From costumes to makeup, the graduation exhibition of 106 ancient painters attracted attention
A group of college students played "Han Palace Spring Xiaotu"
The woman stepped lightly and jumped out of the static frame; The man held the fan holding the bird, jagged in the willow spring smoke... This is a scene from the 2023 graduation design exhibition of character design at the School of Design and Art of Hunan Art Vocational College - this immersive character modeling art exhibition with the theme of "painting into play", inspired by the famous painting "Spring Xiaotu of the Han Palace" in ancient China
More than 60 graduates "resurrected" 106 ancient painting people, from clothing to makeup, so that the ancient style can be revived one by one. Teachers and students looked for materials from ancient books and paintings, and completed a "dialogue" that spanned thousands of years.
"Drawing into the play" has gained tens of millions of traffic
After the work was released online, it attracted attention, and the "resurrection version of "Han Palace Spring Xiaotu" received tens of millions of traffic, and "it was also an unexpected joy to get so much attention." Mr. Zhou Zhaohui, Dean of the School of Design and Art of Hunan Art Vocational College, is the chief planner of this "painting into play".
"This time, the graduation project actually took out all the housekeeping skills that the students have learned in recent years." Teacher Zhou said that the basic skills that the students learned during college were character design, including costume design, clothing structure, clothing technology, as well as various stage makeup, opera makeup, and life beauty makeup.
"In recent years, cultural works such as "Tang Palace Night Banquet" and "Only This Green Green" have been loved by many young people, and creators have found the brightest elements of our traditional culture, bringing deep connotation of cultural connotation." Zhou Zhaohui said that in recent years, they have been doing some explorations related to the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and have accumulated a lot of experience in "resurrecting" ancient paintings, "We once did "Chinese Neon Clothes" at the Meixi Lake Art Center in Changsha - the restoration of typical costumes from every historical stage from the pre-Qin period to the modern era in China, including Zhang Xuan's "Pounding Diagram" in the Tang Dynasty. ”
Students learn about the beauty of traditional Chinese clothing from clothing and styling, which is also a process of immersive learning. In the process of exploration, Teacher Zhou and the students became deeply interested in "restoring ancient paintings". After that, Teacher Zhou decided to take the students to carry out a big creation, "We wanted to find a very beautiful ancient painting, and after screening, we decided to 'restore' the 'Han Palace Spring Xiaotu'. ”
"Spring Xiaotu of the Han Palace" is known as one of the "Top Ten Famous Paintings in China". The painter Qiu Ying slowly unfolds in the form of a handscroll to describe the daily trivial affairs in the palace in early spring, and the characters are all dressed in clothes since the Tang Dynasty. The name Han Palace is a general reference to the palace at that time. The figures and roles on the entire canvas are also very rich, and there are 115 concubines, palace concubines, princes, eunuchs, and painters in the painting, all of whom are brightly dressed and have different postures.
"It was a challenge to 'restore' such a rich collection of heirloom paintings of the characters, and 60 students spent an entire semester 'restoring' the work." Teacher Zhou Zhaohui said, "This time, each student 'adopted' the styling of two characters and carefully studied the color matching and makeup styling of the clothing. Three costume teachers, three makeup teachers worked with the students, the process was hard, but everyone gained more. ”
"Resurrection" depicts people in costume and makeup
"To restore ancient clothing, it is necessary to make the color, cultural attributes and history relatively real." Teacher Zhou Zhaohui said, "The students tried to use similar materials to restore as much as possible. I am responsible for the fabric and color management, and two other teachers guide the students to proofing and complete the production. ”
The presentation and restoration of the costumes is not an easy task, and the "Han Palace Spring Xiaotu" with a large number of characters and diverse styles has increased the difficulty of restoration, "We did about three weeks to prepare in the preliminary process. ”
When referring to the preliminary preparations, graduate Wang Zhifeng said, "In order to ensure efficiency, we first divided into small groups, gradually analyzed the background of the times, the author's life, the main scenes, etc., and after a basic understanding of the research, we assigned the specific characters to each student to further study each role, including hairstyle, makeup, clothing, etc." Finally, let's put it together and make it together. ”
Wang Zhifeng and the panelists have high requirements for themselves. In the restoration of clothing, in order to ensure the perfect restoration effect, in addition to the color of the clothing, there are also high requirements for materials and patterns.
"The more difficult part is the restoration of the pattern." In the process of preparing the costumes, Wang Zhifeng and the group members found that many of the patterns of clothing on the market were original or modern, and did not meet the requirements of the retro patterns presented in the painting. In order to improve, everyone agreed to draw their own patterns with reference materials. "We first referred to the patterns on the ancient paintings, and also the patterns on the clothes of the same period." Wang Zhifeng said that many students in the team bought their own textile dyes, spread out the fabrics, and then cut the boards after painting.
The characters in the ancient paintings can appear on the stage with agility, and the makeup and styling are also particularly important. "After the students finished the costume design, they entered the research and design of makeup and accessories." Teacher Zhou Zhaohui said that there is also a doorway in makeup and accessories, "What people were like at that time, how to do it, all the details need to be carefully studied to complete." ”
Although the makeup on the ancient paintings is light and elegant, it is not suitable for direct use on the stage. In order to ensure the overall coordination, the director, teachers and students need to make various adjustments according to the actual situation of the stage, which is also a big test for everyone.
The students who participated in the design finally chose the three hundred pearl makeup of a woman from the Song Dynasty by comparing dozens of makeups. Li Cuilan introduced the ingenuity of makeup design, "First focus on the forehead, chin and bridge of the nose to make the forehead look wider and brighter, the chin fuller, and the bridge of the nose more straight. Then add pearl embellishments and put pearls on the sideburns, between the eyebrows and on the cheeks. ”
Li Cuilan said that in order to not only reflect the classical beauty of "Spring Xiaotu of Han Palace" on the stage, but also combine the lighting and dance beauty to present the best performance effect, they specially chose pearls to make the character image more three-dimensional.
"For the makeup part, the students are holding high-definition enlarged pictures." Teacher Zhou Zhaohui said that the students were like incarnating as "detectives of ancient paintings", carefully studying the costumes and secrets in the makeup in ancient paintings, "The makeup design in ancient paintings is not the same as the contemporary makeup ideas, and it needs to be carefully studied little by little." ”
In addition to the exquisite makeup, the students of the Design School also focused on designing the hair accessories of the dancers. The hairstyles presented in the art exhibition are exquisite, and the headdresses of each character are different, and the flowers are very flexible. "The jewelry mainly uses hairpins and hairpins." Li Cuilan introduced that the hairpin is the most basic fixing and decorative tool in ancient Chinese hairstyle, and the hairpin is a kind of jewelry formed by the cross combination of two hairpins.
The graduation exhibition was a hot search for "The Last Lesson" and was particularly rewarding
"Because of the tight schedule, from the selection of dancers to rehearsal design, to the final stage presentation, the dance team of "Hangong Spring Xiaotu" took only seven days." Liang Maolin, who participated in the dance presentation, said that the situation during the preparation is still vivid, "There is not much content that can be extracted from the painting, although you can feel the spirit of the picture, but how to interpret it still needs to be designed." In the early stage, we found a lot of information, we learned how palace maids and ladies in the Ming Dynasty amused and coaxed children, and that flexible state was what we needed to reproduce on stage. Liang Maolin said that according to the different chapters in the ancient painting, the presentation of the stage will divide the picture into six chapters, in addition to the "Baby Drama" chapter, Liang Maolin also participated in the performance of "Fluttering Butterfly".
In the latter scene, there are more jumping movements, and the expression of multiple jumping movements can convey a happy and flexible mood to the audience, which forms a connection between the actors on the stage and the audience off the stage. In order to present this detail, the preparation process also took a lot of work. "During rehearsals, actors dance and step on overly long skirts. Students majoring in character design have to constantly modify the size. Wang Zhifeng said that the drapery will fall off during the dance, so we will use pins to fix it, and the hair accessories and puffs must also be fixed with U-shaped clips.
The whole rehearsal was completed in five days, and the time was tight and the task was heavy, which became the biggest difficulty faced by the dance students in the preparation process. "I train hard every night, and basically it's 11 p.m. at the end of every day. The final rehearsal process was even more intense, with a full day of continuous rehearsals to ensure that the stage did not make mistakes. Recalling that rehearsal time, although it was very hard and tiring, Liang Maolin still cherished this feeling, "On the one hand, it is difficult to play the role he plays, on the other hand, to ensure that each movement is connected smoothly, and to give the audience a refreshing feeling." The director is very demanding, and if an action is not in place, let us jump repeatedly, and the eyes, hand position, and emotions are all sloppy. ”
In the early spring of 2023, the immersive character modeling art exhibition of the ancient Chinese famous painting "Spring Xiaotu of the Han Palace" with the theme of "painting into play" was officially staged, with 106 people all dressed brightly and with different postures. The stage not only presented costumes and shapes, but also presented the intangible cultural heritage items in ancient paintings on the stage, and the students dressed up, watered, folded branches, arranged flowers, raised, sang and danced, played singing, surrounded the hearth, played chess, read, fought grass, looked in the mirror, watched paintings, played babies, delivered food, and waved fans, vividly presenting the daily chores in the palace in early spring.
In the 40-minute art exhibition, the students "resurrected" many images of the ancients, with delicate, radiant, beautiful and vivid postures, like a documentary painting of historical court life that has traveled through thousands of years.
After the art exhibition, the students' graduation design exhibition also came to a successful end. "Very happy, especially accomplished. I feel that all the previous efforts have been worth it. Wang Zhifeng sighed.
A few days later, this exhibition unexpectedly rushed to the hot search. Netizens generally believe that such graduation works show students' hands-on ability and professional skills well, and are a good form of graduation work display. From the perspective of inheriting traditional culture, this way of visualizing traditional culture performance and display is not only an expression of high cultural confidence in Chinese culture, but also an innovation in the form of inheriting traditional culture through performance, and a course with innovative and practical significance.
For students, growth also happens in practice. "At first, when students get this 'restoration' project, they feel that restoration does not need to be created, just do it. But in the execution stage, everyone found that everything is not as easy as imagined, and perfection must penetrate sweat. ”
In Zhou Zhaohui's view, it is in this process of "restoration" that the students have a close connection with the history of Chinese clothing. "Design itself should be based on the connotation of ideas, if students do not understand China's history and culture, empty talk of creation and design will become a source of rootlessness." When young students dig into history, they will find that ancient makeup, hair accessories, and clothing items are very exquisite. In the process of excavation, students strive to improve, strive for excellence, and their self-requirements are constantly improving. Zhou Zhaohui said that this art exhibition can be said to be a precious last lesson for the graduating class. Photo courtesy of Interviewee
This edition / Reporter Zhang Zhiyi Intern Zhang Yujia Tian Luyao
Coordinator/Lin Yan Zhang Bin
(Beijing Youth Daily)