The Versatile Master Artist

Gu Weijing quickly summarized the key points of sketching.

Don’t be fooled by the addition of a sketch; compared to Western-style heavy color, the visual perception of sketching is much better, and the realism of characters and buildings is elevated by more than one level.

Sketching is considered the foundation of modern painting techniques,

If your ambition goes beyond simple flora and fauna and you want to accurately reproduce buildings and characters, sketch lines are essential.

Drawing a Bean Flower Painting with simple flora and fauna, lines that lack depth or proportion are not really an issue.

The audience isn’t likely to mistake bean flowers for cauliflowers.

But with architectural and character paintings, especially when incorporating oil painting techniques, if the proportions and structures are off, making it look almost real but not quite,

it might indeed cause the viewers to cringe or even give them goosebumps.

When a painting closely resembles a natural, living person, but not completely, it can trigger uncontrollable feelings of repulsion and disgust in some people.

In psychology, this artistic impression is known as the ”uncanny valley” effect.

Oil painting teachers often say, either go for realism or don’t at all; you shouldn’t do it halfway—this statement is true, but not entirely absolute.

Real masters of art, whose skills have reached the transformation realm, have long integrated this into their work, even before it was studied by psychologists.

Like the absolute old rogue Picasso,

after he grew bored and weary with a lover or wife, he loved to use this method to uglify and demonize them in his works.

The most typical example is a painting of his that auctioned for 78 million US Dollars in 1997.

Picasso deliberately distorted the leg structure and bones of his second wife, a beautiful Russian ballerina, in such a way that would induce fear in viewers, expressing his disdain toward ”women in marriage.”

However, Gu Weijing is far from the level of these great artists; trying to forcibly play with such advanced techniques would just be Dong Shi imitating Xi Shi, destined to fail spectacularly.

Right now, he still pursues the basic goal of making the painting look realistic.

Gu Weijing carefully studied two representative realistic character sketches by Lang Shining in the exhibition, ”Emperor Qianlong’s Grand Inspection Painting” and ”Xuanfei Painting.”

With the New Style Painting technique analysis in his mind, he slowly deciphered the subtle skills in these paintings, considering how he should mimic them.

For a work intended for the Lion City Art Exhibition, characters and buildings are indispensable.

The composition designed by collector Chen Shenglin is so exquisite that Gu Weijing doesn’t want to abandon the original painting plan to paint simple flora and fauna.

That would be too regrettable.

So sketching is a hurdle he must overcome.

The perspective structure and proportion lines in sketching closely resemble the scenes viewed by the human eye in nature, providing an innate advantage in scene reproduction.

This is the quickest shortcut to capture the first glance of audiences and judges.

Chinese Painting focuses more on charm and essence, which requires cultural accumulation to appreciate and understand.

These two are quite difficult to merge.

At this time, Elder Cao’s guidance on practicing line sketches that blend sketching techniques and traditional brushwork started to show its effect.

Gu Weijing drew about a hundred line sketches, gaining experience in merging Chinese brushwork with sketching techniques, thus speeding up learning Lang Shining’s painting approach.

”So Boring...Help!! (I’m dying of boredom, save me!)”

Gu Weijing was watching the exhibition when his iPad chimed with a message alert; someone sent him a new message on social media.

He put away the catalog and opened the software to find a message from Miss Sakai.

In addition to writing papers and painting in the studio with Gu Weijing,

Since transferring to Fitz, Koizumi Katsuko almost never participated in any of the school’s group activities, not even joining the class or grade groups on Whatsapp.

Outside of the advanced class,

she maintained a near-zero social interaction with peers of the same year.

Hence, there have always been rumors in school that Miss Sakai is quite aloof and doesn’t like to make friends.

Miss Shengzi once complained to him about this being her mother’s request.

Mrs. Sakai believes that since they’re not people from the same world, it doesn’t benefit to get too close to these Myanmar natives.

After all, half a year later, they probably won’t see each other again, making real friends would be a heartbreak.

Besides,

her daughter is pure-hearted; you treat others as friends, others see you as a means to wealth.

If people lick their face and ask for favors, whether you help them or not will be a headache, better to maintain distance from the start; this way, everyone is happy.

It’s cold yet shrewd, harsh but realistic, the trademark approach of Mrs. Sakai.

Thinking about it,

the two requests Mrs. Sakai made during their initial conversation showed she truly thought highly of him.

”I’ve been accompanying my mom listening to a jade jewelry lecture at sea for half an hour, and I’m almost falling asleep.” Koizumi Katsuko sent a sleepy emoji.

Gu Weijing remembered that today, Miss Shengzi was taken by her mother along with Koshiba Tarou to play by the seaside, instead of coming to school.

For a student like Koizumi Katsuko, who could choose among the top ten art academies globally and if she doesn’t become a great artist in twenty years would be surprising, transferring to Fitz was like their guardian spirits watching over Yangon.

The school board wishes they could treat her like a precious patron.

School rules and regulations are merely a joke to her, not wanting to come to school, and no one would be mad enough to intervene.

Gu Weijing closed the chat software and opened the Instagram page of Koizumi Katsuko, noticing she had just updated her photo wall.

According to the photo record,

Koizumi Katsuko went to the seaside port to collect shells in the morning.

Aman Hotel has a vast private golden beach at Yangon Port, where post-tide retreats leave all kinds of shells on the shore.

The photo with the highest likes had already gathered over ten thousand views in just a few hours.

The temperature in Yangon during March is already quite high,

and in the photo, Koizumi Katsuko was wearing a one-piece beach swimsuit with straight legs and arms exposed, standing barefoot on a drum-sized seashell, facing The Sea, and extending one leg high behind her.

It was hard to tell if Koizumi Katsuko had just swum or if it was due to a light rain,

but her hair was wet, clinging to the back of her neck, while her skin appeared very fair and tenderly moisturized, presenting a stark contrast with the golden beach and blue sea.

This scene truly resembles a romantic oil painting, with her like a marble statue of the Goddess Venus by the sea, extremely beautiful.

Gu Weijing chuckled, secretly liked the photo, and continued scrolling down the timeline on Instagram.

Miss Sakai had Spanish paella at the seaside restaurant for lunch, then went out to sea with her mother in the afternoon.

Judging by the time, when she sent the message complaining about boredom, she was likely on a Treasure Ship.

It’s common to see gambling ships running casinos in unregulated international waters around the world; jade jewelry Treasure Ships, however, are unique to Myanmar.

Jade trade is a highly profitable industry, serving as a pillar of the Myanmar economy aside from tourism.

According to regulations, all Myanmar jade mines and veins are state-owned, and most visible private jade transactions are illegal.

Therefore, some ships specifically cater to the wealthy, known as Treasure Ships.

Private mine owners transport superb jade stones to yachts registered in Cayman or Panama, then sail them into international waters, facilitating unregulated private auctions for guests to select their favorite jade items.

For instance, in a photo Miss Sakai shared five minutes ago,

beside Koshiba Tarou, a steward-like crew member was holding a large tray displaying high-quality jade ring surfaces, bracelets, and Peace Jade Pendants, presumably passionately explaining the wonders of each piece of jewelry to the guests aboard.

Koizumi Katsuko’s Instagram caption was amusing—”I pretend to listen but I was bored to death.” (I’m really trying hard to listen, but I’m dying of boredom.)