zeli_portfolio

Ze Li(1990-), aka Covel Neptune, took photos, made videos and drew.

He was born in Xi'an, China, where famous film director Zhang Yimou was from. He had been struggling with maths during his school days. He enjoyed literature.

Most of his understanding of art had been self-taught.

Youku, YouTube, Vimeo/ Flickr, 500px, Behance/ WordPress/ Instagram

2008 He bought his first computer by a classmate Mr Sun Lei.

2009 He was taught by Mr Sun Lei to use Photoshop, After Effects and Maya. He bought his first camera and was taught by a photography group in school.

2010 He decided to go to a training class of vfx but failed. He began to write scripts.

2011 He bought more cameras and did "street photography". He bought his second computer. He got the permission of adapting a novel into a movie. He sometimes attended classes in Beijing Film Academy.

2012 He learned how to write stories for sell in a journalism school.

2010

Title: letters

Material: video

Size: maybe about 30 minutes

First made into discs as gifts, I might still have a copy available

Description: It was for the use of internal communication in the army.

Written on April 8, 2021

2011

Title: a boy and a girl on a train

Material: film camera, Olympus XA2

Size: unknown

I think I have never posted it, except on my Adobe Business Catalyst website once. I might still have a copy available.

Description: I think I printed it out and the color was amazing. I met this couple on a train back to school in Beijing and they happened to be travelling to Beijing too.

Written on April 8, 2021

2012

Title: head modelling in Maya

Material: digital

Size: unknown

I used it as visual elements on my website for news portfolio. The original file has been lost.

Description: I bought a book on how to animate facial expressions for human characters. I followed it and made my first ever 3D human head.

Written on April 8, 2021

2011 or 2012

Title: myself listening to music on a plane

Material: digital painting

Size: unknown

I might have posted it onto Flickr. The original .psd file has been lost.

Description: I bought my Wacom tablet maybe in 2010 from Zhongguancun. You could see I signed “Allen Greenhood” on the painting. It might be inspired by a photo on Flickr.

Written on April 8, 2021

2012 or 2013

Title: sheep on hill covered with snow

Material: digital photo, Nikon D90

Size: unknown

I used it as photos for my news portfolio website. The original file has been lost.

Description: I liked the camera because of its color. It was in a town in mountains in mid Wales. I took the photo in a morning. A very relaxing place.

Written on April 8, 2021

2013 He destroyed his first computer. He was granted partial scholarship by Vancouver Film School. He sold his cameras.

2014

2015 He threw his second computer, together with a video camera. By then he lost all digital tools to do art.

2016 He did drawings on a phone and then switched to paper. He began to draw stories in the form of cartoon.

2017 He bought a computer which could not do graphic.

2018 He wrote stories weekly. He drew in watercolor on the back of used A4 print paper.

2019

2020

2021

2014 maybe the second half

Title: Professor Snape and Lily Potter

Material: digital painting, iPad app

Size: unknown

I have never posted it anywhere except on Adobe’s Behance. The original file might still be in my Adobe Draw phone app’s cloud.

Description: I can’t remember why I drew it. It is a conversation in Harry Potter and the half-blood prince. I can’t recognize the signature.

Written on April 8, 2021

2014 the second half

Title: fruit and vegetable

Material: digital painting

Size: unknown

I can’t remember if I have posted it anywhere. The original file is lost.

Description: I was living in Pudong Airport in Shanghai in October 2014. It had been a month. This was drawn in one of the few hotel nights in that month.

Written on April 8, 2021

2015 summer

Title: fishes

Material: digital painting

Size: unknown

I did post it on Behance. The original file is lost.

Description: I rented a room in Beijing but could not pay the rent after a month. This was drawn in the month paid by Mr Sun Lei before I destroyed my Apple computer. I had worked for a seafood restaurant for months that year before I went to Beijing.

Written on April 8, 2021

2015 January to July

Title: mountains and forests of China: episode one- from Zhongnan mountain to Taohua island

Material: video

Size: maybe 30 minutes

I posted it onto Vimeo. The original file is lost.

Description: It took half a year to shoot by a JVC video camera I bought in 2013 in the UK and a phone. I worked as security staff near the mountain in my hometown from January to March in order to shoot the change of seasons in the mountain. I captured river in early spring, flowers, snow and Buddhist temples. Then from April to June I worked as an apprentice chef in Zhejiang province. I also shoot some videos about the locals. In July I finally got back to my computer and the whole video was assembled and edited in Beijing with a narrative written and read by myself.

Written on April 8, 2021

2016

Title: The wild

Material: Chinese ink on paper

Size: maybe broadsheet newspaper size

I posted the photos of it onto Behance. The page (actually two pages put together) here is a part of a 4-page cartoon. The original file is lost. You could head to my Behance for the whole story.

Description: In 2016 I somehow read a piece of news about a university student who killed his mother in Fuzhou, Fujian province. I did some research and drew a picture as a fake ad for a famous brand. I bought a bottle of ink and found it very useful to make black and white drawings. I was in Fujian from April that year. I rented from July 1st 2016 till April 1st 2017 in Fuzhou. A friend of mine from school helped to pay my rent and living expenses for nearly a whole year. I wrote a script and translated it into this 4-page, interesting cartoon. The story might not make sense. It might be inspired by the three Tin Tin cartoons, Tibet, Blue Lotus and Exploring the moon, which I purchased in the UK. In 2016 I began to put two companies’ brands a lot in my drawings.

Written on April 8, 2021

2016 summer

Title: le mond

Material: digital

Size: unknown

I posted it onto my Wechat moments. The original file is lost.

Description: It is the drawings I mentioned in the description of last image. The little girl with a bottle was a hotel guest with wet hair I met in elevator. The whole idea looks horrible from today if you look carefully at what is in this picture. The idea of comparing a famous drink with blood on women’s underwear. It was drawn on a phone app. There was a fancier version of this picture, more complicated, which might take a whole month to be made.

Written on April 8, 2021