百子图 Chinese 100 children mural

Received a special request one day.To paint a traditional 100 Children Painting on a long wall. 

百子图 ( Bai Zi Tu ) is one of the Traditional Chinese paintings that carries an auspicious meaning. It brings blessing of a complete, happy and healthy family that goes on for generations.

After researching the traditional 100 Children Painting from books and internet, I was stoned for a while. Staring at those pictures of a hundred kids piling up like little mountain!! Doing all sorts of stuff, playing with all sorts of game, makes me start taking long heavy breath. It's a headache drawing it on a rice paper, will it be a bigger headache drawing it on the wall? I wondered.

I was numb staring at a blank paper, thinking of a fresh composition as I don't want it to look like the usual. After 10 minutes of numbness, I came out with an idea, of painting the wall base in a rice paper shade (light brown) and then burn the walls partially to appear older with smoke-looking type of shades. Place in the 100 kid. As for their actions, I wanted to bring out all the olden time chinese children stories and games that I can remember. I want to make those people who has read olden children stories, will stand and stare and figure which is which. Something interesting, i thought. And so, I tried.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone's camera. However, my apologies for the poor photo quality. I finished the room at evening and it was really dark. The dimming lights in the room are not doing any good for me. It is a long wall at a narrow walk way, these are the best pictures I have. Check them out :)

I burned certain parts of the wall and tree bark to "aged" the wall and create a smoky tone.
See the red giant pot on the left corner? It's 司马光 story with the kids playing hide and seek.

The typical Red Bridge and fish lanterns. ( look closer : see the little girl who is about to walk up the bridge?
the little lantern on her hand? hehehe)

Tug of war 拔河比赛

Paper kites , Rattan Ball ( on far right corner )
Wooden baby toy wagon ( middle bottom)

A lazy kid from wolf story ( far left corner )
Chinese chess game ( upper left )

Peonies. This is another corner of the room.
Kid catching butterflies into rattan basket. (top right)

Picnic time-Sharing "Man Tou" under the little pavilion.(top right)
Eagle & Chick Game老鹰捉小鸡  (left)
This is a cute catching game where the Blue girl is the eagle and the green pants boy plays as a rooster
who is protecting his little chicks ( all the kids behind )
who will hold on to one another's waist forming a line.

Blind man catch thief game.
Where one kid is blind folded and has to follow the directions
given by the kid he carries on his shoulder to catch other kids who run around in
a circle drawn on the ground.( Bottom middle)
The game is from a chinese children story about a blind man and a cripple work together to catch a thief.

On the right is a story of the 3 brothers worked together to take down a kite which stuck on tree with the moral of
"Never blame each other when facing a problem, worked together is the only way to solve it"

This is the first time I did this type of mural, compact with a lot of things going on. For maintenance, due to a lot of color and shades being used, I try to minimize the chance of retouch-up. Therefore, I used the best anti-fungal paint that is also washable, meaning, if it's stained you can easily wipe off the stain with a damp cloth. If no one smash it with a hammer, this will lasted at least 10 years and above. :)