The Versatile Master Artist

This sketch brushwork exercise—not, this small grid filled with Gu Weijing’s personal creativity, in Professor Walter’s eyes, has already departed from the realm of practice and can be considered a simple geometric sketch.

The sketch itself, although not bad, hasn’t reached the level deserving of such astonishment from Professor Walter.

Honestly speaking,

it’s merely a top-down view of a pyramid with a lighting effect.

Sketching geometric plaster models, cones, spheres, and even various crooked asymmetric figures are basic skills for art students learning sketching.

The base is a square pyramid without curved surfaces, so the light and shadow changes are not complex.

Any Fitz sixth or seventh-grade art student could draw such a shadowless top-down view.

What truly made waves of shock surge in Professor Walter’s heart, wanting to swallow his tongue was...

He could tell that this entire sketch was drawn by Gu Weijing using an ordinary 2B pencil!

Due to different manufacturing processes, the higher the B value, the darker and softer it is; the higher the H value, the harder and lighter it is.

The softness or hardness of the pencil tip can bring different adhesiveness of graphite, leaving diverse granularity on the sketch paper.

In theory,

when depicting brighter surfaces or needing thorough modifications to the detail, it’s suitable to use high-hardness pencil leads.

Graphite pencils are used for darker surfaces.

Typically, 6B to 4H pencils are options that art students keep and swap to depict different light and shadow variations.

But Gu Weijing probably for the convenience of filling the grid, only used one sketch pencil to complete all the work.

And he did it very well!

The black, white, and gray changes visible in the pyramid’s top-down view.

Essentially, all these are shown by a single pencil based on line density and the pressure applied, creating different layers of graphite on the paper surface, displaying a gradient of light and shadow.

The finesse of this pencil work is simply exquisite!

"Incredible."

Professor Walter has always been proud and confident in his sketching technique.

Even compared to Fitz School professors in Cairo, Bangkok, Yokohama, Professor Walter does not think his sketching skills are inferior.

Looking across Myanmar, few possess his level of expertise in pencil use.

Walter quietly estimated,

If given enough time, maybe he could only manage to draw a sketch pencil to the level of this student’s work.

And Gu Weijing accomplished this within such a limited time in class, in a tiny and restricted little square!

All the traces of pencil he left were drawn "full."

Neither crossing lines nor lacking anything.

Ending crisply at the edge of the grid, as if hitting an air wall.

And the fascinating swirling lines Gu Weijing drew in other grids immediately made Professor Walter think of Van Gogh.

Except, Gu Weijing’s swirling lines are without Van Gogh’s impulsiveness and passion but tidier and more concise.

Van Gogh liked to use swirls to portray rugged, tight cypresses.

The lines under Gu Weijing’s pencil, however, are as fine and delicate as a breeze across a lawn.

Static images carry a flowing rhythm.

Curves infinitely approach yet separate from each other at half-millimeter precision, drawing Professor Walter’s gaze easily into them.

My God!

Professor Walter uttered, having countless words he wanted to say now, as if his mind was filled with a whole book of "Why so many questions."

These words stuck in his throat, finally turning by chance into a vocabulary he learned years ago from a Myanmar merchant parent who dealt long-term in jade in Yangon —

"NewBee (awesome)."

The old professor uttered a word of round and perfect admiration.

Gu Weijing was drawing well, not even noticing Professor Walter had come to his side.

This sudden "awesome" startled him so much he almost threw the pencil away.

Turning his head, he saw the sketch professor with eyes like copper bells, staring intently at him.

Professor Walter took the sketch paper from in front of Gu Weijing.

The teacher said nothing.

The professor just stared at the sketch paper for a few seconds, turned his head to stare at Gu Weijing, then back at the paper, and then at Gu Weijing.

This bizarre behavior kept looping as if he was a robot stuck with a bug.

Gu Weijing felt a little uneasy from the old man’s gaze.

"Professor, sorry, I wanted to try another painting style, do you have any good guidance or suggestions?"

Gu Weijing took the initiative to break the awkward atmosphere.

"Sorry? Drawing like this, what do you have to apologize for?"

Professor Walter chuckled, shaking the sheet in his hand. "Apologize that Fitz School can only send me, this level of teacher, to teach you?"

"Asking me for good guidance, student, I cannot draw such a picture. Oh dear, yet I shamelessly lectured for so many days." Professor Walter smiled bitterly.

"Or perhaps you should guide me instead. You don’t need to attend this class anymore."

His words were joking, yet there was genuine emotion in his tone.

In modern schools,

it’s not strange that students’ academic skills might exceed those of their teachers.