The Versatile Master Artist

”Of course, that’s great,” Gu Weijing nodded.

Uncle Sakai had thought it through.

He was just a middle school student, and even if he were an ordinary Art Academy student, he would have been dizzy just looking at that long list of reviewers’ names, let alone distinguishing between the good and the bad ones.

He could only randomly fill in the recommended reviewers, hoping to run into a kind reviewer.

Speaking of which,

A top-tier humanities journal like ”Asian Art” wasn’t something for ordinary Art Academy students or even regular professors to submit to.

”Well, the only downside is that ’Asian Art’ is a biannual publication, meaning the review process is quite long, with only two issues per year. We might have to wait for the pages for a while. It’s fine as long as you’re not in a rush to sell the painting.”

A top journal like ”Asian Art” is quite high-end, adhering to a policy of quality over quantity with its submissions.

Every article is carefully polished, forming a stark contrast with those mediocre journals that try to publish weekly issues.

However, Uncle Sakai judged that they shouldn’t have difficulties getting the article accepted. It’s already getting close to March; if lucky, it could be scheduled for the end-April issue, and it would be published in just over a month.

This waiting time is not considered long for a top-tier journal article.

The reputation of ”Asian Art” is also worth waiting for.

And the ”Taylor Art Journal,” being more geared towards European journals, wouldn’t be much less famous if they were planning to develop in Europe in the future.

Plus, its publication cycle is much shorter.

However, its academic standing still can’t match that of the reputable ”Asian Art.”

Koizumi Katsuko worried that Gu Weijing might be anxious about getting the paper published, eager to quickly cash in on Carol’s oil painting.

That could be a large sum of money.

Since Shengzi was born, barring any unforeseen circumstances, she never really had to worry about money and didn’t really care about it.

But she couldn’t assume everyone felt the same way.

Most ordinary people in the world definitely still hope to let the paper establish fame for the work as soon as possible, then sell the painting thereafter.

”No, I won’t rush to sell this painting for now; I haven’t completely grasped the essence of Carol’s painting, just missing that bit of feeling.” Gu Weijing shook his head.

He hadn’t fully taken advantage of the system rewards yet; selling the painting would significantly set back his copying progress.

”Not grasping the essence... Actually, you’ve painted very well already.”

Koizumi Katsuko thought for a moment and suggested, ”This kind of dark background Impressionist master’s work is inherently difficult to grasp the essence of. But I have a little color-mixing trick that I use when painting. I wonder if it might help.”

”Hmm?” Gu Weijing was curious.

”You can try using a transparent acrylic board as a tool for color mixing. Match the colors to the base color on the canvas. This was a beginner’s method my father taught me when I just started learning painting, inspired by my mom choosing cosmetics. It’s usually very helpful when trying to gauge the skin tones of characters in paintings or complex tonal changes.”

”Look, I’ll demonstrate for you.”

In the study room, with no painting tools at hand, Koizumi Katsuko spoke as she took a transparent plastic ruler from her pencil case.

She unbuttoned the cuff of her school uniform sleeve, folded back the fabric on her shirt wrist, revealing a half-white jade-like arm.

Shengzi’s skin was very white, not snow-like, but more like the medicinal cloves found in parks in April and May, smooth and slightly pink, with a youthful aura.

She placed the transparent ruler on her forearm and took out three short tubes of lipstick from her pocket, handing them to Gu Weijing.

”This is Chanel’s Maple Syrup, Coral, and Cream Cherry, given to me by my mom this morning.”

”What?” Gu Weijing expressed with a perplexed expression, indicating that he didn’t understand a word Miss Shengzi was saying.

”Those are the lipstick color names. You just treat it as an oil paint brush and try painting on the ruler?” Koizumi Katsuko suggested.

Gu Weijing removed the caps from the lipsticks, twisting the almost identical lipstick tips one by one.

As an art student, unlike many boys who think all lipsticks are the same, he could still notice the subtle differences in color among the three lipsticks.

The ability of luxury brands to name their shades was impressive, yet the colors were basically shades of red, not differing too much.

Gu Weijing gently applied the lipstick on the transparent ruler placed flat on Shengzi’s forearm, immediately understanding the implication of Koizumi Katsuko asking him to prepare a transparent acrylic board for color mixing.

The girl’s arm seemed like a piece of oil canvas with a pink-white base, extremely fine-textured.

The lipstick was the brush, the ruler was the palette, and the three lipsticks with slight differences in shade instantly displayed different artistic expressions against Miss Sakai’s smooth skin.

Coral was cooler in tone, Cream Cherry warmer, and Maple Syrup was somewhere in between.

”Hmm, this is equivalent to a special palette that can chameleon-like support the base color and paint relationship at any time, a wonderful idea.”

Gu Weijing immediately grasped the trick.

When painting, he didn’t have high requirements for palettes, using the most basic three-ply wood palette bought online from Amazon for five dollars.

But Gu Weijing had heard that some great painters liked to customize their palettes.

Light-colored, dark-colored, even differentiating different shades to number the palettes.

David Fuzeli, a romantic painter once selected for an official French salon, was an example of an artist with very high demands on painting tools.