Carved figures emerge from trees in Northeast China

Animals such as ladybugs, cheetahs and huskies are among the figures an art designer coaxes from shallow tree hollows at a park in Changchun city, Northeast China's Jilin province.

Feng Shuxuan, born in 1963, has been carving and painting the designs at Changchun Zoological and Botanical Park for nearly two years, since May 2014.

Feng, who has worked as an art designer at the park since 1987, said he was inspired after seeing media reports in 2013 about an undergraduate in North China's Hebei province who does this kind of art work.

He starts by selecting trees with hollows and polishing them, before filling the holes with putty. Feng subsequently polishes the surfaces of the putty-filled holes, where he will carve and draw the animals and figures. To finish, Feng sculpts the animals based on the drawings and paints the resulting sculptures.

Feng said he's going to carve and paint 20 monkeys at the park this summer.