Almighty painter

Chapter 156 Marketing Department Investigation (Thanks to Alston-king for the big reward!)

[Thank you for the [-] reward! 】

"This project focuses on cultivating the next generation of master artists who lead the international art fashion trend. The best professors in the world will provide a full range of instructional courses. The positions of the Metropolitan, the Vatican, the Florence Art Museum... the world's top art museums will be It is open to students who have obtained the graduation certificate of the project." Gu Weijing thought for a while and said.

"It sounds pretty cool. It is said that these positions in top art museums will not be dismissed even if they spend all day fishing and paddling. It is extremely difficult to apply for all of them."

Kou Kou seemed fascinated, she used her fingers to stuff a lock of hair protruding from her ears back into the helmet, and asked, "What is the exact name of the project you just mentioned?"

"It sounds awkward because I just read the admissions slogan on the school's official website, but it's really quite powerful."

Some positions in foreign art museums are like tenured professors in top universities, with high and decent salaries, and almost never be expelled.

As long as you don't make principled mistakes, and just show off with a cheeky face, you can be a salary thief with peace of mind and comfort.

It is one of the best places for ordinary art students.

Gu Weijing shrugged and said: "It should be called [Menzel·Turner——Master of Excellence Training Program]. If you are interested, you can go to the English homepage of the school's official website to have a look. There are detailed introductions on it."

He was about to say something when his phone vibrated suddenly.

Gu Weijing took out the message bar of his mobile phone and found that it was a message just sent by his manager, Mr. Sloth.

click in,
There are a total of two new contents in the social software page.

One was forwarded by Mr. Sloth to himself, and a letter of decision regarding the adjustment of the contract by the marketing department of the publishing house and the decision to give the illustration art studio Wehrlein Studio and Ms. Detective Cat to compete for the "Little Prince" project.

The other one is a new tweet posted 3 minutes ago by the official Wehrlein Studio account that Mr. Sloth forwarded from Twitter.

The official blue V note name of the Twitter account is——[Scholastic Group Master Award Winner for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art, Illustrator Mr. Wehrlein]

Wehrlein's agent posted a new message under his account.

The background of the tweet is a live photo of the European building of the Scholastic Group taken from the bottom up by the mobile phone, and the accompanying tweet is the famous quote of Julius Caesar "VENI VIDI VICI" (I come, I see, I conquer).

The official tweets of the illustration studio are not like the official tweets of Hollywood stars in Europe and the United States. There are millions of views at every turn, but the stickiness of fans is not low. There are often people who like to collect the studio and share new illustrations from time to time. Readers, keep watch below the tweets every day.

They are all loyal fans of the studio, and the news is quite well-informed.

Within 3 minutes, some fans have already commented below to guess the purpose of Wehrlein's visit to Scholastic Group.

"Illustrator, are you here this time for the group's "The Little Prince" project? I heard rumors that you will write the new version of "The Little Prince" for the group. I look forward to it. (By the way, your set of "Green Forest" Is there going to be a reprint of the Commemorative Collection of Wilderness illustrations? It’s so hard to buy. The thousand sets of goods on Amazon were sold out in half an hour.)”

"Green Shade Wilderness" is a collection of illustrations published by the Scholastic Group, specially for outstanding illustrators like Wehrlein, who compiled and published the illustrations he has drawn over the years, and the market response has been very good.

Wehrlein's account just replied to the message.

"It was originally a limited edition. If you can't buy it on Amazon, you can go to a physical bookstore to try your luck. As for the purpose of my coming to the publishing house this time, it is restricted by the confidentiality clause, so it is not convenient to say here. But you can guess it yourself. It's not about the office."

Then the official tweet gave this fan message a like.

……

Scholastic Group, European headquarters building.

The illustrator Wehrlein stood in the VIP elevator, silently watching the floor jumps on the elevator's digital display.

Wehrlein's appearance is very similar to the image of high-end art workers in the inherent impression of Europeans and Americans.

Not tall, but extremely thin.

It looks like the kind of thin person who has been pursuing animal protection and vegetarianism for a long time, with a little bit of a skeleton image, and the bones can be seen from under the skin.

Throughout the year, spring and autumn, winter and summer, he is dressed in the same way.

A suit without any brand logo, a handmade tailor-made suit from a Savile Row tailor, a pair of well-polished Prada men's leather shoes, a pair of round thin-frame gold-rimmed glasses on his face, and a A Montblanc 18K rose gold writer's fountain pen for both drawing and writing.

Paired with that, he has a soft, feminine voice and a nervous smile when he speaks.

Walking on the street, people who don't know Wehrlein will think that if this person is not an artist, he must be the kind of gentle and perverted murderer he likes to describe in the works of Japanese detective novelist Shoji Shimada.

however,
Wehrlein is actually a very mature person, not as sloppy and flashy as the giant babies of European and American artists.

This is not only reflected in the fact that he is not yet 50 years old, but he likes to let the barber dye his hair gray and white, which makes him look like a little old man in his 60s at first glance.

It is also reflected in the fact that Wehrlein is willing to fly to the publishing house's headquarters in a very serious way, and make a special trip to the site, even if it's just a marketing department investigation that Charlie, the director of the art department, thinks is sure.

"Ms. Detective Cat? Why did you choose to paint such an unpopular knife-pen oil painting?"

Wehrlein was silently puzzled as he waited for the elevator to go up quickly.

When he learned that his contract had been snatched away by Detective Cat, Wehrlein did not act as furious as Charlie on the other end of the phone.

Instead, he immediately asked his assistant to find the previous works of Detective Cat.

Wehrlein is not on YouTube, and he doesn't know Mr. Hyperion, the world's number one online celebrity.

He is a "conservative" person who believes that modern electronic products will damage artistic inspiration. People who hold such a concept are not uncommon in high-end art circles in Europe and America.

He rarely uses Internet products, and even now uses an old Nokia N91 button phone.

Official tweets and emails are also handled by personal assistants and agents.

When Wehrlein saw the photo of Batman's sketch printed out by his assistant, he was immediately amazed by the exquisite brushstrokes on it.

"This painting is really beautiful, the pen is positioned very accurately, and the hand is really steady."

That was the first thought that came to his mind.

"I... I probably can't do this to this extent."

This was the second thought that crossed his mind.

Wehrlein still insists on using traditional paper and pen to draw, instead of the more convenient Wacom that has become the mainstream of the industry, or electronic drawing boards such as IPad.

These days, high-end painters who still dare to draw illustrations with pen and paper that cannot be modified have almost no weak sketch lines.

Wehrlein is by no means weak in sketching.

On the contrary,

Although he prefers to use watercolor painting, the basic skills of sketching belong to the strongest group of people in the circle.

Even when he was a student at the Academy of Art, almost all the sketch competition awards in the school were won by Wehrlein.

It is precisely because he is a master.

Only then did he know how terrifying it was to draw to such a level that he could open a sketch exhibition.

Not to mention that Wehrlein himself can't reach it, in the whole circle, if a great artist of this level is still alive, he is very skeptical about whether he can get a slap in the face.

"Do I really want to offend such a person?" Wehrlein even hesitated in his heart.

Of course, he was so upset that he was robbed of a large contract, but looking at this sketch illustration, Wehrlein actually had the idea of ​​shrinking back.

Pen skill does not tell everything, and formal illustrations of serious subjects are absolutely rare when only colored pencils are used.

But so what?

Sketch is the basis of almost all Western-style painting methods, not to mention water-soluble colored pencil drawings and watercolor paintings are close relatives.

For a person who is good at sketching, painting techniques such as oil painting and gouache are usually not bad.

Sketch lines are equivalent to the "internal strength" and "muscles" of a fighter.

Even if you give a sketch master a piece of chalk, he can draw flowers on the blackboard.

of course,

On the other hand, the expressiveness of illustrations is not entirely determined by painting skills.

Wehrlein believes that he has been engaged in the illustration industry for half his life, and the ability to read original works and art creation accumulated over half his life is by no means comparable to that of a small online illustrator.

If you really conduct market research, you have a high probability of winning.

Just, what if?
If he really lost to Detective Cat, the fun would be fucking too much.

The money for the contract is still a trivial matter, and there are few secrets in the circle, mainly because he really can't afford to lose this face.

Nobody cares how well Detective Cat draws.

People will only say that Wehrlein, the dignified winner of the [Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art], can't even compare to a new online illustrator.

It's too ugly!

Already an accomplished artist.

10,000+ hundreds of thousands of dollars is not worth the risk of Wehrlein risking his own face on the ground and letting others step into the sky to compete for this contract.

If he really lost, let alone other things, anyway, Wehrlein felt that his resume was stained by being defeated by the Internet painter Detective Cat.

Forget about the two highest honors of [Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art] and [Andersen Award].

Wen Wu is the first, and Wu Wu is the second. It is a serious oil painting and other occasions.

For illustrations, don't make any excuses to hide your shame. If readers don't like it, you lose if you lose.

With Van Dorn's status, trying to kill Detective Cat made such a big joke that he lost all face. Wehrlein didn't think his connections were stronger than Van Dorn's.

"You know, Detective Cat uses the painting method of drawing with a knife." Director Charlie successfully dispelled Wehrlein's concerns with just one sentence.

Sketch is the basis of almost all western painting methods, and it is the artist's muscle and internal strength.

In this almost, but it really does not include knife pen oil painting.

"You don't need the basics of sketching to learn", this slogan is the main reason why there are so many scammers in the painting industry.

Wehrlein speculates that Ms. Detective Cat is likely to be a typical example of being deceived by a liar in a place far away from modern art in Africa.

She chose the most wrong painting method.

This is similar to the big shoulders and round waist you practice in the gym, and the shoulder muscles are thicker than other people's thighs. It doesn't mean that if you want to learn Kung Fu superstar Bruce Lee to play cool and unpopular nunchucks, you won't make the mistake of knocking yourself on the face with a stick. The mistake of opening a flower in the nose.

Wehrlein didn't believe that Detective Cat was a genius at the same time that he was superb in sketching and could also play well with oil painting knives.

"Such a manager really deserves to die!" He complained silently.

Father, like son.

The little African painter doesn't know how much he owns, so it's not surprising that others cheat him.

Her manager actually allowed him to use such a painting method, which is obviously unqualified garbage.

"Ding--"

The VIP elevator reached the floor where the marketing department was located, and slowly opened to both sides.

Director Charlie was already waiting at the door. Seeing Wehrlein just greeted him slightly, he motioned for the illustrator to come with him.

Entered the report observation room of the marketing department.

Director Charlie didn't even look at Osborne, but showed a smiling face to a chunky old gentleman with a white mustache and wrinkled face beside the president, and introduced to Wehrlein.

"The board of directors is very concerned about our small competition. The director of Morgan personally flew from the North American headquarters of the Scholastic Group to London to visit the scene as a supervisor. The director just got off the plane in the morning and rushed here without stopping." Charlie pointed out to Wehrlein Management's attention to this project.

He pointed to the man in the gray suit next to Morgan and said.

"Director of the Marketing Department, you should have known each other before. According to the agreement, the winner of this small competition will have a collection of illustrations and related peripherals on the theme of "The Little Prince" issued by the Marketing Department."

Wehrlein reached out and shook hands with these people one by one.

"When the time comes to publish the collection album, I will work hard for you."

The marketing department is still volunteering to enter the arena, but Wehrlein has already shown a smile that has won the victory.

"Gong Xi Fa Cai, this income may be much more than the price quoted in the contract itself." The head of the marketing department responded with a smile.

The physical book market in Europe and the United States has also declined under the impact of mobile phones and e-readers such as Kindle.

It's just that Western e-books are also expensive,

A novel that sells for [-] dollars in physical form, the electronic version also costs about [-] dollars, so the overall royalty income has not changed much.

There is only one exception, the gift box of the collector's edition and the physical album surrounding.

This kind of things whose collection attribute is greater than the reading attribute is generally sold in limited quantities, the sales volume is very stable, and the selling price is very high.

The more classic works, the more so.

There is a point of view in the market, especially in the North American market where the publishing house is headquartered. Because of the lack of historical accumulation, cultural and entertainment products such as collector's edition commemorative books, 3A game gift boxes, and NBA championship rings have certain antique attributes.

for example.

Also published by the Scholastic Group.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was first printed in 1997, and the current price on ebay is between 1-500 US dollars.

Harry Potter is a collection of commemorative gift boxes that the group decided to produce in 1999, two years later, when it discovered that the novel had the potential to become a hit.

The gift box includes a set of illustrated postcards featuring the protagonist trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione, and a hardcover red leather copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

At present, the 99 edition hardcover gift box is well preserved and there are no folds or missing pages. The second-hand price is about 5000 to 8000 US dollars.

If it is signed by J.K Rowling himself.

A set of commemorative gift boxes from 20 years ago can be sold for about [-] or even [-] U.S. dollars.

It's such an exaggeration to exchange a gift box for a car.

Readers are very fond of collecting such things.

Illustrations are much more important to "The Little Prince" than to "Harry Potter". Not only are the commissions for gift box illustrators of this kind of distribution higher, but the reputation gain is also much greater.

Wehrlein is determined to win this.

(End of this chapter)