The story behind the Chic Twelve Zodiac - Monkey paintwork:

The Monkey is the first character I painted in the Chic Twelve Zodiac series. The moment I saw its sculpture, the word "chic" immediately filled my mind. Its slender, agile physique, the posture with a stick in one hand and hands in pockets, along with the big pompadour, perfectly embodied the essence of "chic"! The entire paintwork design was built around this concept.

Unlike the original creator Wu Wang's traditional Chinese opera face mask style, I decided to create a more realistic and anthropomorphic style. So, for the facial sculpture, I leaned towards a more realistic portrait style. Combined with the slightly lowered head posture, I gave the Monkey a sharper gaze, making him appear somewhat fierce. Due to the character's background as a monkey, the skin tone was reddish, and I chose a low-brightness golden-brown color for the fur, keeping it somewhat understated.

The Monkey's suit style was very sharp, with slim-fitting trousers paired with a pointed-collar shirt and vest, exuding chic elegance. Given the warm color base of the head sculpture, I used black for the vest and trousers, which, in my opinion, made the overall silhouette appear more elongated. The shirt was red, providing a contrast against the close-fitting black vest. What fascinated me the most about the attire was the monkey face pattern on the back and the cloud pattern carving on the trouser legs. The monkey face on the back was extremely expressive, with wide-open eyes, an open mouth, and a sticking-out tongue. I couldn't help but admire the creator's boldness—transforming elegance into chic in an instant! In contrast to the rebellious monkey face carving on the back, the cloud pattern on the trousers highlighted traditional Chinese elements, creating a harmonious overall look.

For these patterns, I immediately thought of embroidery, which is very representative of Chinese culture. Therefore, I spent quite a bit of time creating an embroidery-like texture, using multiple layers of color to depict the texture of knitting.

The Monkey's Buddhist beads and zodiac pendant on its neck imitate the texture of amber in the paintwork, which was a first-time experiment. I used a yellow hue for the prayer beads and complemented them with a blue agate color scheme. The dark brown shoes matched the colors of the sculpture's head above, creating a balanced overall appearance. The use of low-saturation warm colors was also intended to make the lower part appear stable and solid. As for the Monkey's iconic weapon, the golden cudgel, I used traditional metallic pigments to give it a unified texture, ready for demon-slaying!

That concludes some of my insights and introductions to the Monkey paintwork. Thank you for your appreciation and support!