RCHK student wins Lunar New Year card design contest
The dramatic scene of a majestic tiger emerging from a misty mountain waterfall is depicted in the artwork of Megan Leung, a talented Year 11 student.
Announced by the English Schools Foundation, the Lunar New Year card contest saw some amazing entries, but Megan’s beautiful design stood out and was selected by Ms. Belinda Greer, ESF Chief Executive Officer for publication as the winning design.
In the video call on 21 January, Ms. Greer congratulated Megan on the achievement and Megan delightfully shared her inspiration, creative process, and passion for art.
Megan was inspired by the celebration of Chinese culture as she emulated traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy perfectly in her work. She also played with different art forms – digital art for the characters, and watercolour painting for the tiger, mountain, rocks, waterfall, and flowering tree. Here’s what she had to say about her creation process and why did she decide to enter the contest in the first place.
RCHK: How does it feel to have your artwork chosen as our ESF Year of the Tiger card?
Megan: I feel honoured and surprised that my artwork is selected to be the Chinese New Year Card for 2022 across all ESF schools. Especially Chinese New Year is a very important festival for me and the students across ESF.
RCHK: Could you describe your design and what inspired you to create it?
Megan: My design has a painting of a tiger coming down from a waterfall. I wanted to make the position of the tiger as if it is lurking towards the rocks. In the background, you can see a streaming waterfall on the left side of the design. I also added a small flower tree beside the bigger cliff. I was inspired because ‘Chinese New Year’ is about celebrating Chinese culture, I wanted to show more of a Chinese art style which is ‘Chinese Painting’ because this traditional art style is one of the oldest and still a continuous art form that people would know about. I wanted to bring this traditional art form to life for the design of my card.
RCHK: What techniques did you use?
Megan: For the whole piece, I painted by hand using Chinese watercolour paints to paint the parts such as the tiger, mountain/rocks, waterfall, and flower tree. For the components on the right-hand side, I merged all the elements on the laptop. I did the Chinese characters on a separate paper. I added the ‘2022’ in a gradient watercolour style and for the ESF logo, I drew it as a red outline to represent a stamp because in Chinese paintings you would usually use a red colour stamp to prove identity. I used a mix of techniques because there are many ways for me to show that the card is not just by using Chinese watercolour painting.
RCHK: Why did you decide to enter the contest (love of art/encouragement from the teacher)?
Megan: I decided to enter this contest at first was because my Chinese teacher knew that I did Chinese Painting and he encouraged me to design a card for the ESF community. At the same time, I entered because I have a passion for art and I wanted to show my art specifically my Chinese painting artworks.
RCHK: Why did you choose to include those particular Chinese characters? Can you tell us more about their significance within your artwork?
Megan: The Chinese characters on the right which says “新年快樂“ (Happy New Year), I chose to include the Chinese characters because I wanted to make the design very traditional including Chinese calligraphy. It is significant in the artwork because the main message to reach out is ‘Happy Chinese New Year’ and it is especially important to use that in the design of my card.
RCHK: How do you feel about the collaboration with and support from Mr. Chan?
Megan: I felt very appreciative because I genuinely want to thank Mr. Chan for his support and encouragement towards this contest; I wouldn’t be able to enter the contest and show my art without him reaching out to me. He was also very thrilled that I was the winner for this year CNY ESF card.
RCHK: Art is obviously one of your talents. What do you like most about learning art at RCHK?
Megan: Art is definitely one of my favourite subjects in school since primary because I am able to have that creative freedom and self-expression. At Renaissance College, this subject has allowed me to take a creative path and also enjoy myself from all the other work/assessments. Moreover, the environment of the art classrooms is very mindful and definitely a place that is enjoyable.
RCHK: And finally, how will you be spending your CNY break?
Megan: Definitely due to the current situation we are not allowed to travel outside but during the one week, I will be spending time with my family and relatives, eating lots of new year cakes(年糕), hanging out with my friends, and lastly receiving lots of red packets!
For more information and to download the card, please visit ESF website.
Published: 30 January 2022, 15:36
