The Versatile Master Artist

Gu Weijing had already sent a text message to his grandfather before going home.

Asking him to help take "Old Church on a Stormy Day" out of the safe and hang it at the right position using the picture rail on the wall.

Gu Weijing didn’t go to Good Fortune Orphanage today because he hoped to reproduce an original painting by Carol again after advancing his sketching technique to Tier Two Professional.

The progress in sketching is not only about drawing intricate zigzags within small grids.

The benefits are just as plentiful when reproducing artwork.

Reproducing a master’s work is about transferring the predecessor artist’s brushwork onto your own canvas, moving the predecessor artist’s line modeling to your canvas, and ultimately transferring the predecessor artist’s soul onto your canvas.

Accurate sketch modeling skills are like the surface of a calm lake.

It can precisely reflect the line modeling of a master’s work perfectly onto the heart’s lake of the reproducer.

"You’re going to reproduce?"

"Yes."

"Reproducing is great too, your previous reproduction painting looked fantastic."

"Thank you."

"Did you almost get this oil painting for nothing, picked up from some art stall?"

"Calligraphy and painting market, 2,500 US dollars."

"That’s practically nothing, this eye for art is truly incredible. I heard Miss Sakai is co-authoring a paper with you, that’s simply..."

"Mr. Hanks—"

Gu Weijing took out a charcoal stick, planning to substitute it for a sketch pencil to draft on the canvas.

But he really couldn’t stand Hanks acting like a curious baby, asking questions all around him.

So Gu Weijing stopped what he was doing, looked at Hanks, and said: "I don’t want to come across as impolite. It’s just that I have a habit of focusing when I paint, so could you please not make a noise, is that okay?"

When Gu Weijing paints, he likes quiet.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be absolutely quiet.

The key is who is around.

When Miss Sakai is next to him and occasionally chats a bit, analyzes the colors on the canvas, and they exchange a look of understanding.

Gu Weijing feels a warm sense of supportive emotion.

If it were Hanks, even if the blonde guy kept on praising him, Gu Weijing would still find it a bit noisy.

"My bad, quiet, got it, quiet."

Hanks didn’t get angry.

He pinched his thumb and index finger at his lips, smiling as he mimicked the gesture of zipping his lips shut.

An artist is the absolute master before the canvas.

Some artists like to paint while listening to symphonies, some enjoy listening to the praises of their students in the studio, painting more enthusiastically.

And some artists love quiet like Gu Weijing.

Hanks thought that young artists of this age all liked people flattering them.

He didn’t mind if Gu Weijing asked him to be quiet.

As long as the artist works efficiently, it’s their right to paint however they wish.

If one day Gu Weijing’s paintings could sell for the price of Uncle Sakai’s.

Even if he required Hanks to dance pole dance while singing Turandot to entertain himself while painting, Hanks would be willing to do it without hesitation.

Finally enjoying the welcome silence, Gu Weijing seriously began drafting with a pencil on the sketch canvas.

"Scratch..."

Gu Weijing lightly but firmly pulled several groups of intersecting lines on the linen canvas with a carbon pencil.

The intersecting lines crisscrossed in space, cutting out different vertical, horizontal, and diagonal spaces on the canvas, eventually converging in the depth of the picture.

As Gu Weijing meticulously created various vertical complex lines resembling scaffolds on the linen canvas.

The two-dimensional linen canvas immediately became three-dimensional.

Hanks, watching Gu Weijing’s sketch draft on the side, slightly widened his eyes.

"Are you locating vanishing points and horizon lines? Does reproducing an oil painting require such a complex sketch?" he couldn’t help but ask.

Vanishing points and horizon lines are sketching terms.

Vanishing points refer to the intersection point where lines extending from all points of a three-dimensional object disappear, while the horizon line is the line that divides the observer’s field of vision when viewing objects.

Western painting is more realistic and lifelike than traditional techniques of Dongxia because there is a complete set of imaging principles of the human eye based on physical optics behind the sketch.

When painting architecture,

regardless of whether it is single-point perspective, two-point perspective, or multi-point perspective, it is necessary to locate and draw vanishing points and horizon lines.

Locating the imaging focus is not uncommon.

The rare thing is, when Gu Weijing was handling a reproduction painting, the drawing of the sketch was too careful and meticulously detailed!

Unless it’s a complicated portrait painting.

Aren’t these pencil and charcoal drafts supposed to be casually sketched with a few positioning lines and contour sketches, then directly progressed with painting?

"Is it really necessary to make it so complex? This is just an impressionist painting."

"It allows me to better position my brushwork and understand the spatial structure."

Gu Weijing casually explained.

Hanks actually knew the answer to this question in his heart.

Of course, it’s necessary.

Even if when painting with oil paints, everyone often just sketches the draft carelessly, a good sketch draft can provide the creator with a wealth of information for the following painting steps.

Don’t think that because Impressionism often focuses more on light and shadow, less attention is paid to realism.

But a real master of sketching can mark and plan out the entire picture’s changes in light and shadow contrast during the sketching process.

When switching to soft brushes, the painter feels completely confident.

No matter how scattered the color dots are on the canvas, and no matter how swiftly the changes in lighting and shadow transition, the entire painting will not appear chaotic and disorganized.