The Versatile Master Artist

Koukou still maintains that cool demeanor.

Her chair is pushed far from the desk, leaning back against the rear wall of the classroom, body reclining, with her straight long legs exposed under the school uniform skirt that show she’s had dance training.

The ankles wrapped in white knee-high socks are crossed, attracting quite a few sideways glances from the boys.

Especially Jerry’s group of followers.

Their attention was divided between the cheerleader captain’s smooth thighs and Gu Weijing beside her.

Ever since Koukou dragged a chair next to Gu Weijing before class started, they couldn’t figure it out.

This bumpkin from the campus.

Poor family, not particularly handsome.

The only advantage Gu Weijing originally had in classmates’ eyes was his good grades.

Yet he didn’t even make it into Mrs. Sakai’s genius class this time, only able to attend regular lessons with them.

Logically, someone like him is just an invisible figure anyone could step over.

Why does he always attract the attention of pretty girls in school?

”It is quite pretty, leaving a strong impression,” Gu Weijing nodded in agreement.

”Ha-ha, you boys are just like that,” Koukou showed a cold smile of success in leading him on, ”It’s a serious art video, a big sister living in Africa selling ten-dollar illustrations online, beating illustrators worth thousands and thousands times more with her sincere devotion to art to win the championship.”

”Such a moving story, yet your memorable focus is on the pretty judge.”

Koukou twitched her pointed nose and commented disdainfully, ”Vulgar.”

Gu Weijing’s face twitched involuntarily, at a loss for words.

He indeed couldn’t fathom what Koukou sitting beside him was thinking.

”Silence, my class isn’t for discussing YouTube celebrities.”

The sketch professor suppressed the increasingly scattered discussions in the art classroom with a loud knock on the desk, ”What do you think seeing this illustration?”

”The details are very beautiful, the muscle line drawing is very accurate,” a classmate remarked.

”That’s right, very beautiful? It’s not just very beautiful, it’s [beep-] too beautiful.”

Professor Walter looked at the enlarged photo taken from the video on the projector, unusually using an F-word, not fitting for classroom standards.

”Let’s look at where these two lines intersect, this is a photo from the video enlarged ten times or more under a high-definition camera, look here...”

The elderly gentleman circled a spot on the screen with an electronic pen and enlarged that position further.

Then he switched on another projector and placed a laminated sketch paper on the viewfinder.

”The upper right corner of the screen is last year’s work by Miao Angwen from Fitz’s sketch class, who received an A+. He was among Fitz’s students, possessing outstanding sketch talent. Let’s compare here as well. Mind you, the current magnification of the projector is only half of this photo.”

Many students gasped audibly.

They could now clearly capture the disparity in ”details” the professor mentioned.

Even at such high magnification, the Detective Cat’s Batman illustration remains remarkably clean in the pencil line details.

Every contour curve at the intersections stops precisely without any burrs or deformation.

Meanwhile, among Fitz’s students’ excellent works, even at half the previous magnification, the difference in detail is glaringly apparent.

An enlarged sketch brushwork, resembling a mess of tangled yarn cut by a kitchen knife, with all sorts of unprocessed pencil lines chaotic and unclean.

The contrast is obvious.

”Whatever rumors you see online, I believe Detective Cat deservedly won this challenge.”

Walter kept his eyes on the photo on the projector, ”Among your portfolio work, whose sketch detail handling can reach a third of this level? Even if the creativity of the portfolio is a pile of dog crap, as long as the admissions officer’s mind is intact, you absolutely won’t lack opportunities to enter prestigious schools. I stand by this conclusion.”

The elderly gentleman was utterly shocked when he first saw this video in the popular recommendations on YouTube.

The standard was not inferior to some museum’s famed works.

It must be a sketch master, even some great painters not known for line work may not reach such sketch levels.

Despite being a professional art sketching professor, he was surpassed by an online illustrator’s skills beyond recognition.

Professor Walter was slightly questioning life.

He also understood Miss Elina’s reproach towards this illustration.

Such excellent work, yet so poorly preserved.

If Walter were a judge, he couldn’t accept it either.

”Teacher, how should we train and test our ability to handle pencil detail?” Koukou eagerly asked, focusing on the illustration in the projector, ”Any secret methods?”

”Good question, not so much secret methods, but there are ways to enhance training and test your line drawing ability.”

”You there, come up once.”

Professor Walter casually pointed to a boy sitting in the front row to come to the podium and placed a sketch paper under the projector.

The sketch paper was different from ordinary sketch paper; it had a row of neatly arranged small squares of moderate size.

”You fill in these pre-made squares. Use parallel short straight lines for shading, requiring one continuous stroke with no blanks and no lines or burrs exceeding the square boundaries.”

Professor Walter ordered, ”You have 5 minutes.”

The boy took the professor’s sketch pencil, not feeling it was overly difficult.

Shading can simply be understood as coloring with a pencil.

All are professional art students, just the pencils of various hardness used, totaling not a thousand but eight hundred.

Coloring these small squares, without any changes in shadows, hardly counts as a difficult requirement.

He thought he had plenty of time.

However,

After the boy drew the first stroke on the square under the projector, he realized how naive he was.

The square’s size was clearly carefully designed.

Not too large, but slightly beyond the range where the palm rests on the desk as the rotational center with a top hand pencil grip.

He had to raise his wrist off the paper for greater flexibility, which decreased pencil stability.

At the same time, the square paper borders were extremely thin, only about one millimeter thick.

In regular shading of sketches, whether heavy or flat shading, they mostly pursue an overall visual feel.

There are no special requirements for precision, places that are a bit rough or adjust each line’s length by one centimeter or half a centimeter are generally no issue.

Coloring small squares originally posed no difficulty.

But achieving one continuous stroke without blank spaces, yet no parts exceeding the boundaries, was quite challenging.

The boy’s first stroke swished immediately, exceeding the border.

The second stroke stopped short of the square’s edge.

The relaxed look on his face instantly vanished, and he frowned.

Regrettably, the proficiency in using a pencil doesn’t change by sheer will.

Due to tension, without managing the force well, the third stroke ended up breaking halfway.

He awkwardly raised his head, glancing at Teacher Walter.

”No problem, just continue,”

Teacher Walter waved his hand, seeming entirely unsurprised by the student’s misstep.

”This is somewhat a tradition of mine in the advanced class; every year I randomly invite a student to demonstrate. In Fitz’s many years of teaching, only four students completed it within the 5-minute limit. Of these four, even the least competent was eventually accepted by an Art Academy ranked ninety-seventh globally, as for those completing under four minutes...”

Teacher Walter scanned the class and pursed his lips.

”Thus far, there hasn’t been even one.”