Almighty painter

Chapter 127 Project Team

London Financial Street,
Scholastic Group, the fifteenth floor of the European headquarters building.

The Little Prince project department.

"Editor-in-chief, the printing factory hopes that we can speed up the progress... Well, the European Union is still on strike, the supply chain is not running stably, and the price of paint and labor is increasing. The financial department of the group estimates that if printing is postponed to April, the first The printing cost of a batch of books may go up by 7% to 15%..."

The "Little Prince" project assistant who just stepped out of the elevator is a fat man.

He had half a donut in his mouth, and a paper plate full of coffee cups from the Starbucks downstairs in his arms, with beads of sweat on his forehead.

The fat assistant was talking vaguely on the phone with a bluetooth headset as he approached the office and placed coffee on the desks of every senior in the department.

He hung up the phone, wiped the sweat on his neck with the sleeve of his coat, and ran back to his workstation in small steps without being urged by the supervisor.

The editing, proofreading and typesetting of the final text content of "The Little Prince" have all been completed.Coming into the print cycle, the whole department is busy.

Today is not the 70s, if you dare to order the clerk girl in the office to serve tea and water, maybe tomorrow the personnel department will talk to you in the name of discrimination against lesbians.

Therefore, because of his low qualifications, the fat assistant became the most miserable person in the department with no human rights.

Not only does he need to connect with various departments of the group, but he also needs to buy coffee, pick up express delivery, and bring lunch for the bosses in the same office, and he doesn't even have time to eat a donut seriously.

The fat assistant who is bullied by the workplace can only imagine that when he becomes a veteran, it will be his turn to point fingers at newcomers and have fun.

He sat at his desk, turned on the computer, and found that there was a new email in his mailbox.

[Detective Cat "The Little Prince" sample draft - Agent Mr. Folivora]

"Detective Cat? Mr. Sloth? What a weird name."

The fat assistant pouted.

"Is it the sample draft sent by the online illustrator?" A man stood behind him with a coffee cup and stared at his computer screen, "Is there any milk added?"

"Milk, two spoons, no saccharin."

The chubby assistant, who was used to being treated like a cow, fluently reported the request of the visitor just by the blurred mirror reflection of the computer screen, he nodded: "Yes, it was sent by the illustrator of "The Little Prince" appointed above. sample."

"The illustrator of "The Little Prince"...it's not certain. If she wants to get the contract, she must pass the review of the art department."

The man seemed to know some gossip about the upper echelons of the group, he hummed softly: "I heard that the boss of the art department is very dissatisfied with this detective cat's meddling."

"Don't say the art department is dissatisfied, I am dissatisfied too."

Another colleague came over: "I worked so hard to make a set of books, but finally hired an unprofessional online illustrator, what's going on? If it's other books, it's fine, the illustrations are very important to "The Little Prince". It's not that everyone doesn't know how important it is."

"The Little Prince" belongs to the most special category among fairy tales.

The first section of the first story at the beginning of it is that the protagonist draws various paintings for adults to see when he was a child.

From the first sentence of this book, to the very end.Any plot is closely related to various illustrations.

Otherwise, the original author Saint-Exupéry would not have drawn so many illustrations by himself.

Even in the past, a senior book reviewer on the famous reading website GoodReaders believed that for "The Little Prince", even the text is only the skeleton that carries the thoughts, while the illustrations are the real soul.

For such an important job, please hire an online painter to do it.

Not only did the art department of the group have opinions, but most of their colleagues in the "Little Prince" project team were actually unhappy.

At that time, the illustrations will be bad, the sales will not be good, and everyone's performance will not be paid.

Because it fits the public, illustration is the subject matter with the lowest "artistic" content in the chain of contempt for painting.

Also because it fits the public, illustration is the subject matter that best distinguishes the level of the artist in the chain of contempt for painting.

Wen Wu is the first, Wu Wu is the second, but the illustrations are not in this list.

You put a row of paintings by Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, and Van Gogh, and ask them who draws better and who draws worse, not only will the audience have different opinions.

Even the big professors of the top art colleges dare not make such a judgment.

To put it bluntly, there has never been a unified evaluation standard for such things as artistry.

But the illustrations are different, the audience will vote with their actions.

The illustrator who can draw the works that most make customers want to buy is the most powerful illustrator.

In the book market, it means that two identical works are placed in front of you, only the illustrations on the cover are different.

Three out of ten customers who enter the store will choose the first book, and seven will choose the second book.

So don’t talk about art concepts and painting techniques. In the eyes of the market, the latter’s illustrators are better than the former.

Traffic and sales are the last word.

That's why good illustrators are so important to the Scholastic Group project team.

The works of excellent illustrators can really be transformed into real sales, can earn a lot of money for the group, and have the ability to turn waste into treasure.

There are a large number of good-quality illustrators under him, which is why Director Charlie of the art department dares not to ignore President Osborne.

"Shh... Detective Cat can snatch this fat job from the art department, and his relationship is also tough! I don't know who is standing behind me. Don't spread gossip."

Someone kindly reminded me.

At this time, many colleagues were already standing behind Fat Assistant, and everyone wanted to see how the new illustrator's sample draft was.

"Huh, what's the hard relationship... It doesn't look like a serious illustrator, he doesn't even have a contracted gallery or studio, and what kind of manager is called Mr. Sloth, and it is most likely an online name. I still play online soliciting drafts It’s not formal at all.”

The colleague's tone has softened a lot, but he still hummed softly: "That is to say, we are a big group. This kind of grassroots team and some small companies make drafts, and they don't know how they are sold."

Another role of an excellent agent is to handle the contract and strive for more benefits for the painter.

Some rookie illustrators met the black-hearted bosses of Party A and worked hard to complete the project. Because of some clauses in the contract that they didn’t read carefully, they couldn’t get a penny. Those unlucky people who were cheated by prostitutes or even lost money were not No.

"Here, why are you staring blankly, open it and have a look."

Someone urges the fat assistant.

The fat assistant opened the email, and then he froze for a moment.

This is not what I imagined. The online illustrator sent the finished sample to his mailbox and it was done.

Instead, it was a long, detailed email.

"Advance payment 20.00% [-], the right to author the cover, monthly sales for each installment..."

Follow the fat assistant to pull down the email.

In the email, the other party's agent, Mr. Sloth, put forward many requests for illustrators in a polite but very firm tone.

Behind me, some colleagues who were originally unhappy with Detective Cat said in a strange way: "I'm treating myself as a person, and I dare to make so many demands. If this guy is really allowed to get a formal contract, I don't know how troublesome it is."

"Hey! This Mr. Sloth is really knowledgeable." The supervisor on the side was also watching, and he shook his head at this moment.

The supervisor is Osborn's direct subordinate, and he doesn't have much malice towards Detective Cat.

More importantly, he discovered that this manager named Mr. Sloth was indeed quite powerful.

The other party seemed to be demanding a lot and meticulously, but it could only be said to be very professional, not too much.

Illustrators do deals with publishers,

The biggest problem is that the payment cycle is too slow.

Many of them have to wait more than a year after the book is listed to pay the remuneration, and six months is considered fast. A large group like Scholastic has a relatively abundant capital chain. In fact, it can pay 10% to 25% of the remuneration in advance as an advance payment.

of course,

No one will dislike the amount in their account.If you don't take the initiative to fight for this kind of rights and interests, the publishing house will not mention them to you.

The second is the right of authorship. The right of authorship is a natural right granted to illustrators by law, that is, to tell everyone that this painting was drawn by you.

Unless it is a ghostwriting in some gray area, the general contract will stipulate that the artist has the right to sign.

However, how to give is also particular.

The signature of the illustrator is not required to be on the book, and even a line of small words that no one will notice is left on the copyright title page of the book, even if the publisher is very strong.

The vast majority of readers who buy books do not know who drew the illustrations in this book.

The right to author the cover requested by the other party means that in addition to the original author and translator, the label [Illustrator-Detective Cat] should also be marked on the cover.

This requirement is difficult.

For an illustrator, it is naturally extremely beautiful to print one's own name on the cover of a work that is expected to print millions of copies in the entire sales cycle.

But in general, illustration or layout design work is not as important as the text author.

Publishers are unwilling to leave such a golden cover position to illustrators.

Unless you are a legendary painter who is so well-known that many fans pay for your name, such as Andy Warhol.

But considering the particularity and quantity of the illustrations of "The Little Prince", it is not impossible to talk about it at all.In contrast, after the book is listed, the sales of each issue are divided into payment on a monthly basis, but it is a trivial matter.

Mr. Sloth handles the key issues of the contract very tactfully.

"Very professional!"

The supervisor rubbed his chin and praised.

It can be said that the agent of the other party is very open-minded in making these requests during the draft trial stage.

He is not only very knowledgeable, but also has full confidence in Detective Cat's ability to win this official contract.

Either this Mr. Sloth is very confident in the quality of Detective Cat's works, or he is very confident in Detective Cat's connections at the top of the group.

Or both.

The supervisor was even more curious about this online illustrator who could be taken care of by Vice President Osborne himself.

"Let's take a look at the painting now, have you downloaded the attachment?"

The supervisor signaled the fat assistant to open the attachment at the bottom of the email.

The assistant opened the sample draft sent by Detective Cat, turned the computer screen to everyone, and adjusted the brightness of the computer.

A brightly colored illustration appeared in front of everyone.

There was a brief silence in the office.

Some people have heard of Detective Cat before, some have not.

But regardless of whether they know Detective Cat or not, employees of the publishing house instinctively don't trust the quality of online illustrators.

Many people originally looked at the works of the illustrator placed on it with a critical mind.

But now,

They subconsciously feel that this painting looks like it.

Shouldn't be bad.

"Oh! This painting..."

"It's really pretty."

"Look at the color, it seems to be really space. This is an oil painting, and it looks amazing."

After a few seconds of silence, many people began to exchange their opinions.

Some of these people are proofreaders and editors, and some are responsible for layout design. In fact, few are professional artists.

But the audience of illustrations is not professionals, but ordinary people.

On the contrary, these people will not have any stereotyped prejudice against painting with a knife, and basically few of them have heard of such a thing as painting with a knife.

They just intuitively feel that the painting is beautiful.

Give people a sense of surprise.

"I don't know much about drawing, but it seems... there is indeed something. The intuitive feeling is even better than the illustrations designed by our art department before."

Even the well-informed colleague who was very dissatisfied with Detective Cat's role as an illustrator at the beginning and kept moaning and mocking nodded in surprise.

After all, everyone and the illustrator are a community of interests. It is surprising to see that Detective Cat handed over such a sample.

The project team's displeasure with this internet painter immediately diminished a lot.

"What do you think?"

The supervisor asked an uncle next to him. This uncle is an art worker seconded by the project team from the art department, and he is the only one among these people who has a background in art.

"It's like painting with a knife."

The uncle stared at the fat assistant's computer screen, a little uncertain.

He thinks it should be a fake painting, but the details are really good, right?
These dreamy colors of paint, these well-functioning and elastic curves...

Ordinary colleagues in the office just think they are pretty.

He is a professional and knows the difficulty of this painting method.

The uncle was a little unsure if this was really a work drawn with a hard oil painting knife.

Can painting with a knife really be so perfect?

"What's wrong with painting with a knife?"

"This painting method is a bit unpopular and difficult. But... this painting is a bit too perfect." The uncle thought about his words: "If I were to describe it, it would be two words, rare and beautiful."

"Rare and beautiful, beautiful and rare." The uncle muttered to himself.

"Can you draw a picture like this?" asked the supervisor.

"Me? Stop joking, boss."

"First of all, I didn't major in oil painting." The uncle smiled wryly, "Secondly, the details of this painting are so perfect that it doesn't look like it was drawn by a human being."

"So, this painting has passed the review of the art department, so it should be fine?" the supervisor asked with a smile.

"Normally, no problem, but..."

The uncle looked at his colleagues around him, hesitant.

He heard that Director Charlie had sent out a request for a sample of Detective Cat.

For things like art, if you really want to make trouble, even if Da Vinci is alive and Rembrandt is possessed, you can still make mistakes.

At least this unpopular painting method is a problem.

"understood."

The supervisor nodded.

He dismissed his colleagues, then leaned down and patted the fat assistant on the arm.

"Don't pass the sample draft to the art department first, swipe my work card, take the VIP elevator to the 41st floor, find President Osborne, and show him the work on the computer."

The supervisor ordered softly.

(End of this chapter)