The Paper's reporter Xue Shasha intern Chen Xuewen
From simple "line drafts", to fine processing, to coloring, the strange dreams in the subconscious are gradually embodied into a painting under the pen of Zhang Yun (pseudonym).
Zhang Yun draws a dream for a customer. The images in this article are courtesy of the interviewees
Zhang Yun, a 29-year-old from Wuhan, Hubei Province, has been working as a dream painter for two or three years. Before that, she was working in the design industry, and the pain of Party A's incessant demands and repeated revisions of her works made her very stressed.
Eager to get rid of the shackles of work, she had a whim and wanted to try to paint other people's dreams. In 2020, she posted a dream message on social platforms. More than a month later, she received her first order to paint dreams. This surprised her, and thus entered the unpopular dream market. So, she began a dream journey of more than two years.
With the development of society, people's needs are becoming more and more diverse, and new occupations are constantly emerging. According to public reports, in December last year, an observation report on "unpopular new professions" took stock of ten occupations, including dream painters, succulent fosters, and game face pinchers, and novelty and fun were the keywords of these professions.
In Zhang Yun's view, it is not simple to be a good dream painter. The dream is complex and diverse, the customer's requirements are different, she has to hone different styles of painting skills, but also to communicate with the customer repeatedly, to find out the picture that matches the customer's dream.
In more than two years of practice, she also felt the comfort brought by the dream painter to the client. There was once a girl who asked her to draw a dream, hoping that the characters in the painting would have long hair. Zhang Yun found that the address of this order was a cancer hospital. There are also people who have lost their loved ones and pets who come to her to draw dreams. In her opinion, painting dreams is more about healing people who have regrets in their hearts.
The following is Zhang Yun's statement:
"Lock the Imagination"
I am an art student who entered the design industry after graduating from university in 2015. At that time, as Party B, I always had to revise the work repeatedly according to the requirements put forward by Party A, and I was under a lot of pressure during that time.
I wanted to find a relatively free job. After dissecting the design market and refining the market demand, I suddenly thought, is it possible to draw a dream?
Zhang Yun draws a dream for a customer.
Later, I found out that there were people on the Internet who really wanted to draw their dreams. So I posted information on social platforms and wanted to take the list of dreams. More than a month later, I received the first order, which actually earned 520 yuan, and I was amazed that it could also make money.
But in fact, there are not many orders, about two or three orders per month. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory says that higher psychological needs are pursued only after material needs are met. In fact, people who want to paint their dreams have better economic conditions. My pricing is basically between 500-2000 yuan, and the price is mainly based on the content of the drawing. But compared to the commercial illustration orders I received, this price is not high.
In the early stage of painting dreams for customers, the most important thing is to find out the customer's imagination of the dream, which I call "locked imagination". Under normal circumstances, the customer first sends a text description of the dream, and after the other party and I confirm the details, we comb through the description of the dream again, and then compose the picture according to this description.
In terms of the conception of paintings, often my client's imagination of dreams is very different, so it is necessary to communicate and confirm repeatedly. In the process of "locking in the imagination", guided questioning is important. Many customers are not very good at speaking their needs, and need to be guided and confirmed step by step.
During the confirmation process, I will also send some real-life pictures to the other party as reference pictures. Clients will also come up with the style they want, such as Miyazaki's style, oil painting style, or the painting style of some masters. In several communication runs, I basically figured out the needs of customers.
After drawing a preliminary "line draft", I sent the other party to confirm that the customer felt that there was no problem, and then on the basis of the "line draft", I carried out fine processing, colored after painting, and then fine-tuned according to the customer's requirements after coloring.
Because of the diversity and complexity of dreams, the longest I've ever painted was a month and a half. The client's description of the dream is like a movie, with all kinds of twists and turns. The client demanded that all the elements in the dream be there, so by the end, the picture was getting bigger and richer.
"It's not an easy profession"
In fact, this is not a simple profession.
Zhang Yun draws a dream for a customer.
Painting has different directions, such as scene painting, portrait design, etc. Different customers also prefer different styles, some people like cute wind, some people like cool wind, and even some customers dream of monsters fighting King Kong and other scenes.
To be a good dreamer, I have to master different types of painting styles, because no one can be sure what style the next client wants.
Once, I didn't know the style the other party wanted in the early stages, thinking that the client wanted that kind of spectacular scene, so I painted the whole picture very grandly. But drawing it out for the customer is not what the other party wants.
I don't like this feeling, and I hope that as long as I take the order, I will draw a painting that is satisfactory to both sides. So I repeatedly communicated with the customer, and also found more than 30 pictures on the Internet for the other party's reference, and finally he chose a picture that was closest to his dream. Eventually I painted a dream that was recognized by my clients.
In terms of dream painting, my advantage is that I have a strong learning ability. As long as I have seen the picture, I can basically imitate the painting style. This ability stemmed from a relative who did film scene painting, and I once learned from him for a month. The needs of scene painting are very uncertain, and I will encounter a variety of scenes, and during that time I studied different styles of painting.
In order to improve my aesthetics, better and faster to find out the customer's imagination of dreams, I often look for excellent works on the Internet to appreciate, about 600 pictures a day, analyze the advantages and disadvantages of paintings one by one, I also often read magazines, cartoons, film works, and sometimes go to see exhibitions, all in order to expand my knowledge reserves. Only when you have rich reserves can you better understand and meet the needs of customers.
And I have a lot of friends who do illustration and original painting design, if I encounter more difficulties, I will ask my friends for advice, and they will give me a lot of advice.
In recent years, the demand for dream painting has increased, but overall there are still not many dream painters. I've been doing this for over two years and have only seen one peer on social platforms.
At present, I also do it part-time. The reason why I am a dream painter is to provide emotional value to myself. I love people who are personal and lively, and I like to challenge the wide variety of needs they ask. The dream painter is the work that makes me happier, but I didn't want to make a lot of money with it.
"Healing people with regrets"
Most people who want to paint dreams are people who have regrets in their hearts and want to heal themselves.
Zhang Yun draws a dream for a customer.
One of the business segments I set for myself was the healing direction. Very few people have a dream and want to paint it. Most of the people who come to me to paint dreams involve things that I have not dreamed of for many years, or that have been lost for a long time, are more beautiful, and have regretted, and they heal themselves through dreams.
I was very impressed by the fact that a client came to me to draw a dream, and the other party asked the characters in the dream to have a long hair. On the trading platform, I saw that the other party's delivery address was the cancer hospital. I don't know if she had this dream because she was sick, or if there was any other story, but it involved the privacy of the client, and if the other person didn't take the initiative to say it, I wouldn't take the initiative to ask.
I designed the whole painting as a scene similar to Jiuzhaigou, with high mountains, turquoise water, and a little girl with long black hair and ground, and a bunch of braids at the end of her hair. I originally wanted to add a sunflower to my hair, but it didn't match the overall hue, so I changed to a small morning glory.
According to the normal scheduling time, this order was drawn relatively late, but I drew the picture in advance, and it was completed quickly, and it was handed over to her in about two days, because I was worried that if she really had a tumor as I thought, if the painting was slow, the girl might not be able to see the painting.
Sometimes, in order to make the characters in the dream in the painting interact, I add some of my own small thoughts. I remember the first painting I painted as a dreamer, a family of three sitting together, boating on the lake, when the client asked the child to be white and fat, because she did not have children.
So I painted a turquoise lake with a family of three on board and a small child with ice cream to feed to his mother. Added this small detail of parent-child interaction, she also felt very warm after watching it.
Some people who have lost their pets, or who have lost loved ones, will also come to me to draw dreams. While meeting the customer's requirements, I will add a pet's favorite toy or something memorable to make the whole picture a little more humorous. For example, if the pet is a corgi, I will draw the corgi's fat ass to the owner, grinning and laughing. If it is a loss of relatives, I will add angel wings to the relatives, and I want to express through this painting that even if the relatives leave, they will always guard us.
The sadness of the death of a loved one who has been with me for a long time is inevitable, but loss is something that needs to be accepted, so I don't want my paintings to be lifeless and render the pain of parting. I hope that through some adjustments I make to the painting, I will remind the client of the warmth that my loved ones have brought to me and have the strength to accept the facts.
Most of the people who look for me to paint dreams have this psychological need, and I also want to fill the gap in their hearts and make up for each other's regrets by painting dreams. In this regard, I seem to have a sense of responsibility in my heart.
A good scene or positive energy in a painting can counteract negative emotions. My painting is printed out by clients and hung on the wall, and they feel happy and warm when they see this painting every day.
Editor-in-Charge: Cui Xuan Photo Editor: Zhu Weihui
Proofreader: Liu Wei