The Versatile Master Artist

”So if it weren’t for you, this orphanage would still be operating under such difficult conditions for many years. Young man, you are the light that shines upon this orphanage, you are truly amazing.”

The crowd applauded.

Old Dad Koko felt a bit regretful that Gu Weijing used such a precious opportunity so easily.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but admit that this is definitely a very upright young man.

Mr. Chen patted Gu Weijing’s shoulder, his tone appreciative: ”I really envy your parents. I’ve always believed that character is more important than ability. If I had a son as outstanding as you, I probably would have long been able to retire with peace of mind.”

”Xiaogu is the most exceptional child I’ve ever met. The kids in this orphanage all like him, and the funding for this renovation also came from him.”

The female director longed for the whole world to know how good Gu Weijing is.

”Gu Weijing provided the money?”

The officer raised his eyebrows; he thought the orphanage collectively raised the funds from the public.

The female director gently mentioned a number.

Old Dad Koko had been amazed enough today by his daughter’s classmate, but still couldn’t help being surprised.

This is not a small sum.

There are quite a few wealthy families at Fitz High School, but those who can easily donate such a sum to an orphanage are extremely rare.

”It seems you indeed don’t need my support.”

Mr. Chen was accustomed to dealing with large sums; a few tens of thousands of US Dollars wouldn’t move him, he just said blandly.

”Thank you, Mr. Chen, for your help, deeply appreciated.”

Having used his promise, Gu Weijing returned the recently received business card to Chen Shenglin.

”You keep it. Since you’re an upright young man and only asked for this little thing, I shouldn’t be too stingy, so how about this.”

Chen Shenglin paused, looked at the draft on the drawing board, pondering momentarily before raising his head.

”No matter what, this painting has a bond with me. If you don’t manage to exhibit it, you give me a call, I still want this painting. And if you really win an award at the Singapore Art Exhibition, I will personally visit Singapore to offer you a price you cannot refuse.” His tone was calm and resolute.

Gu Weijing didn’t know what the ”price you cannot refuse” was.

Mr. Chen didn’t explain either, he lingered at the Good Fortune Orphanage for a little while longer, said something to the officials from the Leyada District, and then left directly, waving without leaving a trace of a cloud.

On the other hand, it was Old Dad Koko who wandered around Gu Weijing for a few laps.

”Um... in two months is Koukou’s birthday party, kids are welcome to come and have fun at the house!” The inspector finally hummed a couple of words, also left in high spirits.

Koukou’s birthday is at the end of April every year, and she’ll have a big party at home, inviting classmates from school to play.

Gu Weijing had been there once three years ago.

Koukou’s house is in a large courtyard near the city center, allocated by the government, with a private swimming pool and a garden full of lilac flowers.

Just the birthday cake is so big that it requires two long tables combined into one for the flag cake.

There’s a small band playing music.

It looks grand, not like a little girl’s birthday, more like the Queen of England’s anniversary celebration.

People eat a third and feel full, then start smearing cake cream on each other and play around. Surrounded by a pile of gifts, Koukou indeed looks like a little queen.

Having attended once, Gu Weijing didn’t go again, not because Koukou didn’t invite him, Koukou was always generous in this regard, inviting almost all classmates without leaving anyone out.

But Mona was somewhat displeased with Koukou’s high-and-mighty demeanor at her birthday parties.

She tried to outshine Koukou in school in every way, yet despite being a wealthy girl herself with her family owning a jewelry store, matching the grandeur of Koukou’s birthday party was beyond her capability.

If Mona didn’t go, Gu Weijing couldn’t go either.

She didn’t explicitly prohibit Gu Weijing from going, but every time Koukou had her birthday party that weekend, she would ”coincidentally” invite Gu Weijing to watch a movie or visit museums and amusement parks.

This was probably a little girl’s subtle thoughts.

...

As night fell westward,

Gu Weijing returned home.

He glanced at the clock, there were still over two hours left before the scheduled online meeting with Mr. Tree Sloth.

He read a fairy tale manuscript from the publisher at his desk for a while, feeling his emotions were about right, he then took out three individual pen sketches preserved from the drawer beside his bedroom bed.

[King], [Rose], and [Alcoholic].

These three are already finished character side-profile sketches for ”Little Prince” fairy tale roles, reaching the heartfelt level; preparation before he officially paints the illustrations.

Gu Weijing spread these three sketches out one by one.

He then moved to his easel, took down an old church he copied over the weekend, and put it aside.

Such practice copy works that don’t need preservation can be treated rather casually.

According to past habits, Gu Weijing would take some time to gently sand off the uneven pigment marks on the surface using sandpaper, then brush on a layer of titanium white.

Leave it to dry for two to three weeks, then it could be used again to draw some informal practice works.

Reusing canvas.

This is a money-saving tip for struggling artists.

Since the birth of oil painting, natural linen canvas was a costly expenditure for bottom-tier artists, using a canvas for repeated paintings was common.

There was even an instance where a collector used a tomography scanner on a Renaissance period old painting, discovering four different layers of paint stacked like building blocks, each new painting was directly painted over the old canvas.

Actually,

In the industrial society, unless it’s luxury-grade imported canvas, plain linen canvas isn’t unbearably expensive.

More about habit, Elder Gu Tongxiang was used to poverty back then, this kind of handling became a family tradition.

Moreover, keeping so many practice works at home, they became difficult to store, better to scrape off the paint and reuse.

The different levels of artists are evident even from a small canvas.

Miss Sakai never had such worries while learning painting.

She told Gu Weijing, her mother bought a temperature and humidity controlled warehouse in Osaka at her birth, specifically to store all her practice works from childhood.

Not even a whimsical childhood doodle was missed.

Mrs. Sakai planned to wait until someday when Koizumi Katsuko became famous and established, then organize a special commemorative exhibition to retrospect her artistic career.

Out of respect for Scholastic Publishing Group, Gu Weijing extracted a brand new canvas, prepared the paint, making ready for the painting process.

He picked up the oil painting knife, hesitated for a moment, then put it back down.

Gu Weijing then retrieved an old version of ”The Little Prince” from the bookshelf, flipped through one last time the original illustrations drawn by Saint-Exupéry.

Generally, when illustrating for such classic works, there is an unchanging principle: endeavor not to vary drastically in composition and character image from the original.

The submission guidelines provided by the publisher explicitly mentioned this.

It’s not only about respecting the original author.

Readers have established a familiar basic expectation internally over the last half-century for classic fairy tale characters.

The illustrator can draw better based on this expectation, which will pleasantly surprise the readers.

But large-scale subversion of this expectation is unacceptable.

If the Little Prince turned into a little princess, the fox turned into a wolfhound, the rose transformed into a peony, the audience would rip the book and curse.

For instance, The Little Mermaid became a Black Pearl, in the stage play of ”Harry Potter” guided by Ms. J.K. Rowling, Hermione turned into a black girl.

No comment on the social stance of such actions,

Simply in terms of commercial effect, even in the politically correct atmosphere densest in Western Europe, it indeed a fell remarkably.

Gu Weijing reviewed the illustrations of ”The Little Prince,” reflecting on the characters drawn by the original author and the sketches he created under Mr. Tree Sloth’s guidance, comparing the two.