Some pages of the books, A Deer of Nine Colors, Mr Turtle Moves the Mountain, The Magic Dragon and the Herbal Medicines, A Carp Leaping the Dragon Gate, and The Yangque Bird Creating Sun and Moon. [Photos provided to China Daily]

"At that time I suddenly realized I was doing something great－that, with the good work I presented, I have planted a seed of art appreciation in the young hearts of our future generation," she says.

To empower herself more, she has collected more than 100,000 digital artworks to use as sources of inspiration for future projects.

Rock with burning fire

Another graduate, Qiu Fangxu, can't remember how many silver foils he ruined while ironing them with sulfur to get the ideal mixture of color he wanted for the picture book, The Magic Dragon and the Herbal Medicines.

"The speed, the pressure applied and even my breathing mattered a lot, because the foils are so light and thin. I spent seven whole days last year, repeatedly 'burning' the silver," says Qiu, who applied another unique technique, yancaihua (meaning "rock color painting"), by "learning while experimenting and practicing" countless times.

It was a lost art form in China for over 1,000 years. Using mineral pigments made from rock and earth, it colored the murals in the grottoes of Dunhuang, Gansu province. Its heyday was during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), but it lost its appeal during the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368) as Chinese artists adopted ink as their preferred medium, according to Wang Xiongfei, head of the Rock Painting Research Center at the China Academy of Art.