Apple celebrates Chinese New Year with original Nianhua folk art wallpapers made on Mac and iPad
Mikey CampbellRich Harvest by Zhou Fan
Continuing its celebration of the 2017 Chinese New Year, Apple on Friday published to its website a series of high-resolution Nianhua folk art wallpapers created using its ecosystem of devices, from Mac to iPad and Apple Pencil.
Posted to select Apple regional websites, the boldly colored digital artwork of "Made in CNY" depicts traditional Chinese New Year scenes, but with a modern flair. Each work is available as a free wallpaper download for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Apple selected five local artists to take part in the special series. The first, Victo Ngai, sketched her work Lucky Rooster using Apple Pencil and Procreate on iPad Pro, then moved to a MacBook Pro for final color composition and grading.
A more modern interpretation of Chinese New Year is represented in Eszter Chen's Joyful Reunions, a block print style illustration accomplished with Photoshop and Illustrator on iMac and MacBook Pro. Adobe's software is a go-to for many artists and dominates Apple's CNY series.
Along with Chen's work, Zhou Fan's Rich Harvest, Ye Hongxing's Peaceful Home and Jiang Shan's Fortune Flows were all created with Photoshop, Illustrator or both.
As part of the Made in CNY project, Apple has invited each of the five artists to present and discuss their illustrations, as well as the importance of Ninhua folk art, in Q&A sessions at local Apple retail stores in China and Hong Kong. Registration and scheduling information for the upcoming panels can be found on Apple's webpage.
Apple is also inviting customers to take part in special Photo Walks at select Apple retail outlets. Those who attend will get to venture out and take photos of Chinese New Year festivities with their iPhone or iPad and turn those images into greeting cards.
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