In June, the sun is shining fiercely in coast city of Dalian. On Neusoft campus there is a busy scene of scrawling on the manhole covers. Outside of the Buildings from A1 to A3, a group of students are creating various images with their brushes: the violent Baymax, 3D octopuses, and other figures in the recently popular cartoon movies like “Big Hero 6”; decorating the campus with an amazing show.  

  As a part of the educational reform of innovation and venture, Department of Digital Arts holds the Competition of Scrawling on Manhole Covers annually to reinforce the students’ practice ability. This year, 113 students of Visual Communication of Year 2014 participate in the project. Du Mingming, teacher from Department of Digital Arts of our university says, “ 8 students form a group to accomplish the work by firstly drawing the draft by hand and then drawing on the actual field on the basis of relative knowledge learned in the course of Graphic Creation”. The teacher continues, “They used to work in a group of 4 but adjustment was made in order to render a complete work in limited time.”   The novelty and the vividness of scrawling on manhole covers have aroused great enthusiasm from the students. “Our work has adopted the flattening design concept to flatten the images in Marvel's The Avengers and demonstrated them with geometric shapes,” says Luan Peng, the student from Class 14003 of Visual Communication.   “Through years of accumulation we will make a transition from the Competition of Scrawling on Manhole covers to the Competition of Scrawling with a wider influence,” says Du Mingming. The teacher adds “Hopefully, such practical projects will help cultivate a group of students who can set up studios with the spirit, awareness and capability of innovation and venture to expand their design scope to outer wall and interior design, etc.”   As an attempt for the educational reform of innovation and venture, the Department of Digital Arts made a small-scale talent show on the Digital Spring Art Exhibition. In the hall of Building A1, Zhou Jie, a student from the major of Visual Communication created graffiti on the wall: the drawing formed a unique 3D effect by employing the connection of the wall with the ground, the brook running through the valley, the sun shedding light, the shade lying on the stone, which resembles the picture described in “Gravel Lake in Mind” (a famous ancient Chinese prose). Many teachers and students have been attracted to stop and appreciate this gorgeous work. “I have taken part in the scrawling on manhole covers for several times and I have experience in wall graffiti. I am grateful to the school practice and to teachers’ guidance,” says Zhou Jie. The Digital Spring Art Exhibition is open to all the teachers, students and visitors and it acts as a window to the work display of the education of innovation and venture in the Department of Digital Arts in our university.