Art poster for TV series

那些回不去的年少时光

Commercial illustration

I had the honor to create the art poster for the TV series 那些回不去的年少时光 (Stand By Me), I would like to share the creation story here.
At the beginning of the summer, my director friend, whom we had known each other through another painting of mine, invited me to create an illustrated poster for his new play. Creating an illustration about study and growth during the cicadas' season could not be more appropriate for summer vacation.
Fortunately, I saw the content of the series earlier than other audience, especially the slightly ethereal tone of the ED gave me a lot of inspiration, and the color and shape were determined from the visual synthetics of the music. Initially, I created seven versions of the sketch, but according to the context of the play, I finally settled on Luo Qiqi's personality and the people who influenced her.
I wanted Qiqi seem like wild and passionate in the picture, both burdened by worries and temptations, and growing strongly. I chose my familiar painting materials opaque watercolor and color pencils. The transparency and fluidity of water-based paint combined with the roughness of pencil are just suitable for shaping the youth and complex and changeable emotions that are not stereotyped.
I let loose comfortable feathers wrapped in sharp and fragrant thorns flowers and butterflies, and make them fly with the wind to Luo Qiqi’s face. This is not only a storm of enthusiasm and sudden that have made Luo Qiqi suffer through the troubles of youth alone, but also a kind of cozy harbour that she could be back no matter how exhausted she was fighting outside.
The symbolism of these elements in the picture helped me to express more accurately. Sunflower is warm and bright and admires the sun, Luo Qiqi loves the sun poet Balmont, so I used sunflower to symbolize Luo Qiqi's vitality, while it also integrating thorns, because the road of growth is usually hard. Rose is charming but thorny, it represents innocent young love, beautiful but struggling. Butterflies are vibrant, they are Luo Qiqi's ideals, beautiful but need to grasp on her own. The cloud of feather is the people who always believe and accompany Qiqi, they are the family friends and teachers, the people who will give her warmth and direction in the crucial moments.
I happened to be in Beijing this August so I had the opportunity to visit the director and actresses with my painting. That day was for extra dubbing work, listening to the actresses Zhao Jinmai, Zhang Xinyi and the director re-recorded again and again for the lines because of the subtle emotional pitch differences, I felt much empathy as an art creator.
Originally, I was a little terrified and hesitated visiting the set. But actually meeting the main creators and taking photos have made the whole art creation complete. In fact, this is not just a poster, but a comprehensive creation collaborated  with the director and all the actresses and actors. This painting can not be established alone without any of them.
Before left, I gave Luo Qiqi the original painting, and I got the signatures of the director and actresses who act as Qiqi, Xiaofei on the copy painting so I can keep it as a souvenir. It felt like the characters not only exist in the book or the tv series, but also became three-dimensional into the real world.
This is my first time to create an art poster for tv series, and it really is a very special experience. I hope you audience and book fans love this painting too.

watercolour, colour pencils, acrylic and ink
300g Baohong watercolour paper
310*546mm