Eric by Eric Li

The Story of Solitude

Book Illustration: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Contents Two Men ...................................................................................... 1 14 Hours On the Airplane ........................................................... 3 "You don't know what I'm pursuing with." .................................... 27 Chapter 100 .................................................................................. 47 Afterwards ..................................................................................... 77

Two Men

Hello, I'm Li Ruiji, of Eric. I was borned in ChangChun, a small city in China. Being influenced by brother who becomes a comic maker now, I felt in love with drawing since childhood. With a series of efforts in my later life, I got into Beijing Film Academy as a undergrad student to start my journey of art. After I graduated, for digging my potential and posibility, I decied to learn about illustration, and have spent substantial years in MICA. Now I could call me myself a comic maker, game designer, and a illustrator.

Gabriel García Márquez (6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) Was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. His Magic Realism made a great contribution the world literature, and his best known novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, is the most important inspiration of my thesis.

14 Hours On the Airplane Actually, it is a coincidence for me to make the decision of doing book illustration as my thesis. At the very beginning, I didn't have any idea about my thesis and had struggled on that for weeks. Just by that time, I heared about the news that Mรกrquez passed away. His name jogged my earlier childhood memory. I realized that I had read a summary of his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude when I was a school boy, which was too difficult to understand for a young boy, and made me boring. But this time, I was so curious to see how great the novel is that could win its author a national mourning. So I read it during the trip that I went back to China last summer, 14 hours on the airplane. And I was shocked, I was trapped. It was the first time that I saw a novel written in so an amazing way. The Magic Realism. Mรกrquez successfully created an atmosphere that obscured the boundary of the reality and fantasy. By putting 1% of fantasy into 99% of reality, he made all those stories fell so ture, but so unreal; so indubitable but so unbelievable. I was so insqired that the pictures were composed automatically in my head when I was reading the novel. Then I decided, I have to draw this book.

Soon I finised the first version of digital sketches, without any thinking, just let my fellings run out recklessly.

The feedbacks were good. Eventhough there were several problems, but most people thought these pieces were strong and suit for the topic perfectly.

"You don't know what I'm pursuing with." The success of the sketches enlarged my confidence. I became ambitious and want to do "more". I decided to make all of these pieces with hand drawing and color, the "real art". Start with a good intention but end up with a wrong direction, I push me too hard focusing on the details but lost the feeling, which was the most important part of these pictures. Eventhough everyone was telling me that I was doing something wrong, I still believed I was the right one. During that period of time( about half a semester), I became so unchangeable. "You don't know what I'm pursuing with." I thought in this way and didn't realize the mistake until I found I couldn't go forward and get what I want in this way. Right now after I have done all of these works well, I could say this mistake was a necessary step that helped me to find the right way, and a good experience to know the importance of selfunderstanding, but it still was a stupid mistake.

The second version of hand drawing sketches. Though some of them were advanced on compositions and movements, most of these were not as strong as the last version.

I also tried to use water color and acrylic to finish all of the pieces----which had already been improved imposible.

Chapter 100 Things changed in that winter. During that winter break, I stopped myself doing anything, calmed down, had self-examination. What's wrong with me, and what should I do then? I knew the answer, I just didn't want to accept it before. Finally I made the right decision: forget all those pieces I did before, and start it over. It's a hard decision, it just felt like cutting off a big piece of flesh from my body, but the same time, I also felt being unchained. My fellings were coming back. It was a little bit late but finally everything went on the right way. I relocated my works in black and white, and soon found a new and perfect style to present my fellings. Then the last thing was---work, work, work.

The finished pieces.

Afterwards Now it's time to harvest, the exhibition. Set up all those pictures that I've been working for so long time and managed them in nice look brought me a huge sense of achievement. It was busy, tired, interesting, and touching, especially when I saw the peom that I wrote was projected onto the wall: This is Macondo, The city of loneliness. Its founder was tied to a chestnut tree. It had a busy Gypsy fair, And a bloody carnival; It had a Colonel who started twenty-seven defeated wars, And a beauty who flew up to the heaven with a sheet; It had bitter loves, sweet hatreds, walking ghosts, And a rain that lasted for four years, eleven months, plus two days. It had faces coming and going, But the city was still lonely. Because it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have anyone that could, or even tried to understand it, Until the day that a hurricane wiped it from the earth, And the memory of men.

Thank You!