Almighty painter

Chapter 159 The Third Person

When Kelly left angrily, she happened to find a thin man with gray hair who looked a little familiar in the corridor.

He is holding a book of The Little Prince, staring in a daze in front of the illustrations.

"You are, Mr. Wei ... Mr. Wehrlein?"

Kelly was a little surprised.

She had seen Wehrlein's photos on the official Twitter, but she didn't expect to see the illustrator himself here.

Kelly fumbled in her pocket, only to find two paper vouchers given to her by the staff just now.

She took one of them and approached the white-haired man.

"Mr. Wehrlein, I am a loyal fan of your illustrations and have always admired your works. Can you sign me?" Kelly asked for an autograph.

Wehrlein seemed to be falling into some kind of contemplation, staring blankly at the cover of Detective Cat's painting knife in his hand, and muttering to himself.

The Montblanc Rose Gold Writer's Pen, which sold for more than one thousand pounds, spun like a fidget spinner in the palm of his left hand.

The people coming and going next to him never distracted him for a moment.

"fan?"

Hearing this claim, Wehrlein raised his head.

European stars like to ask for autographs.

If you like singers, you need autographs, if you like basketball stars, you need autographs. Like academic professors and artists, you will be asked for various autographs.

Not to mention, the signatures of well-known artists are actually quite valuable.

Picasso, Andy Warhol and other restaurants sign small check bills, and pawnshops or Ebay can easily sell thousands of dollars.

Great artists don't often sign autographs.

The main reason is that after these leaks, they will be imitated on oil paintings by counterfeiting gangs with various technical means.In order to avoid trouble, some oil painting artists will deliberately use different fonts for their signatures in daily life and signatures on calligraphy and painting works.

Wehrlein is just an illustrator, so he has fewer worries.

He subconsciously took the voucher from Kelly, but paused for a moment.

"Are you a volunteer this time?" he asked.

"Yeah, I really didn't expect to see an artist like you here." Kelly nodded immediately. While speaking, she looked around in the corridor to see if she could see Detective Cat.

Unfortunately, there is only Wehrlein alone here.

She also doesn't know what Ms. Detective Cat looks like.

"I'm an art student at the Royal College of Art, and I have your illustration work "Green Wilderness" in my collection. I also wrote a letter of recommendation to your studio, but unfortunately I didn't get a reply." Kelly introduced herself.

"Who did you choose, me or Detective Cat?" Wehrlein didn't care who Kelly was, but asked coldly.

"Uh... so this is a selection review?"

Kelly looked a little embarrassed.

She is not stupid. The probability of the publishing house publishing two versions of "The Little Prince" illustrated by different artists at the same time is very small.

I saw the registration form just now, and the painter Wehrlein asked like this.

She could guess the purpose of this market survey.

"Oh, it seems that I can't get an autograph."

Kelly was a little embarrassed.

Just now he claimed to be a loyal fan of the other party, but he acted like a [-]-year-old boy.She hesitated to tell a lie.

Wehrlein has already noticed the blonde girl's hesitation,

The already pale complexion of the thin man is even paler, making the artist look, indeed, a bit like a skeleton.

He didn't get angry like Kelly expected, or tear up the voucher in his hand.

"never mind."

Wehrlein just unscrewed the cap of the pen with a calm expression, signed his name on the voucher, and handed it to Kelly.

"You also study art, good or bad is there, I won't make things difficult for you."

"Thank you, actually... your painting is not bad." Kelly looked embarrassed.

"Don't comfort me."

Wehrlein turned his head, looked at the place where the sample manuscripts were returned, and there was a pile of Detective Cat's works piled up like a hill, and sighed softly as if resigning to fate: "The result is right in front of you, so what's the point of lying to yourself."

When the volunteers just entered the venue.

The illustrator Wehrlein felt that something was wrong.

Even though the sound was not released, he could clearly see the crowd standing, gathering, discussing and amazed in front of some easels from the monitor in the observation room.

"what's going on?"

Worked for so many years.

Wehrlein can judge the quality of an illustration just by looking at the reactions of readers in the bookstore.

In his experience,
There are only two possibilities to achieve this situation.

Otherwise, the illustrations are particularly shocking,
Otherwise, there is a high probability that it is a restricted illustration.

European and American physical bookstores and shopping websites all have [R18+] classification of restricted erotic novel sales section.

The illustrator will provide a variety of attractive illustrations of nude girls with blood spurting and hormones soaring.

Similar to the well-known "Fifty Shades of Grey" content taste, it can be regarded as a small and fresh style in the [R18+] category.

Like a drawing book,

Playing is a thrill.

But this is obviously impossible. It is the same thing that Western illustrators have looser standards.

But this is a solicitation for children's fairy tales. If the Scholastic Group dares to publish any marginal content, even the Ten Billion Group will be fined directly to the end of bankruptcy.

Not to mention that "The Little Prince" is a very small and refreshing fairy tale.

If Detective Cat was out of his mind and dared to submit any heavy-duty illustrations, the group would absolutely wish to touch her along the network cable and hack her to death, and then kick her into the blacklist and never use it.

If it is the former?
Sensibility told him that the detective cat may have painted a very remarkable work, but his reason refused to believe it.

Wehrlein thought to himself,

Illustrations with such magical power are all classic illustrations that can be recorded in the annals of publishing.

He himself is already a top-notch painter.

If he really wanted to say that after so many years, which work could be regarded as a classic handed down from generation to generation, he really didn't dare to be arrogant enough to say so.

This cover created for "The Little Prince" is far from meeting this standard.

It was not clear through the camera screen, and Wehrlein couldn't wait for the survey of this group of volunteers to finish before reading the report submitted by the marketing department.

He said hello directly, and ran to the [bookstore] across the wall, picked up a sample book from the sample manuscript return place, and took out a Montblanc pen from his collar pocket.

This is Wehrlein's habit when reviewing manuscripts.

He is not only a well-known painter, but also the boss of the Wehrlein illustration studio.

When faced with the drafts submitted by the young painters and interns in the studio, Wehrlein would review the drafts and draw various errors and details with pen circles for them to correct.

In most cases, inexperienced young painters may have to reverse the draft five or six times before they can barely meet the standards for submission to employers.

The drawing can be drawn like a spider web by dark pen lines.

Wehrlein looked at it for 10 minutes.

He didn't even uncap the pen that was spinning in his hand.

Wehrlein looked a little silly here.

This line, this texture, this color... The slightly solidified texture of fresh oil paint seems to overflow from the paper at any time.

The Scholastic Group takes illustrations very seriously.

On the one hand, it is reflected in the fact that the publishing house is willing to spend high salaries to hire well-known illustrators, and on the other hand, it is reflected in the fact that the cover art completely adopts the printing standard of art gallery albums.

For professional-grade artwork albums, in order to restore the slightest change in tone as much as possible, the printing cost is very high, and a special production line for printing art albums is required.

A set of 500 albums of master paintings produced by the Louvre sells for several hundred euros in the market, which is a very conscientious price.

If a private person finds a printing house to print a picture album, the quotation may be one pound or even a few pounds per page, and small printing houses may not have the ability and equipment.

In other words, "The Little Prince" has an expected sales volume of one million copies.

Large-scale printing can greatly flatten and lower the cost per volume, and this is a fist product to grab market share from rival Townsendsman Group. The strategic significance is greater than the value of profit, and Scholastic Group is willing to spend such a capital.

Art-grade printing is art-grade printing.

This cover painting restores the performance of the original painting of Detective Cat to a high degree of similarity.Wehrlein could clearly see every subtle color change on the cover.

Perfect,

Nothing but perfection.

The colors are full and rich, delicate but not dull, full of changes.

Wehrlein would not have believed it if he hadn't seen the representative line traces on the screen and the texture of the ridges pressed by the painting knife. There are really people in the world who can use an oil painting knife wide open and closed to make a difference between centimeters and centimeters. , The details are handled so delicately.

"Damn, I actually want to compete with such a person?"

The more Wehrlein looked at it, the more he doubted life.

If the only shortcoming of this painting is, it may be that it completely adopts a composition style similar to that of Saint-Exupéry.

Not to mention professional.

"It's not right..."

Wehrlein felt that this was a deficiency at the beginning, but after watching it, he gradually developed a sense of composition.

Before painting, he repeatedly studied the manuscript and original illustrations of "The Little Prince".

My own painting is much more professional than that of Saint-Exupéry, but it also faintly lacks the Zen spirit like clear springs and flowing water.

Wehrlein thought he was thinking too much.

Now, looking at the painting of the detective cat lady, he once again found the same feeling as the fairy tale temperament of "The Little Prince" in this illustration.

"So the secret is this exaggerated proportion composition." Wehrlein licked the corner of his mouth and discovered the trick.

I lost completely.

The opponent's picture composition is better than him, and the painting skills and emotions can even be said to be slapped.

Wehrlein lost so much that he couldn't even feel unconvinced.

The painting was so pleasing to the eye that even he thought it looked good.

As an illustrator as well, Wehrlein can better feel the smooth flow of his opponent's painting. This feeling of doing whatever he wants, so wonderful, he feels good just thinking about it.

just,

Why did I have to meet this monster?

"Fuck."

Wehrlein cursed aggrievedly, and put the pen back into his jacket pocket.

……

in the observation room,

"When will the marketing department produce the first round of statistics and detailed data?" Director Morgan shook his head, his wrinkled face showed no signs of exhaustion.

The group's two Gulfstream business jets have important business reception activities during this period, and there is no free time.

Director Morgan arrived at London Heathrow International Airport this morning from Scholastic North America headquarters in Los Angeles after flying for ten hours on Virgin Atlantic's intercontinental route.

The conditions of the first-class cabin and the kneeling service of the stewardess are also very good,

But this senior board member who played an important role in the expansion of the publishing house's business territory after World War II is now very old.

After he came to the observation room, before the volunteers entered the field, he began to breathe non-stop, looking drowsy.

The scene of the short first round of volunteer testing was like a powerful stimulant, sweeping away the tiredness on the director's face.

It seems that a Morgan director who is 20 years younger has woken up from the old gentleman. His waist is straight and his face is as bright as a young man.

The old gentleman was a professional businessman,

He doesn't understand art, but he understands the market very well.

Wehrlein saw the reaction of the crowd, and Director Morgan naturally saw it too.

In the ups and downs of the business world for so many years, his subordinates have released countless works of famous artists, and he has seen even more popular scenes.

Ms. Rowling's signing event in the late stage of Harry Potter, readers' meeting held by Nobel Prize winners or sports superstars...

Nine books have been published just for the memoirs of retired presidents and secretaries of state.

But those are works that are extremely topical and popular among fans, in order to achieve such a scene.

"The Little Prince" is not the kind of "popular" book. Of course, its sales volume is very high, but after all, it has been published for more than half a century, and now even the copyright protection period has expired.

The enthusiasm of the volunteers should not be due to the works of Saint-Exupéry, it can only be illustrations.

An illustration can achieve this effect.

Director Morgan had only seen some of the exhibitions of Pop godfather Andy Warhol and the works of illustrator Jane Arnold.

It goes without saying how many business opportunities there are for these two works.

That is an art giant who can sell prints for 7000 million euros.In the auction market, the average unit price of Andy Warhol's works is only slightly lower than that of Da Vinci, but there are many paintings by them.

There are only 7 works of Leonardo da Vinci in circulation in the market. How many works does Andy Warhol have?
The combined market value of Andy Warhol's paintings in the market is higher than the market value of commercial giants such as Scholastic Group.

The highest earning artist in human history.

The real price of tens of billions of dollars.

Of course, the amount of works of artists cannot be simply added directly.

Things are rare and expensive,

If all of Andy Warhol's works were sold by collectors in a short period of time, they would definitely not be able to sell at this price, even if they were cut in half.

But even if it is only one-tenth, it is billions of dollars.

Detective Cat is the third one he has seen in his life.

(End of this chapter)