The Versatile Master Artist

In the studio,

Gu Weijing repeatedly made sure that the brightness of the paint on the canvas, after his refinements, finally left him with nothing to be dissatisfied with.

Thus he continued to follow the established order of replication, portraying the distance, the main subject, and the foreground of "Old Church" from dark to light.

Whether it’s color dots or color bands.

The overall characteristic of Impressionist brushstrokes is their undulation, a short and fine style, with vibrant colors.

The brushwork suitable for different lighting conditions varies accordingly.

Gu Weijing used a diagonal brush mixed with titanium white and lemon yellow to depict the color and texture variations of the building’s main structure.

This was to shape the church walls’ hard majesty while reflecting the subtle weathering after the erosion of time.

When drawing the building’s roof, he subtly mixed in a hint of phthalo blue.

Phthalo blue could transform part of the roof from dark red to magenta, perfectly handling the mysterious feeling of cold light from thunderclouds reflecting on the arched dome of the church.

"Sketching techniques, indeed, are the foundation of Western art."

Gu Weijing nodded lightly.

His current thoughts on paint combinations were the same as when he had just used an oil painting knife to make the originally dark sky more relaxed, giving it more breathing space.

All were following the intuition of his heart.

The artist’s intuition sounds mystical and unreliable; in reality, it is a sixth sense transformed from the accumulated experience over countless practices by the artist.

Very useful.

After improving his sketching abilities, Gu Weijing’s precise control of light and dark details allowed him to be more imaginative in replication, mending past deficiencies.

"Old Church on a Stormy Day," this painting, Gu Weijing had replicated countless times.

The macrostructure of the entire painting was so familiar in his mind that he could easily recall it.

Now he just needed to further enhance these details, and he effortlessly achieved a painting with both wanton brushwork and astonishing detail.

"[Current Replicated Painting—’Old Church on a Stormy Day’ is complete!]"

"[Current Replication Similarity: 61.2%, you have received one System Intermediate Treasure Chest.]"

As Gu Weijing added some moisture of a stormy day to the surface of the linen as the concluding stroke of the replication.

The system prompt timely appeared on the virtual panel.

"Another Intermediate Treasure Chest obtained."

Gu Weijing felt this was within reason.

He focused more on the "61.2%" replication similarity rating.

That stormy night when he and Shengzi replicated the painting together, they reached a similarity of 59%. It seemed that Gu Weijing really worked hard to achieve a two-percent improvement.

In fact, it was a completely different concept.

Impressionism is a painting school that pursues creation in the wild scenery.

That evening, the replication weather conditions and the scene in Lady Carol’s "Old Church" were extremely well recreated.

During his usual creations, Gu Weijing finds it hard to reproduce those excellent external conditions.

Without the help of weather, in the past few weeks of replication, he only received an Intermediate Treasure Chest reward once, while the rest were all Basic Treasure Chests.

Now, the painting on the easel in front of Gu Weijing was entirely a replicated work created behind closed doors in his small studio at home.

This not only marked the first time he broke through the 60% threshold.

It also meant that with Gu Weijing’s current painting techniques, he could create a replication painting that consistently reached most of Carol’s brushwork brilliance without relying on external environmental assistance.

With the frequency of obtaining Intermediate Treasure Chests increasing, he was one step closer to the ultimate reward for this task.

"[Ray Noa—Human World’s Hundred Ghosts Fragment.]"

Gu Weijing glanced longingly at the highest reward this Impressionism-limited task could offer according to the system.

He still didn’t know what "Ghost Fragment" actually was.

Koizumi Katsuko once said while chatting—In her heart, when an art student courageously follows the path of the master predecessors to the end.

When recreating, it is as if the master predecessors in the grave pass through the dust of history, attaching to you and guiding your hand.

Achieving a sort of resurrection effect.

Gu Weijing wasn’t sure if this system reward was a similar concept to what Shengzi mentioned.

Anyhow, it seems very impressive!

He also remembered, when he obtained that Legendary Level Hundred Arts Tree, the page for the lottery had the words [Henry Rousseau’s "naive" Ghost Fragment] appeared on it.

The so-called Ghost Fragment should be a Legendary Level item on par with the Hundred Arts Tree.

Henry Rousseau wasn’t that famous Enlightenment pioneer living in the French Pantheon, that Rousseau.

Just the same name.

Although he was also an important nineteenth-century painter, among the great painters of Post-Impressionism, he should be ranked in the top ten.

But neither his painting skills nor his status in the art world could be compared to a founding master like Reyno.

Comparing like this.

Theoretically, the reward system panel on the system should be even more astonishing.

With secret expectations for the future, Gu Weijing casually opened the Intermediate Treasure Chest at hand.

"Hope to get another Blessing Small Candle."

The last time he opened an Intermediate Treasure Chest, he got around four hundred Oil Painting Experience Points.

Which was significantly more than the 50~300 Experience Points usually obtained from Basic Treasure Chests, also worth several thousand US Dollars when converted.

But by no means as useful as a small candle.

These small candles, which can enhance inspiration, should better be kept as often as needed.