The Versatile Master Artist

When Kelly left in a huff, she unexpectedly noticed a slender man with somewhat familiar gray-white hair in the corridor.

He was holding a copy of Little Prince, staring blankly at the illustration in front of him.

”Are you, Mr. Verlaine?”

Kelly was a bit surprised and delighted.

She had seen Verlaine’s photo on the official Twitter, and she didn’t expect to meet the illustrator himself here.

Kelly felt her pockets, only finding the two paper vouchers recently given to her by a staff member.

She took one of them and approached the white-haired man.

”Mr. Verlaine, I’m a big fan of your illustrations and have always admired your work. Could you give me an autograph?” Kelly asked for a signature.

Verlaine seemed to be lost in some kind of contemplation, staring at the cover of the Detective Cat painting knife painting in his hand and muttering to himself.

The Montblanc rose gold Writers Edition fountain pen, priced at over a thousand pounds, spun like a fingertip gyro in the palm of his left hand.

The people coming and going around him did not distract him for even a moment.

”Fan?”

Upon hearing this word, Verlaine lifted his head a bit.

Europeans who chase stars love to get autographs.

They want signatures from their favorite singers, basketball stars, and even from academic professors and artists they admire.

Moreover, it’s worth mentioning that the signatures of famous artists are actually quite valuable.

Receipt slips signed by the likes of Picasso and Andy Warhol at restaurants can easily sell for thousands of US Dollars on a pawnbroker or Ebay.

However, big artists rarely give out autographs.

Mainly, they’re concerned that once signatures are out there, forgery groups will use various technical means to replicate them on oil paintings. To avoid trouble, some oil painting artists even use different fonts for their everyday signatures and their signature marks on artworks.

Verlaine was just an illustrator, so such concerns were lessened.

Instinctively, he took the voucher Kelly offered him but paused slightly.

”Are you a volunteer this time?” he asked.

”Yes, yes, I really didn’t expect to see an artist like you in person here.” Kelly nodded immediately, and as she spoke, she looked around the corridor, hoping to spot Detective Cat.

Unfortunately, there was only Verlaine standing alone.

She didn’t even know what Lady Detective Cat looked like.

”I’m an art student at the Royal Academy of Arts and have a collection of your illustrated work, Green Wilderness. I even wrote a recommendation letter to your studio, but unfortunately, I didn’t get a reply.” Kelly introduced herself.

”So who was chosen, me or Detective Cat?” Verlaine seemed indifferent to who Kelly was and asked coldly.

”Uh... Is this actually a draft assessment?”

Kelly looked somewhat embarrassed.

She wasn’t dumb, and it’s highly unlikely that a publisher would release two different illustrator versions of Little Prince simultaneously.

Seeing the registration form just now, coupled with Verlaine’s inquiry.

She could guess the purpose of this market survey.

”Sigh, I guess I won’t be getting an autograph.”

Kelly looked a bit ashamed.

She had just claimed to be a loyal fan but had acted like a turncoat. She hesitated whether to lie.

Verlaine had already noticed the blonde girl’s hesitation,

His already pale complexion became even paler, making the artist look somewhat like a skeleton.

He didn’t get angry or tear up the voucher as Kelly expected.

”Never mind.”

Verlaine merely remained calm, uncapped the pen, and flamboyantly signed his name on the voucher, handing it to Kelly.

”You’re also studying art; the good and the bad are evident, I won’t make it difficult for you.”

”Thank you, actually... your art is not bad either.” Kelly’s expression was somewhat apologetic.

”No need to comfort me.”

Verlaine turned his head, looking at the pile of Detective Cat’s works at the sample return area, sighed resignedly: ”The result is right in front of me, what’s the point in deceiving myself?”

When the volunteers just entered the venue,

Illustrator Verlaine felt that something was a bit off.

Even though the sound wasn’t played out loud, he could clearly see from the monitor in the observation room that people stopped, gathered, and discussed with amazement at some easels.

”What’s the situation?”

Having worked in the industry for so many years.

Verlaine could judge the quality of an illustration just by observing readers’ reactions in a bookstore.

Based on his experience,

there were only two possibilities for this kind of reaction.

Either the illustration was particularly stunning,

or, more likely, it was a restricted illustration.

Physical bookstores and online shopping sites in Europe and America have R18+ classified adult novel sale sections.

Illustrators would often pair these with illustrations of scantily clad women, designed to be exciting, with pulsating hormones.

In such restricted categories, content with flavors similar to the well-known Fifty Shades of Grey is considered somewhat innocent.

Like drawing explicit comics,

it’s all about the thrill.

But this was obviously impossible because while Western illustrators might have flexible boundaries,

this was a children’s fairy tale submission. If Scholastic Group dared to publish anything borderline, they’d be bankrupt despite being a billion-dollar corporation.

Not to mention, Little Prince is originally a very innocent fairy tale.

If Detective Cat dared submit any heavy-taste illustrations, the Group would not hesitate to trace her over the internet to chop her off, kicking her onto the blacklist never to be hired again.