Lushuirou has always preferred to express herself through images “rather than simple language,” she tells It’s Nice That. As an introverted person, she has become adept at noticing the “little emotions” that are expressed through people’s body language. As such, much of Lushuirou’s work focuses entirely on subtle hand gestures. Lushuirou explains, “The hand is the part with the most abundant body language, and the beautiful curve and changing shapes of the hand are very appealing to me. Thanks to his keen observation of subtle gestures, Lushuirou’s illustrations have become a meditation on those small acts of “subconscious” communication that often go unnoticed.

Lushuirou lives and works in Hunan Province, China. She recently completed a degree in Visual Communication Design, where she first learned about illustration techniques. At the moment, Lushuirou is expanding her practice by working on personal projects, during which she begins each job by applying paint to paper before scanning on her Ipad and editing with Procreate. She enjoys experimenting with the “grain and uneven texture” of the Holbein cake color used for traditional Japanese sumi-e painting. Once she has the initial design, she transfers her work to her Ipad and continues to improve the richness of colors and textures on Procreate.

Lushuirou’s current series, which she has yet to give a title to, is about human relationships and how people connect with each other. In this series, Lushuirou produces unusual juxtapositions in order to capture the conflicts that underlie many romantic relationships. The soft, plump skin of her hand illustrations is often embedded in harder, sharper surfaces like metal or the prickles of a rose. In his room Game, a punch between friends turns disturbingly. One hand closes in on itself, puncturing her skin with its own rose-like quills, while another rises above her, threatening to engulf her in her own spiky embrace. By performing this simple ‘twist’ of hands, Lushuirou highlights the ambiguity of human interactions through body language and the hostility that can underlie seemingly friendly gestures. Lushuirou admits that she has become obsessed with exploring these “contradictions in interpersonal relationships” through her practice.