Almighty painter

Chapter 136 Triangular Composition

Gu Weijing looked at the sky.

Feeling that today's material collection is almost complete, he moved the position of the drawing board in the yard, fixed a piece of sketch paper with capital letters, and began to design the draft of the exhibition works.

Oil painting artists have different habits when painting.

Some people like a rigorous and tedious process. First draw a small-scale sketch draft such as 5:1 or 8:1 on sketch paper or linen canvas, and then enlarge it and copy it on a formal canvas to determine the overall line. modeling.

Then according to this shape, draw a preliminary base map and preliminary paint color relationship, and finally the formal painting.

There are also some unrestrained and unrestrained painters who don't even draw lines and shapes, but directly start painting with a brush dipped in oil or acrylic on the canvas.

There is no distinction between the two options.

It is more determined by personal usage habits and painting styles.

Based on the standard of works that participated in the Lion City Art Exhibition, professional painters can be regarded as beginners.Gu Weijing didn't dare to make too much of a fuss, but still hoped to conceive a little bit from the most basic and simple way.

He stared at the courtyard of this old church for a while, and with a pencil, he marked three reference points up and down on the paper, forming a triangle on the draft.

triangle composition method,
This is a very common composition method in oil painting. The high point of the main body of the picture and the boundary of the two low points form a pyramid-like triangle.

Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", Eugène Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" and Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa" are all such compositions.

Gu Weijing's previous painting "Lucky Orphanage in the Sun" simply wanted to experiment with painting methods, and he didn't pay so much attention.

But if you want to participate in an art exhibition, you need to spend some thought on composition.

He planned to use the dilapidated but still tall statue of the Virgin Mary in the church yard as the background of the picture and the apex of the triangular composition.

The low points on the left and right are the children playing in the yard.

The transition between the apex of the triangle and the corners of the base is filled with taller adult volunteers.

The whole painting draws group portraits of people. There will be about seven or eight main characters, including two or three adult volunteers and five or six children.

"The space here is the statue of the Madonna, the light is coming from the top of the statue, and the big locust tree is on the right... Well, the left side is the image of Uncle Alai, the janitor sitting on the mazar, washing Jasmine's hair, no matter what Whether it is the relationship between the characters or the height ratio, it is very suitable."

Gu Weijing simply sketched the side face of the burly gatekeeper on the sketch paper, and only need to draw a rough outline for the abbreviated draft.

He painted for 10 minutes, and the blank paper was filled with lines of various proportions.

"Triangle composition method, well, the picture is very solid." Someone said in a surprised voice.

When painting outside, it is inevitable to be surrounded by people.

However, there are many people watching the excitement, but few people have professional artistic vision.

Gu Weijing couldn't help but look sideways at being able to express his compositional ideas in one word.

At some point, there was a group of people around.

The leader was a middle-aged gentleman who looked about 40 years old, wearing a light palm-colored jacket with a stand-up collar, he was very refined and elegant.

He seemed to be the leader of the orphanage inspection, followed by a secretary with a briefcase and gold-rimmed glasses, and a government official in the shirt uniform of a high-ranking police officer.

At the end of the crowd, the headmistress of the orphanage followed cautiously.

The expression is stiff and flattering.

"Little Gu. This is Chen Linsheng, Mr. Chen. He just took over as the chairman of the Myanmar Charity Chamber of Commerce last year, and he is also an investment entrepreneur in the largest joint venture car factory with Toyota in Layada District, Yangon."

The female dean turned her head and introduced to the middle-aged man: "Xiao Gu is a volunteer here, a student of painting, a very outstanding young man."

"Mr. Chen knows how to paint?"

Gu Weijing asked, he had a vague impression of this name that often appeared in Yangon newspapers in the past two years.

"I have studied. I wanted to be an artist when I was young. Unfortunately, Southeast Asia at that time was a depression of alkaline soil. There was no environment for being an artist. Instead, I made some achievements in business."

Entrepreneurs seem to be caught up in emotion.

"Sorry, Uncle, I want to draw quietly now." Gu Weijing nodded as a greeting.

It is true that Mr. Chen is a big businessman, but he has no desires for the other party, so he has no intention of making friends with him.

He stopped talking to the other party, bowed his head and continued to study the composition of the picture on the paper.

Gu Weijing always feels that the current structural design is not perfect.

The secretary with the briefcase looked displeased.

The relationship between politics and business in Myanmar is complicated, but the business has reached the level of Boss Chen. The underworld and the white way have to be held honestly. Just a little money in the hands of the hand can cause great changes in the economy of a region.

This young man is too ignorant.

"Where did this student come from? Where are his parents?" The secretary frowned and looked at the female dean beside her.

"Ah... Xiao Gu is a good boy, but he has a quieter personality, so don't take offense." The headmistress helped cover it up with some worry.

This pedestrian has come a long way.

Hades is better than a little ghost, and boss Chen doesn't need to say anything. If his secretary is not happy, it is enough to make an ordinary family drink a pot.

"Okay, okay, what do you care about with your children? This is the temperament of an artist. Like us, if you fall into the eyes of money, your wit and intelligence will be worn away by the smell of money."

Mr. Chen was not offended, but admired Gu Weijing's character.

He looked Gu Weijing up and down, and looked at the school badge on his clothes.

"It turned out to be a student of Dulwich, and I had dinner with your principal." Mr. Chen recognized the best art middle school in Yangon, turned his head to look at the police inspector beside him, "brother, I remember Your daughter is also studying painting at Dulwich, right?"

The police officer was obviously stunned for a moment, a smile appeared on his serious face, and he nodded slightly: "Yes, Mr. Chen is right, he is indeed studying at Dulwich College."

He turned his head to look at the boy in front of the easel, and thought for a moment: "Little Gu, are you... Gu Weijing?"

"Huh? Uncle, who are you?"

Gu Weijing was puzzled, he didn't expect to meet someone who knew him here.

"Coco is my daughter."

The police officer stared at Gu Weijing with scrutiny, "She mentioned you several times at home."

"Oh, so you are the Kou Kou..."

Gu Weijing shut up in time, Haoxuan subconsciously spit out the "feudal old-fashioned" evaluation that Kou Kou often talks about.

"So we're all family...huh?"

Seeing Gu Weijing seemed to remind him of the time when he was studying art when he was young, and Mr. Chen was very interested in him.

He stood next to Gu Weijing and looked at the other's easel for a moment, his eyes fell on the folder unfolded on one side, and he let out a little surprise.

The secretary who is good at observing words and expressions has already picked up the folder for the boss.

Mr. Chen flipped through a few pages of pen drawings in it, and his expression became more serious: "Great, the level of young people nowadays is really incredible."

"How big is it?" Kou Kou's father came up curiously.

High-end wealthy businessmen like to play art, which is a common rule in any country throughout the ages.

Kou Kou's father knows better that Chen Shenglin is different from those nouveau riche who just take collections home for the sake of being arty.

Is a real connoisseur.

It even has its own small private art museum in Europe, which has a collection of famous paintings worth millions to tens of millions of dollars.

There is no doubt about the artistic vision.

This is true of Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia, or many African countries.

The poor are extremely poor, and the rich are rich beyond imagination.For such a big entrepreneur, the Yangon government has to please him from top to bottom.

He has accompanied Boss Chen on investment investigation for so long, and it is rare for him to see the other party showing such an interested attitude towards a person.

"At this age, I must have put in a lot of hard work with the brush. The painting method combines the characteristics of the Eastern Xia line drawing and the European sketch. The ambition is not small, and the painting is better."

Chen Shenglin stroked his chin and commented: "What's even more rare is that some of these paintings have spirits."

"Is there a god?"

Kou Kou's father nodded half-understanding: "Not to mention, there are indeed a few that look like they are alive."

"It's great. I always feel old when I see such a talented young man. But young man... your sketch is pretty good, and the draft of this big painting can be said."

Chen Shenglin didn't explain too much, but raised his head and stared at the draft in Gu Weijing's hand.

"How to say?"

Gu Weijing thought for a moment, then asked again.

He also found that Mr. Chen beside him was indeed an expert.

The other party can not only see that his pen sketch combines the two drawing methods of line drawing and sketching.

What's even more rare is that I can tell the essence of my "feeling from the heart" works.Ordinary people can simply feel beautiful like Kou Kou's father, but they can't explain why.

"A bit dull and lacking energy."

Mr. Chen commented as a senior art collector.

"This is indeed a drawback of the triangle composition method." Facing the problem pointed out by the other party, Gu Weijing honestly admitted.

In physics, triangles are the most stable shapes.

There is the same theory in visual art, the oil painting picture using the triangular composition method is stable and stable, and there are almost no major mistakes.

But mediocrity also often means that all aspects are not outstanding enough.

The success is also stable and the failure is also stable. If the picture is too stable, the picture will lose its dynamic and vitality, and it will look very old-fashioned.

Therefore, this composition method is also used more in portraits of characters.

"Do you have any good ideas?"

"Move the statue of the Virgin a little to the right, forming a diagonal line with the big pagoda tree, which is lower on the left and higher on the right, and the equilateral triangle becomes an oblique triangle, and the picture will be much more vivid."

Mr. Chen was thinking: "Young man, I see your draft annotations. The idea of ​​using the Madonna as the center point and the direction of the light is probably influenced by religious paintings. I would like to ask, are you a religious?"

"I was influenced by religious paintings, but I'm not a believer."

Gu Weijing shook his head.

Myanmar is a Buddhist country, and more than 90% of the total population are Buddhist believers.

The Gu family still maintains the tradition of sacrificing ancestors in the Eastern Xia culture, and has no specific religious beliefs other than that.

Gu Weijing is not a Buddhist, nor does he believe in Catholicism or Protestantism.

But what people say is right, Gu Weijing's composition of the picture is indeed heavily influenced by religious paintings.

In the field of art, religious paintings have always occupied half of the field of serious paintings such as oil paintings.

Needless to say, in the era of tempera painting before the Renaissance, basically except for noble portraits, they were religious paintings, and there was almost no third painting content.

Until the twentieth century, religious paintings were very mainstream.

For the revival painting schools such as the flourishing Pre-Raphaelites, many painters specialize in painting religious and moral teaching paintings.

The Madonna is a very representative symbol.

A very classic oil painting composition method is that a beam of light outside the window shines from the statue of the Virgin placed beside the bed in the bedroom.

It is reflected in the faces of mistresses, prostitutes, gamblers, robbers, etc. who are taken care of by rich children.

So she (he) suddenly realized her moral depravity in the holy light, burst into tears, and prayed hastily.

Gu Weijing's composition of the picture was originally not intended to promote the universal concept of the European and American public, such as God loves the world.

He has just seen too many such works, and has formed enough thinking inertia.

The composition of the scene in front of me at this time contains the classic oil painting elements of the Madonna, just like seeing the conditioned reflex of a mathematical formula.

"It's too old-fashioned and mediocre. There is no new idea, and the composition has no soul of its own. It's just an imitation of European and American painters."

Mr. Chen looked at Gu Weijing's draft and said lightly.

"If I were a collector, I wouldn't pay for this kind of artful composition. One can't deny one's parentage, boy, even if you can't wait to turn yourself into a European, the European and American art circles will not." Accept you."

This sentence is a bit ugly.

Gu Weijing was not angry at all.

Mr. Chen is not hostile, he is simply stating the facts.

"Is there anything you can teach me?" Gu Weijing has always been very respectful to people who really have high artistic accomplishment.

There are also many senior collectors from all over the world in the jury of the Singapore Art Exhibition.

What Mr. Chen thinks is also likely to be what they think.

"Guang, if I were you..."

Collector Chen Shenglin looked at the picture and clicked on the sketch paper, "If I were you, I would like to light the picture from the opposite direction of the Madonna on the right. Completely reverse the light and dark tones, so that the statue of the Virgin is completely hidden into the shadows."

"so?"

Gu Weijing thought about it.

Playing with the color relationship like this, throwing it back to the Middle Ages might be able to be burned on the stake, but modern art is generally quite inclusive.

There are many more "rebellious and cynical" than this kind of artistic creativity.

As long as there are not some very conservative places on the spectrum of consciousness, the risk of political correctness in the Singapore art exhibition is actually not that great.

But in order to pursue a novel composition, would it be too bold to do so?
"Young man, have you ever thought about what Yangon is like in the eyes of foreigners?" Mr. Chen seemed lost in thought.

(End of this chapter)