The Versatile Master Artist

She resembled a housewife handling disobedient dough.

Layers of thick and light paint mingled under Shengzi’s fingertips, creating a translucent yet indistinct visual effect.

The sky contrasted with the leaves, merging at the very top where the sky met the leaf edges.

The leaves of the large locust tree retained a faint yet distinct outer contour.

”Look at this, does this effect improve a lot? I actually think this hazy blur on the leaf vein edges is quite good, but if you wish, you can also reapply the vein on this underlying color.”

Koizumi Katsuko spent three to four minutes carefully processing the edges of the leaves on the high points of the locust tree, before dipping her fingertips into the diluent on the side.

She washed off the paint that stained her hand through the tissue, and asked with a sense of achievement.

”Shengzi.”

”Hmm?”

”You are really a genius.” Gu Weijing commented reflectively, looking at the canvas.

”You too.” Koizumi Katsuko brushed her hair and responded with a smile.

No need to wait for the final data panel from the system.

Just looking at the current visual effect, Gu Weijing could be sure that this work had made considerable progress compared to his previous painting.

Koizumi Katsuko skipped the brush and directly handled the paint with her fingers, a technique both bold and efficient.

The layers of light and dark colors blended naturally, creating a very soft color gradient.

Like the soft light of dawn.

Gu Weijing’s heart was racing.

Miss Shengzi had truly given him a great gift.

The Finger Smudging Method could not directly eliminate all the gaps in the image for Gu Weijing.

It has its limitations; using fingers to smudge paint typically only suits handling highlights and color transitions.

Color transitions are just one of the few primary reasons for insufficient image quality, okay for handling leaves and sky, but not suitable for characters as one smear would ruin it.

Still, it’s an idea as precious as gold.

Don’t be fooled by how Miss Sakai just smeared the paint with her fingertips on Gu Weijing’s canvas for a few minutes.

Gu Weijing immediately realized that the value of this painting had doubled compared to its predecessor.

This statement is not exaggerated at all.

The valuable aspect of art pieces doesn’t only lie in their enhanced visual aesthetic but in the irreplaceable artistic creativity.

And creativity is priceless!

In the art world, a complete replica has almost no value.

Grand Galleries and exhibition judges have different demands from Brother Hao, they require originality.

A copier who only replicates ”Mona Lisa,” ”Starry Night,” ”Impression, Sunrise” would be dismissed by galleries, and disliked by the market.

The worth of an artwork lies in its uniqueness and the intellectual quality artists instill in it.

Duchamp once spent dozens of francs on a cheap replica of the ”Mona Lisa,” then added a little moustache to it and wrote ”LHOOQ” in marker on the surface of the painting.

The French reading of LHOOQ is ”elle a chaud au cul,” translated as—her butt is hot.

This ”hot butt,” created in under three minutes, was resold in 2014 for about one million dollars.

Collectors adored Duchamp’s eccentric personality and uniqueness, along with the controversies and storytelling behind the artwork.

But if there were no little moustaches or vulgar inscriptions from Duchamp.

The original ”Mona Lisa” replica,

would literally just be worth dozens of francs.

If Gu Weijing dared to submit a replica of ”Emperor Qianlong Viewing the Painting” to the Lion City Art Exhibition.

No matter how impeccably it was copied, even if Lang Shining himself crawled out of the missionary cemetery outside Fucheng Gate in West Beijing and painted it before going back.

Sorry,

The senior committee members would absolutely throw the painting out, step on it, then spit on it.

Creative originality is the most basic requirement for exhibition participation.

Whether the painting technique is original is an extra credit.

If one considers ”New Style Painting” to be a genre like ”Impressionism,”

Like what Gu Weijing is doing now, mimicking predecessors’ techniques to create new works, it’s not a big issue in the realm of classical art.

If they are established artists, they might be criticized for lacking innovation.

For small artists who haven’t yet ”found their own path,” demanding them to innovate in painting techniques as well is indeed too far-fetched.

Uncle Sakai’s immature brush style was once very similar to Ingres.

In the world of modern art, usually, the painting style of living artists isn’t categorized into specific art genres, pursued to break restrictions of genres, and achieve inclusivity.

But in fact, if looked into carefully,

Many artists’ brushworks contain shadows of Impressionism, Aestheticism, these classical techniques.

Originally, Gu Weijing could only be considered a mimicker of ”New Style Painting.”

What he painted and Qing Dynasty palace paintings were no different.

Everything Gu Weijing did on the canvas, from drafting on paper to line sketching and smudging, was already done by those painters from the Forbidden City Painting Academy hundreds of years ago.

Until—

Miss Koizumi Katsuko leaned over his shoulder and pressed her finger on the canvas in front of him.

”You’re truly amazing, Shengzi.”

Gu Weijing felt like lifting Miss Sakai high in joy.

Not only did she suggest a great idea for handling highlight transitions,

Starting from this moment, Sunshine Orphanage began to incorporate some brand new creativity.

Some unprecedented new visual elements!

No matter how much effect this change produces on the imagery, adhering strictly and creative improvement are fundamentally different within the art circle.

Gu Weijing looked at the soft and ethereal color transition Ms. Koizumi Katsuko created on the edges of the canvas, at this moment the painting technique presented in this painting was historically unprecedented.

Speaking seriously and exaggerated,

Simply using fingers to mix the edges of colors might be too simplistic, not reaching an artistic conceptual height.

Otherwise,

Following the scientific theorem naming convention, this painting method could be called ”Lang Shining–Koizumi Katsuko New Style Painting Technique.”

In the art world, this innovation is preferably called [New New Style Painting] or [Post-New Style Painting].

Historically, Seurat, Pissarro established Neo-Impressionism.

What they did was nothing more than refining predecessors’ techniques, using abundant mix-color dots to replace the original coloring effect.

And it’s essentially the same as Miss Shengzi’s finger-smudged color transition.

”Alas, we are different.”

Gu Weijing recalled a month ago when they parted in the parking lot, at that time Koshiba Tarou just tore his painting. The girl rushed up and whispered about ”finding one’s own path.”

He sighed, his heart inevitably upwelling with some undeniable sense of inferiority.

Compared to others being truly pure natural talents, his version, matured through a later system, lacked some aura.

Adding new painting elements to the surface of artwork sounds not difficult.

As long as you don’t care whether the final image would appear ”oddly abstract”—in a negative sense abstract.

Forget about Finger Smudging Method,

Holding a brush several meters away and splattering ink like a madman also counts as a new artistic element... Performance art can be stated as art, right?

But wanting to produce good synergistic effects is incredibly challenging.

Seurat and others improved Impressionism’s original techniques using smudging effects of millions of small color dots, which could be recorded in art textbooks worldwide as great achievements.

From basic logical judgement,

If refining a painting technique were so easy, the many clever people in history, the thriving painters in the Qing Court Painting Academy, would have already done so.

Refining a foundational technique, moreover achieving great visual effects, has always been extremely challenging.

Looking at the board in front with its smooth highlight color transitions.

Gu Weijing understood, Koizumi Katsuko made a successful improvement surpassing the predecessors’ painting masters.

Perhaps just a tiny gain, in the heart of exhibitions, galleries, and knowledgeable collectors, the value of this painting and its creator’s status is completely different now.

Truly the golden finger of a genius.