The Versatile Master Artist

[Current replica painting—”Old Church on a Stormy Day” has been completed!]

In the studio,

Gu Weijing gently brushes the candlelight shadows cast between the old church windows on the canvas with an oil painting knife.

The steel blade of the painting knife glides across the canvas, blending with the damp paint, dispersing the candlelight the size of a soybean into a red haze, adding a mesmerizing touch to the entire painting.

He steps back a few paces, examining the completed replica painting.

The small painting knife instinctively flips and leaps between his fingers, as freely as a magician performing magic tricks at his fingertips.

”Comfortable.”

This is the biggest change Gu Weijing feels in oil painting since acquiring the skill of painting knife painting.

It’s like a professional eSports player switching to an expensive mechanical keyboard, a long-distance runner obtaining a pair of carbon-plated shoes filled with elasticity.

Whether clearing paint or blending colors, anywhere the oil painting knife can be used, there is an effortless sense of fluidity.

Gu Weijing could even use it just now to handle the final touch of candlelight on the painting.

In principle, this kind of small and precise color dot mixing is certainly not the forte of the painting knife.

If the knife goes too shallow, the paint isn’t mixed properly, making it easy to portray muddiness.

If the knife goes too deep, you scrape all the paint off.

The balance of light and heavy, deep and shallow, is difficult to gauge.

Using an oil painting knife to mix color dots is somewhat like swinging a nine-ring saber to cut tofu in the kitchen.

Actually, the best way to handle such an image is to use scumbling, using brushes with bristles of higher hardness to pat the canvas, or simply use your fingers directly.

Fingers are the most direct and nimble drawing tool for a normal person.

Smearing paint with fingers, although a primitive method, is a very good way to blend paint transitions.

Not only do children learning to paint like to smear paint randomly with their fingers,

Masters do the same.

Records show that titans brightening the art history like Da Vinci, Titian, Goya, Turner all liked to use their fingers to smear paint to harmonize the light and shadow of colors.

Using painting knives is much less common.

The advantage of the painting knife painting method is bold strokes, unique aesthetic tension in the picture, and it’s faster.

Trying to paint a picture entirely by dipping fingers in paint would take an eternity.

However, the legendary painting knife skills provided by the system are just overwhelmingly powerful.

Gu Weijing can even forcefully chop out a plate of ”Wen Si Tofu” faster than using a professional kitchen knife.

This is the disparity brought by proficiency.

With his conclusion, a system prompt sound timely echoes in his ear.

[Current replica similarity—33.7%, you have received a Basic Treasure Chest.]

”Last week, the highest similarity I achieved in a replica was only twenty-four point nine percent... Well, even though the oil painting knife isn’t suitable for handling such scenes, it brought nearly a ten percent improvement, terrifying.”

Gu Weijing smacks his lips.

This should also be the limit of the painting knife.

After all, in non-professional painting knife paintings, no matter how skillfully the oil painting knife is used, it’s still just an auxiliary tool, a ten percent improvement is already quite significant.

He thought as he was moving, and opened the Basic Treasure Chest.

[You have obtained 314 oil painting experience points!]

[Current Oil Painting Technique: Tier One Professional Painter (1202/5000)]

Such a prompt flashes across the virtual panel before him.

”It’s a pity that this time what’s drawn is oil painting experience points rather than a Knowledge Card.”

Gu Weijing shakes his head slightly in disappointment.

He’s already discovered the pattern of opening Basic Treasure Chests now.

The Knowledge Card that appeared while first replicating ”Old Church” is the best reward in Basic Treasure Chests, akin to mobile game opening packs and getting orange quality first.

Generally, the contents provided in Basic Treasure Chests are just oil painting experience points.

In the past half month, Gu Weijing has replicated quite a few paintings of ”Old Church.”

Among them, two paintings didn’t reach the 20% similarity base qualifying line due to lack of concentration, thus receiving no reward.

The rest were generally between twenty and twenty-five percent.

Aside from ”Royal Court Dance Step Diagram,” only another Knowledge Card named ”Purple Blue Macaw Feather Specimens and Skeleton Anatomy Map” by Oxford University ornithologist Najir Marvin has been drawn from these chests.

The rest of the Basic Treasure Chests contained oil painting experience points ranging from tens to hundreds.

Clearly, this was great too, and it would take thousands of US Dollars to exchange those points, yet in terms of rarity, they still couldn’t match a rare Knowledge Card.

Glancing at his panel,

With the reward bonus from replicating ”Old Church” for improvements in oil painting proficiency,

His current experience panel shows the Oil Painting Technique is soon to become his highest proficiency skill.

Gu Weijing tidies up his painting tools, opens his phone, and finds Mr. Tree Sloth in his contacts.

”Are you there?”

He clicks send.

”Yes, Lady Detective Cat, how is your preparation for the podcast salon recording later this evening?” Mr. Tree Sloth’s reply message is as prompt as always.

Evening?

Gu Weijing looks at the clock on the wall.

He returned home, attended a lecture by Professor Lin Tao, spent several hours replicating an oil painting, and now it’s already late at night.

Considering the time difference, Mr. Tree Sloth, the anonymous art podcaster, is likely European.

However, this isn’t a stunning discovery.

This podcast is set in English, and although Mr. Tree Sloth’s real identity is mysterious, residing in Europe is certainly a high probability.