It’s been a while since my last post but I’ve been busy working on my latest project- an attempt at a LFC Cheung Fei lion. The only catch is that I don’t have a black and white LFC head to get the minor details so it was a little bit of imagination and improvisation. I do have a few images of LFC Cheung Fei lions so I had a starting point.

It was great though because it gave me a chance to study some of the other famous makers lion heads. I got to explore and admire the fine designs and intricacies on the lions made by Bo Wah, Bak Wan, Kum Yuk Lau, Lo An Kee, Wong Gar Kai and modern master makes like Yu Ho. It’s so interesting seeing the differences in styles between the various artists and how with a change in colour scheme or use of S’s, C’s, circles, dots, squiggles, boxes etc you can give a lion a completely different look. One things for sure, they’re not famous for nothing. Their work is so top notch that it makes my attempts at keep straight lines and blending the colours look like child’s play.

With the Cheung Fei lion, it’s almost even that little bit more harder because there are only 3 mains colours- black, white and shades of gray. I incorporated green into the mix because it’s worked so well in all the other Cheung Fei lions I see. I’ve seen other makers use blues, golds, oranges which have added pop but I’ve decided against it. The biggest decision I had was working out whether I have a black base or a gray base. I have never really paid much attention to the base of Cheung Fei lion head before!! All I saw was black so next time you see a Cheung Fei head take notice, you’d be surprised at how many of them are actually a gray base with black highlights and the black fur just frames it all together nicely.

I was so torn with the overarching colour scheme of this head that I ended up painting it little by little without trying to do all the white part’s first, and then all the green parts and then the gray parts and then the black parts. I decided to cover certain sections and just see what it looked like. If I liked it, I kept the colour scheme, if I didn’t, I painted over it and started it again. In the end, I’m quite happy with how it looks. It’s still simple compared to say the likes of Bak Wan lions but I think the shape, colours and patterns will set itself apart from others and most importantly it still retains a LFC flavour.

Now onto the embellishments!