The Versatile Master Artist

”What do you think I’ll teach you in this class... How to showcase your personal creativity in your portfolio? Inspiration for composition, layout design?”

In the classroom, Professor Watter wrote the word PORTFOLIO flamboyantly on the blackboard with chalk.

”No, those are all nonsense!”

The elder gentleman turned around, facing the faces of numerous students in the art classroom, tapping the podium with chalk as he spoke.

”Are these things important?”

”Of course they’re important, but these are things you should have learned in the past thirteen years at Fitz. Now you only have a few months left in your middle school era. If you expect to join the advanced class and have it turn iron into gold like a magic stone, I’m sorry, I don’t have that ability, nor is it realistic.”

Watter stretched out a finger and said coldly, ”The only thing I can teach you is... detail.”

Besides independent professional courses like oil painting, sketching, and still life study, Fitz International Middle School only offers thematic courses to hone painting skills and enhance detail in the last two grades.

Either it’s a preschool class targeted at a group of five-year-old kids.

Teachers would hold the hands of first-year students to draw various curves and zigzags on paper, similar to the process of young Da Vinci practicing drawing eggs.

Or it’s the thirteenth-grade students.

They have already received a complete set of art education; the teachers have taught everything they could, and what remains is the continuous polishing of portfolio details.

”Don’t think it’s easy; most of you, despite years of schooling, still have appalling drawing details and handling skills. When university admissions officers see many people’s portfolios for the first time, poor drawing details might have already been sentenced to death within three seconds,” Professor Watter shook his head.

Many people in the classroom seemed unconcerned.

Gu Weijing, however, listened attentively.

The transformative improvement brought by painting skills made him increasingly aware of the importance of handling skills.

Detail determines success or failure,

A single sketch line might not show much difference on paper between someone with excellent skills and someone without.

But when hundreds or thousands of lines are piled together, countless subtle differences suddenly bring a world of difference in expressiveness.

His painting knife painting is Legendary Level because the details are nearly impeccable.

If Gu Weijing’s other painting techniques also possessed legendary-level abilities, even if they ”only” had the handling skills of Menzel’s basic painting insights.

He wouldn’t need pointers from Elder Cao nor need to study insights from predecessors of ancient or modern fusion paintings.

Gu Weijing might easily eliminate the sense of disconnection in his fusion paintings just by relying on his control over details. He could seamlessly merge different painting styles with powerful control.

It’s like two pieces of rubber clay; his current technique only allows him to shallowly press the surface like a baby’s hands, easily breaking apart.

That’s why Gu Weijing needs to specially practice line drawing sketches to try various angles of kneading and twisting, making the rubber clay mesh tighter.

If his ability to control detail becomes strong enough, the baby becomes a strongman or even a hydraulic press, he can casually press these techniques together.

The same principle applies when applying to universities.

Many classmates put effort into the creativity of their portfolios, like Mona’s father hiring a family tutor or even hiring specialized study abroad agencies to design their portfolios.

It’s not without effect.

However, even at a second-tier European Academy of Fine Arts like Erasmus University Rotterdam, the admissions office receives tens of thousands of portfolios from around the world every year.

Everybody wants to create something fresh.

Admissions officers have long grown tired of the various contrived novelties.

The better the art academy, the harder it is to succeed solely based on creative design.

Ultimately, it still comes down to painting techniques.

Yangon doesn’t have a Dongxia Art Unified Exam, Japan’s art exams, or the United States’ Art and Design exam to test students’ painting skills uniformly.

Therefore, when reviewing Fitz students’ submitted portfolios during admissions, university teachers pay extra attention to the students’ painting skills and line details to assess their true drawing foundation.

”Don’t say I didn’t warn you: every year, parents spend thousands or even tens of thousands of US Dollars on study abroad agencies to design portfolio creativity and composition for their kids, only to end up with not a single admission offer because of a poorly drawn stroke.”

”What constitutes eye-catching excellent detail... let me give you an example that you young folks should have heard of.”

Professor Watter pressed the electronic pointer in his hand, and then a curtain projection revealed a draft.

”This is...”

”The illustration from the viral video of Mr. Hibernian.”

”Called Detective Cat, right?”

The classroom was filled with the murmurs of students recalling the highly popular video on YouTube during the holidays.

Gu Weijing sat up slightly.

The projection on the screen was none other than the Batman illustration he made for Thomas.

”Hey, have you seen the video of [Mr. Hibernian]? That judge lady is awesome,” someone nudged Gu Weijing’s shoulder.