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Summary Each of the figures is of rich facial expressions and rendered vividly.
Wang Qis studio is full relief paintings of various figures from Chinese history and legends, such as Cao Cao, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms Period dating back to 220 to 280 A.D.These artifacts, however, are all created out of used cans. I found by chance that used cans kind of give off metallic sheen and tend to produce a good stereographic effect. Also it is environment-friendly to recycle the used cans for these relief paintings. So the artifacts created out of the used cans could be more meaningful than the original materials, said Wang, a citizen of Xuchang in Central Chinas Henan Province.Inexperienced in the beginning, Wang often got her hands scratched by the cans. And her biggest headache was how to do the carving on those used cans. The challenge lies in that you have to create a stereographic effect in the facial expressions, which are not easy to handle. Cans are kind of hard but they are thin. It is quite challenging to add the stereographic effect to such a thin material, she said.After years of exploration, Wang Qi finally developed a set of techniques to do carving on the cans. Not long ago she produced a relief painting series out of 400 used cans, depicting Guan Yu bidding farewell to Cao Cao, inspired by a famous historical story during the Three Kingdoms Period.The story highlights loyalty and friendship. One of the most famous generals during that time, Guan Yu was a sworn brother of Liu Bei, an opponent of Cao Cao, a dominant ruler in Central China. Guan lost touch with Liu and fell in Caos hands along with Lius family. Despite the privileged treatment provided by Cao, Guan declined to betray Liu and eventually left Cao for his sworn brother.
