My Design Life - Zhang Shouyi

Author: Zhang Shouyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Mr. Liu Xian is not only a renowned woodblock print artist and art critic in China but also an illustration painter with outstanding contributions to book design. During his tenure as a (Art Editor) in the Art Department of People's Literature Publishing House from the early to mid-1950s to the early 1960s, Mr. Liu Xian created a large number of portraits and illustrations for world-famous literary figures such as Shakespeare, Goethe, Heine, Tolstoy, Hugo, Lu Xun, Tagore, as well as a batch of fables and folk tales. These works have recently been compiled and published by the publisher, becoming reference and learning materials for middle-aged and young book design artists and students in art colleges. During my high school and university studies, I became familiar with the decorative woodblock illustrations created by Mr. Liu Xian for literary works from various countries while reading novels in my spare time, during illness, and during holidays. Mr. Liu Xian is one of my favorite illustrators. After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, driven by my love for literature, I came to work at People's Literature Publishing House, but unexpectedly met the sincere and modest Mr. Liu Xian and had the opportunity to receive face-to-face instruction in woodblock printing techniques from him. At that time (the 1950s), Mr. Liu Xian also taught at the Art Department of People's Literature Publishing House, and the participants were several professional book design designers working in the department, forming a woodblock printing techniques study group. Mr. Liu Xian taught us woodblock printing, not with the goal of making us great painters who could create large-scale prints for national exhibitions, but based on the principle of combining learning with practical application to improve the quality of book design. Every woodblock print we created was used in books. To inspire our passion for book design, Mr. Liu Xian often shared examples from his own past studies and work to guide us. Under Mr. Liu Xian's diligent guidance, everyone made rapid progress in their professional skills, improving the level of book design. For example, the portrait created by Ye Ran and Yan Zhong is still praised by readers and woodblock print artists both domestically and internationally. Among the participants, many have now become full-time artists specializing in woodblock printing, zincplate printing, illustration creation, and book design. For instance, Yan Zhong has become a woodblock print artist who has created nearly 100 portraits of world-famous literary figures. Mr. Liu Xian is a practitioner of woodblock woodcut. Woodblock refers to using the longitudinal section of a tree trunk as the painting surface. The longitudinal surface of wood is harder, and the woodblock printing tools are also different from those used for cross-section woodcuts. The tools are fine and sharp, and by leveraging the function of the tool shape and the wood, the lines are intricate, and the images are delicate. I remember when I studied woodblock printing with Mr. Liu Xian, my prints always had coarser lines than others, and I struggled with fine lines because I had self-taught painting and couldn't draw fine details. At that time, I believed that learning to paint from someone should make you resemble them. Once, I came up with an idea: I selected a three-ply board with wood grain and created a portrait (of the Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki) as a study assignment. By using the grain of the three-ply board, I tried to print a very detailed work (see below). Mr. Liu Xian's comment on my work at that time was: "I teach you woodblock printing not to make you learn my style, but to carve out powerful lines!" These brief words, "powerful lines," deeply engraved in my mind. In the early 1980s, the publishing industry began to flourish, and due to the increase in submissions