[Explanation] A little koala with fine and recognizable fluff, a pitiful cat and puppy with pitiful eyes, a magpie family with distinct feathers and roots... Ma Yulan, 50, is a high school teacher in Lanzhou, Gansu, in her studio. It is filled with paintings of Huanghe stone.
From a small "sparrow family" to a sheepskin raft on the waves, Ma Yulan gave nearly 500 pieces of Yellow River stone a new "aura" with her paintbrush.
Painting on the palm-sized yellow river stone, the dexterity looks like a naked-eye 3D effect, which shows the depth of painting skills.
Many students were amazed after seeing it, it really seemed to be printed on the photo.
[Contemporary] Ma Yulan Teacher of the High School Attached to Lanzhou University
When you talk about the furry feeling, you use a very thin and very thin hook line pen to draw out slowly little by little. At the end, there are some details. When I really can’t reach it, I bought the nails. The kind of little pen.
In the process of painting, you need to have a certain foundation. You must at least model it, and use color to express its texture and volume. Therefore, painting this kind of thing looks small and needs to be very delicate.
[Explanation] Lanzhou is the only capital city in China where the Yellow River passes through the city, and Ma Yulan grew up on the banks of the Yellow River.
In the classroom, she explained paintings to the students, and within a few strokes, the embryonic form of the cute sparrow suddenly appeared on the stone.
She introduced that the Yellow River Stone is cold, but it becomes warm after being given color.
She also cleverly used the unique patterns on the Yellow River stone as the background to incorporate local elements from her hometown into her creation.
[Contemporary] Ma Yulan Teacher of the High School Attached to Lanzhou University
When I bought the stone and went out, I saw this stone on the road. He said they didn’t want it because there was a crack in it. He didn’t like it. When I saw this stone, I thought I was going to draw a sheepskin raft. Because it is very close to the waves of our Yellow River.
We use this kind of patterned texture stone unique to the Yellow River Stone, and then cleverly borrow this texture to paint, so that it can highlight the artistic conception of the entire painting.
[Explanation] Because of the irregularity and unevenness of the Yellow River stone, painting on the stone is not easy. She bluntly said that details determine success or failure.
The look, fluff, expression, and outline all need to be polished repeatedly to give the stone "the temperature of love".
[Contemporary] Ma Yulan Teacher of the High School Attached to Lanzhou University
If you talk about aura, in fact, the most important thing is its eyes and gaze. It is necessary to draw its texture and expression.
Our children are going to college outside, and maybe when a certain time comes to miss the children, the koala mother I drew with the little koala on her back makes me feel very warm.
[Explanation] Ma Yulan said that the next step is to make a series of hometown works, integrating Feitian, Mogao Grottoes, and Jiayuguan towers into the Yellow River stone, but the stone that fits the creation is something you can meet and never ask for.
I hope that through my works, more people can understand the Yellow River stone culture and the cultural characteristics of Gansu.
Gao Ying Gao Kangdi reports from Lanzhou, Gansu
Editor in charge: [Wang Kai]