Shen Hua

A painting I did almost a year for Imaginary Redux artbook for IFS. I did some colour corrections do it, so it might look a bit different from the one anyone saw in the artbook.

Title : Shen Hua or in chinese 神画
Meaning (God's painting/drawing) and sound the same as the chinese words for "legend"

This is based on a story I read when I was just a kid. I can't remember the original ending to it, so I just do my own rewrite

A talented but poor artist was given a magical brush and ink slab by the Gods of heaven out of pity and out of admiration of his paintings.

Whatever he paint with the brush will come to life, first he painted food to feed his hunger, then he painted a house to have a roof over his head.

Then he painted gold to solve his poverty, but soon the king heard about this and ordered men to seize the brush.

But the artist painted an army which he used to overthrow the King and took the throne for himself. He grew greedy and painted more wealth and his kingdom became more powerful.

But as time past the artist aged and he begin to fear death. On hearing that the mythical creature call the dragon possessed a pearl that can give eternal life, he picked up the brush for one last painting.