Facial make-ups take the egg as the head, and draw a countenance in both the front and back of the “head”. The paintings are adopted from opera facial make-ups, such as God of Wealth, Guan Yu, arhats…. They are more often taken from primitive religious deity charts and worldly figures, such as Heavenly Father, Earthly Mother, Hunt God, Water God, Mountain God, Beast God, Children-sending Goddess, Pregnancy God, Longevity God, Golden Boy, Jade Girl, Dragon King…
Such paintings are not so meticulous in composition of pictures. Instead, they stress comprehension and exaggeration. With the aid of the artistic measures of well matched colors for foil and contrast, and symmetrical and echoing lines and patterns, the painted egg-shells leave audiences with rich imaginations and aesthetic enjoyment. Facial make-up drawings pursue plump modeling effects, in which the external contours look round, while the interior side are brisk in colors, smooth in lines. Deep and shallow colors are used to differentiate and cultivate the personalities, features and status of the characters.
Portraits are decoration paintings drawn on the eggshells, such as the twelve animals; representing the twelve Earthly Branches, the 12 maidens in the Dream of Red Mansions, the 18 arhats, the God of Longevity, and the Queen Mother of the West. They are exaggerated in models, simple and robust in lines, forceful in turns, bright and pleasing in colors, strong in contrasts, rich in local features.
They are generally painted in gift eggs for birthday ceremonies and Tianding ceremonies. “String paintings”, also known as group paintings, have wide-ranging themes, largely eulogizing auspicious and marvelous lives. They are known for pictures on babies, beauties, auspiciousness; symbols of good fortune, ample salary, longevity, happy life and great wealth; having a baby born into the family, having wealth brought to the family, folk customs activities, and opera stories…. The paintings relate to almost every aspect of people’s lives. They are largely drawn as free-style paintings, with exaggerated arrangement and sharply contrasted colors, to materialize the plain and bold nature of the primitive art.
Editor: Wen Yi
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