The Versatile Master Artist

The charcoal pencil swirled patterns like seashells on the eaves’ pillars.

Gu Weijing quickly added structural details on the "scaffold" he had already built.

With his current Tier Two professional sketch level, saying he could draw the building’s internal skeletal proportions as precisely as the nineteenth-century professional architectural draftsmen using drawing tools, and take it directly to construction after finishing, might be an exaggeration.

Both are sketches, but the internal painting technique and purpose of the drawing vary greatly.

However, to make the charcoal lines he draws display an orderly beauty on linen canvas is not too difficult for him.

Hanks gradually felt the emergence of this attractive beauty under Gu Weijing’s brush.

At first, he had to constantly suppress the urge to comment.

Later, as Gu Weijing drew faster and more precisely, Hanks became increasingly silent, his eyes bright, like two incandescent bulbs.

Hanks was too surprised to speak.

"His sketch technique... seems to have improved again."

Hanks watched the smooth, flowing paths the charcoal stick made under Gu Weijing’s fingertips.

He felt excited inside.

Master-level sketch standards are exceptionally prioritized at Ma Shi Gallery, deserving a solo sketch exhibition.

Such artists are fertile lands, worthy of investing marketing resources to nurture them, their success spreading fragrance far and wide; it would be strange if collectors didn’t inquire.

In other words.

Any painting that reaches master standards is a treasure in the gallery owner’s eyes.

The so-called ten-thousand-hour rule suggests an artist spends decades in a particular field before they can qualify to be called a master.

Unless they are like George Burriman, who spent a lifetime researching sketches and human anatomy at New York Art Union.

Most artists don’t dedicate such prolonged time solely to studying sketches.

They spend more time researching colors, which is easier than focusing on the dull black and white shades.

A good sketch often gives specialists a thrill, while good oil paintings and watercolors more easily attract ordinary viewers’ attention.

Hence, a true sketch master might be rare even in Ma Shi Gallery.

Originally, Hanks judged—based purely on sketch skills—Gu Weijing ranked around 250th in Ma Shi Gallery’s history.

After that are those into avant-garde art and several sculptors.

Now, Hanks recalled the circumstances of the artists he had interacted with within the gallery.

"The sketch level before me, among young artists under thirty-three in the gallery, is already considered excellent," he mused.

Looking over the entire Ma Shi Gallery, it’s not dragging behind!

Ma Shi Gallery is one of the world’s most renowned galleries.

The so-called "not lacking" among Ma Shi Gallery’s represented artists could easily manage a sketch professor’s role at a small art university.

"Amazing!"

Out of habit, Hanks instinctively wanted to offer praise.

It wasn’t entirely flattery, as this time his admiration was sincerely felt.

He had already tried to overestimate Gu Weijing’s artistic level when signing him but slightly underestimated him.

No wonder Mr. Ma Shi III highly regards this young man.

Unclear how the boss in Southern France foresaw his limitless future potential.

Just before speaking, Hanks remembered Gu Weijing’s request for quietness, and he forced the words back down.

He merely watched Gu Weijing’s canvas closely without blinking.

Gu Weijing finally completed the sketch.

He put down the soft charcoal pencil, comparing Lady Carol’s original painting before him, and mused over the real-world scenes of Good Fortune Orphanage.

"The architectural structure’s capture is quite realistic."

Gu Weijing felt somewhat satisfied with the sketch rendered before him.

In renowned oil paintings, watercolors, and sketches, the architectural structures observed by viewers generally fall into two categories.

One category includes the church series by Monet and the frequently seen tilted and twisted buildings in Van Gogh’s works.

This is a utopian emotional perspective, transcending the real world.

Everyone knows that twisted church spires don’t fit physical structures.

They paint not the architecture but the world they observe.

Artists entwine their intense emotional worlds with the patterns under their brushes.

If your heart is oppressed and twisted, then the world under your brush is also oppressed and twisted.

The other category is the realistic style found in sketches left by Menzel, Louis Bre, and history’s most famous Spanish architect Gaudi.

Their brains operate like precision graphic computers, their drawn lines and shapes always precisely matching the real-world scenes.

Whether the patterns on fences, the shape of walls, or the curvature of domes, all perfectly reflect nature’s superb light and shadow.

Not a bit more.

Not a bit less.

These renowned museum pieces suggest that if the artist slightly alters the architectural composition’s main axis, viewers would fear the building suddenly looks unstable, ready to tilt and collapse into rubble the next instant.

Their works possess an orderly beauty, belonging to the stability and dignity of physics and Newton’s laws.