The Versatile Master Artist

When Gu Weijing painted with colored pencils, he was ”filled” with this strong personal style.

In Mr. Hibernian’s channel video, the judge Miss Jean commented on his creative style, saying his brushwork carried a feeling akin to Rockwell, the greatest illustrator in the history of the United States.

It’s not that what Gu Weijing painted resembled Rockwell.

Rather, Rockwell was Menzel’s direct disciple, and both painted in a style similar to Menzel.

But the sketching ”brushwork” that skills bring is just a short-term experience card lasting a few hundred seconds. It’s like an elder monk suddenly infusing sixty years of power into you and then instantaneously taking it away.

The achievement one feels when the vague sense born from steady progress in sketching manifests at the tip of the pen cannot be compared to this.

”Precision.”

When Gu Weijing drew the small grids of Professor Walter’s sketches, he realized that the biggest difference between Level 5 and Level 4 was still precision.

Precision is the foundational condition for forming a personal ”brushwork.”

Only by using the pencil at your fingertips as if it were an extension of your arm can you discuss anything about painting style on this foundation.

If your paintings are a chaotic mess and your writings are as clumsy as a dog crawling, as long as you persist for a few years in unswerving ugliness, you can also form your own painting style and calligraphy school.

After all, ugliness is a style.

However, calling such works ”brushwork” or ”calligraphy” would be laughable.

The ability to draw controlled, reproducible beauty is the true skill of a sketch expert.

Tier One Professional sketching level is also accurate when drawing small grids.

But upon entering Tier Two Professional, when Gu Weijing puts pen to paper, you already feel the meaning of elevating rigid precision to the realm of ”freehand.”

Previously, when he drew small grids, his strokes were fast, yet he had to concentrate intensely on the edges of these small grids, constantly controlling the boundaries of his pen use.

Later, it became a rigid muscle memory.

If the size and side length of the small grids on Professor Walter’s sketch paper varied, or if Gu Weijing suddenly wanted to change the length of the lines, it inevitably caused some confusion, with the pen marks crossing the boundaries or leaving spaces at the edges of the grids.

Now it’s different,

Gu Weijing could entirely freely handle his lines, drawing fast if he wanted fast, slow if he wanted slow, thick if he desired it, and light if he pleased.

He could draw as long as he wanted to.

He could break lines anywhere or seamlessly connect them anywhere, even using fine overlapping lines within a space as small as a fingernail.

”Continuing to draw small grids like this is no longer interesting.”

Gu Weijing used to quite enjoy attending Professor Walter’s advanced class.

Now he didn’t care at all about portfolio formats, but the drawing tips summarized by Professor Walter were quite good.

This small grid exercise could gain sketching Experience Points while also honing his ability to refine the details of pen use.

Yet, drawing the small grids at this point lacked challenge for Gu Weijing.

He decided to increase the difficulty.

Just earlier, Gu Weijing thought that he could try using monochrome sketch tones to build a complex, three-dimensional light and shadow on a square inch of paper.

He first experimented by pulling divergent lines from the central point towards the four corners of the grid, dividing the grid paper into four triangular areas.

In the four areas, he used four different colors of light and brushwork, making the finished small grid look like a pyramid viewed from a high altitude.

Then came the curves,

filling the small grid’s space with perfect, conch-like polyphonic curves, with the blank spaces in the four corner areas filled with smaller curves.

This made the whole image look like it’s dotted with vortices of various sizes, even making one’s eyes blur, as if resembling snakes entangled and linked head-to-tail or vortices flowing within the sea, somewhat affecting one’s Sanity Points.

After trying the previous two painting techniques, Gu Weijing attempted a more assertive and challenging zigzag segment.

”Shasha...”

He was completely immersed in the world of sketch lines.

During the days when Professor Walter liked to sneak back to the office while students did their homework, he pushed the door open again, holding his coffee cup.