The Versatile Master Artist

From the fur to the expression.

The lines of the pen drawing seem to be like a tabby cat jumping onto the paper and rolling out.

Some painters focus on the precision of images, deliberating even a single strand of hair multiple times; others disregard minor details, capturing major relationships and mastering motion; and still others pursue the contrast of light and shadow, meticulously depicting brightness and transparency...

All roads lead to Rome.

These methods are neither right nor wrong. The differences in theoretical and artistic approaches can be discussed endlessly, but they ultimately lead to the same destination.

No matter the painting technique, you can tell at a glance if a work is ”alive.”

This pen drawing has come ”alive.”

The advantages of the fine lines of the dip pen have been completely realized by the boy—the cat’s whiskers quivering in the air, the slightly bared canines, and the small shadow on the dimples of the little girl’s cheek...

Every frown and smile is lifelike.

Koizumi Katsuko didn’t know whether she should be happy or disappointed.

Even though she had just made such a significant breakthrough, her work was still much inferior to those around her.

”You really draw well. I still remember when we parted at the parking lot. I bragged that you shouldn’t be left too far behind by me, and in just two months, it’s me who’s being left behind.”

”Your drawing...” Gu Weijing wanted to speak.

”No, I don’t need your consolation. If it’s not as good, then it’s not as good.”

Koizumi Katsuko turned her head boldly, tossing her hair.

She is a proud girl, not needing excuses from others: ”I’m happy for your progress, but I don’t need you to halt to wait for me.”

”Jasmine, have you finished your homework today? If you have, could you please be my model for a little while longer?”

Koizumi Katsuko put down the drawing board and stood up, waving to Jasmine.

”I’m going to paint. Mr. Gu, feel free to stride forward.”

The girl turned her head, leaning forward.

Shengzi rubbed her nose on Gu Weijing’s cheek, whispering softly yet firmly in his ear: ”I will catch up on my own, I promise.”

Mom was right.

A relationship should be like a peacock, showing your brightest and most splendid side to your lover.

Miss Sakai hopes to accompany those around her to reach the highest pinnacle of art.

Her pride would not allow her to be left behind midway.

”Come on, Jasmine. The sunlight is nice today, let’s go paint outdoors in the yard. I want to feel the wind brushing against my face. You can also bring the cat along.”

Gu Weijing didn’t know that he had inadvertently ignited Koizumi Katsuko’s fighting spirit.

He watched as Koizumi Katsuko walked jauntily in her white sneakers with pink flowers, holding her art supplies in one hand and Jasmine in the other.

Jasmine held the cat.

The two of them, with the pet, disappeared at the doorway.

Gu Weijing smiled, stood up, filled a coffee capsule into the machine, and made a cup of coffee. After a stretch, he also took out a roll of canvas.

Being a professional painter seems very leisurely.

Spending three years on one painting, and living off that painting for three years, is actually an exaggeration.

Unless you’re preparing an extremely important art exhibition that requires three to five years.

Otherwise, professional painters who are still in their creative cycle have to produce new works every year to maintain market interest and collectors’ familiarity with your name.

There’s also the matter of livelihood.

The heat and appreciation of your past works in the market bring profits to collectors and galleries.

Painters, as the creators of the art, usually only earn money from new works.

Great painters appear to have high incomes, but their expenses are also high.

They have private planes to maintain, models to date, and islands in the Pacific Ocean to buy.

If you want to host a grand and imaginative art exhibition, and the gallery is unwilling to cough up money or cover all the expenses, then costs that can easily exceed millions are thrown in.

Painters often lack money.

Except for someone like Manet, whose father, a chief justice, left him an inheritance worth about one million francs. At the time, it would have been enough not just for a yacht, but for a main battleship.

And Monet, Matisse, Seurat... They often had to create new works for art suppliers and familiar collectors even in their later years of life.

However, some great painters manage to paint three or four paintings a year, living off one painting for several months.

This is not uncommon in the industry.

An oil painting, acrylic painting, watercolor painting—if quick, takes several hours; if slow, excluding drying time, around 20 hours of pure work time should suffice.

Accumulating less than a day’s work time in a quarter sounds enviable.

In reality,

The true effort happens outside the painting itself.

Behind such important quality paintings are often hundreds of drafts and practice works destroyed by the painter. Various time costs far exceed the few hours spent painting the final piece.

By more than tenfold.

Picasso, like an emotionless printing machine, created nearly 40,000 pieces of art in his lifetime, and completing one a day would take over a hundred years.

Yet every one of Old Bi’s truly great works was tirelessly practiced, repeatedly conceived, and re-drawn, often taking weeks or even months to complete.

Reading a book a hundred times brings understanding.

Painting seeks sudden epiphanies as much as it demands enduring hard work that wears down inkstones and saturates ink wells.

Gu Weijing had the help of a system, saving him from the cumbersome process of practicing hand-eye coordination with the pen.