Zhang Shousheng is a famous bookbinder, and he is also called "painting idiot" by his peers. When he enters the creative idea, he is often intoxicated with it. Sketches or ink drafts can be overwhelming in an instant: posted on the cabinet, hung on the wall, placed on the table and laid on the ground ... He stands in a pile of paper with a pen in his hand, tiptoes to add a street lamp to the manuscript on the wall, and then squats down to wipe off the two trees sketched on the ground ... Usually his mental state is weak, dull and tired. However, if you tell him about the creative rules of binding art, he will soon cheer up and use countless vivid design practices to prove and explain the laws and aesthetic principles of literary and artistic creation. Taking a series of sister arts such as novels, photography, painting, calligraphy and sculpture as examples, he expounded the necessity of paying attention to conception, design and likeness in cover design.
Zhang Shousheng has designed many excellent covers for Bing Xin, Ai Qing, Liu, Mars and Zou Difan, which have been widely praised by the literary and binding circles and attracted more writers. When designing the cover of Harp in Spring, Zhang Shouyi leafed through the accumulated sketches of Guilin scenery and had a new idea. In the center of the cover, with a few bold strokes, graceful peaks and clear reflections in the water are drawn, which makes people have a beautiful harp shape in front of them, as if they heard the rippling sound of the river. For this manuscript, Yan Ming, a famous old poet, visited many times on the fifth floor. I am very happy to see the renderings this time. But he always thinks that the cover color is too light, which is a fly in the ointment. So I discussed with Zhang Shousheng: Do you want to make it thicker and redder? Zhang Shousheng didn't agree with the author because of the need of color contrast, but promised to scrutinize it again. A few days later, Zhang Shousheng took out a composition of 12 little suns in different tones for the author to read and choose one. The old poet was moved.
When designing the cover of the Romanian masterpiece "Grand Duke Stefan", Zhang Shousheng wanted to show the power of Grand Duke Stefan, but after several days he couldn't figure it out. One day, when he went to the printing factory to look at the samples, he conveniently put his bag and hat on the ground. A master immediately picked up his hat, dusted it off and said, "Lao Zhang, you are too unkind to hats …" This incident made him realize that hats not only imply people's identity, but also symbolize people's dignity. Where's the archduke? On the way home by car, the bus broke down, but his thoughts never stopped. When he got off the bus with the passengers, his eyes suddenly lit up: the golden crown of the emperor and the phoenix crown of the queen were both heavy. Why is it all on the head? Hats have been symbols since ancient times, alas! Just use the "close-up" of the crown to symbolize the power of Dagong Shifan. At this time, the car caught fire, passengers swarmed and the car started. The young people in the car laughed when they saw that he was still standing in the same place thoughtfully. As for Zhang Shousheng, he smiled because the inspiration he had been looking for suddenly flashed. Soon, the overall design of Grand Duke Stephen with its cover, cover and title page was completed.
How to make the characters on the cover of foreign literature books look different but different? Zhang Shousheng believes that to describe everyone's smile in detail, it is best to observe it face to face repeatedly. Once, he was invited to attend a professional conference and stayed in a hotel with many foreign guests. He found many foreigners of all kinds in the elevator. Isn't this the best opportunity to observe portraits? He stepped into the elevator with Chaplin's lightning-fast pace. From the first floor to the top floor, from top to bottom ... back to the guest room, his sketch pen quickly jumped on the notebook and silently recorded a vivid image. I don't know one day, these images will appear in his illustrations with extraordinary spirit.
Not long ago, Zhang Shousheng showed me a cover. I saw that the elegant composition was also covered with beautiful flowers, and the structure was novel. I didn't know until I asked. It turned out to be a bunch of dry wild flowers, and it became such a picture after he copied it. I got it by accident. It turned out that once he went to give lectures in other places, at a separate party, his slightly hoarse and high-pitched trip to northern Shaanxi and deep Japanese Yagi minor attracted warm applause. Finally, his last song, Don't Pick Wildflowers by the Road, pushed the party to a climax. The next day, several ladies picked a bunch of wild flowers from the mountain and gave them to our favorite teacher, Zhang Shouyi.
Luyaoshi