Feng Jijun, an artist based in Xiamen, Fujian province, has channeled her passion for art into a career capturing the fleeting emotions of weddings through live painting. Since late 2024, she has completed around 15 commissions, offering newlyweds and their guests hand-painted keepsakes that blend realism with sentimental warmth.

After graduating with a degree in product design and working as a fashion designer, Feng discovered wedding painting while living in Singapore in 2019. When she returned to Xiamen in 2021, she experimented with the craft, posting on the lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu (RedNote) in late 2024, offering free services.

Feng shared the experience online, leading to a paid invitation from a wedding planner. Soon after, she quit her job to pursue this "more suitable, challenging, and new" career.

In Feng's view, the job is like a performance; social skills are essential. She immerses herself in the celebration, sketching guests in real-time and coloring from memory.

"It may take 10 hours without rest," she said. "Sometimes the environment is complex, and the lighting is not good, which adds challenges to painting." At one event, she drew 75 guests in eight hours, achieving near-perfect likenesses, a skill she takes pride in.

At the end of a wedding, she gifts the couple the main painting and, upon request, smaller cards of individual guest portraits.

Feng's work carries deeper meaning for some clients. One groom requested his late grandmother in the painting; a bride asked for her deceased cat. To her, the difference between photography and painting is that painting can break the barrier of time and space. Her ability to portray the deceased adds warmth.

Fees range from 2,000 to 3,000 yuan ($278 to $417) for wedding scenes and can reach as high as 4,000 yuan if guests are included. Though physically demanding, the joy on the couple's faces keeps her motivated. "When they see the paintings," she said, "all my tiredness disappears."

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