese artist asssociation and a professional artist in sichuan poetry and calligraphy. QIN has created a unique artistic style with beautiful compositions and classic coloring that won him awards in china and japan. his brushstrokes look so effortless thrown on paper and his stylized birds are just stunning. during my time on MULAN the definition of POETIC SIMPLICITY was created, – here is an artist whose artwork truly belongs in that category, more than anybody else.

© QIN TIANZHU

chinese art 6

the stunning artwork below is from the famous chinese landscape painter ZHANG BU. he was born in 1934, started as a newspaper editor and became over the years one of the best known painters of this genre.

© zhang bu

chinese art 5

for the weekend I thought I post some more of my favorite chinese paintings, of course – again, I don’t know the artist’s name **. need your help, in case someone out there knows. the paintings were displayed in a gallery window in one of the asian capitals, could have been beijing or hong kong, I forgot. what a beautiful combination of loose line drawing and watercolor. would work well in animation! traditional of course…

© unknown chinese artist

** the artist’s name is Fang Xiang,- thank you, james, for the information.

chinese art 4

the beautiful artwork below is the work of a self-taught chinese artist, FU XILIN. in 1954 he was born in BEIJING, where he still lives and works. here is what someone in china wrote about his art – ‘XILIN’S paintings are fresh, simple and free from the current trend of undisciplined and neurotic paintings. they should be admired like reading poems of WANG WEI or MEN HOARAN or like listening to the violin music of PAGANINI. it is the overwhelming beauty of classicism. he is highly skilled in the control of lines and colours to achieve the harmonious atmosphere. the effects are clearly visible when he tackles the idyllic and dream-like landscape, the misty early morning and the glimmering haze.’

© fu xilin

chinese art 3

again some more artwork of two chinese artists. and again I can’t figure out their names. it is a very unusual style I have never seen anywhere else.

vital from spain informed me that the second artist is HU YONGKAI. you can find more about him here

© unknown chinese artist / hu yongkai

chinese art 2

again some more illustrations by two chinese master-artists. I apologize that I am not able to give you the names, unfortunately I can’t read the chinese language. maybe someone out there who recognizes the artwork can help.

according to pinoc and Zhiqi the first artist’s name is DI Shaoying and the second one is Shi Dawei. thank you very much for the information…

© DI Shaoying / Shi Dawei