Almighty painter

Chapter 3 Basic Skills

Johann Strauss Jr.'s "The Blue Danube" in the audio system by the sofa has started its fourth cycle. At some point, it started raining outside the window, and the raindrops fell on the marble steps in front of Gu's Painting and Calligraphy Store , making a rustling sound.

Gu Weijing stared blankly at the drawing in his hand, if he didn't realize it.

If you are a long-distance runner, you must have such an experience.

When you run to a certain moment, the fatigue suddenly disappears, dopamine is secreted rapidly, your breathing and heartbeat are accelerating, the world becomes quiet, and a steady stream of power pours into your body from the ground.

You are obviously exhausted, but you are ecstatic, like an angel has inserted wings for you.

In terms of kinematics, this situation is called an exhausted cycle, and RB cartoonists who are fond of secondary school like to label it as a once-in-a-lifetime "God's Domain" and "zero" state in the hot-blooded sports comics of "Youth Jump". etc.

That's how Gu Weijing felt.

In the past three or ten minutes, he has hardly stopped writing. The sawdust scraped off by the pencil sharpener has piled up into a small pool, and many are scattered randomly on the wooden floor. Sore and numb due to continuous high-intensity work.

Gu Weijing ignored it.

When the pencil fell on the watercolor paper and drew the first line segment, he felt what it means to be professional.

Not long ago, I completed an oil painting that was also based on a classic Mercedes-Benz car model.

If it is said that what he painted was "copying", then what he is painting now is "precise".

If it was said that his talent allowed him to draw "images", then now his professional level skills allow him to draw "truths".

This gap is desperate, but also makes him ecstatic.

Parallel line method, layered color method, flat painting... Occasionally, he would use a watering can on one side to spray a little water mist on the water-soluble pencil coloring on the drawing paper to neutralize the color halo. Conditioned reflexes generally emerge alternately, and you don't need to think about it, and all kinds of light and dark interlaced light and shadow changes have already appeared on the watercolor paper.

Every line segment and handwriting is as if it has been calibrated with an industrial laser printer, and the straight line drawn by hand has almost no millimeter-level error.

The unique graininess of colored pencils is like an old-fashioned film full of years, which vividly shows all aspects of this car model, and even the unique moistness of resin is brought into full play.

The skills had just quietly ended when Gu Weijing put down the last stroke, and now he is just savoring the aftertaste.

[Sketch lv.3 semi-professional (351/1000)] On the panel in front of me, my sketching experience has increased by more than 100 points, and several other skills have also improved by a dozen to dozens of points.

Just half an hour under the blessing of the master's painting foundation is almost equivalent to his hard work in the past year.

Gu Weijing raised his head, put down the painting, and smiled silently.

If you must find an example to describe his current mood.

It was probably the shock that Guo Jing, who had practiced the second-rate martial art Yue Nu Qijian for more than ten years in the Mongolian desert, saw the great master Hong Qigong for the first time after he came to the Central Plains.

It turns out that the world is so vast.

……

"Not bad."

Mr. Gu leaned on the window outside the door, looked at the scene in the gallery, and nodded secretly.

The old man's original name was Gu Tongxiang. He was born in the 40s. He has been painting all his life and is well-known in Myanmar.

He has two sons, but the eldest son has limited talent, and Gu Weijing's father has not inherited any artistic talent. He studied finance at university, and now works in a small but long-established private bank in France.

The most promising successor to the profession of painter in the family is the talented grandson Gu Weijing.

Not long after the Spring Festival, he was visiting old customers outside, but after receiving a text message from his grandson telling the underworld to come to the door, he was worried, and immediately drove back in a hurry.

He returned to Gu's Painting and Calligraphy Shop more than ten minutes ago. Seeing that the door was closed, there was a sign of suspension of business, and no one answered his mobile phone. Worried that something happened at home, he lay on the window of the book gallery and looked in. I saw Gu Weijing holding a colored pencil.

Gu Tongxiang felt a little relieved when he saw Gu Weijing concentrating on painting inside.

"Calm."

The old man has spent half his life ups and downs in the art market. He has seen all kinds of swindlers pretending to be artists and stealing their names. He has also seen countless talented and talented young people spend half their lives in poverty. Find a way out.

The profession of painters is cruel.

They have to fight for talent, hard work, skill, background, teacher, genre, and resources... You may become famous overnight because of the appreciation of noble people, or it may be the rebirth of Van Gogh, but it is desolate.

After all, even if it was the real Van Gogh, the world once thought he was a madman, didn't he?
Look at those whose daily jobs are traveling in private jets, or vacationing on million-dollar private islands in the Pacific Ocean, called "collecting wind".The artists who only painted one painting in half a year, and the tens of millions of dollars for one painting at Christie's autumn auction, are full of scenery and carefree.

But how many such people are there?
Under their feet are thousands of bones that have fallen on this road called the road of dreams.Those 90.00% low-level painters may not even be able to afford a better canvas, and they are the true portrayal of this profession.

Young people who have studied fine arts and painting for many years only see the good of this industry, but cannot bear the hardships of this industry.In the end, they changed careers one after another when they were in college, such as drawing the cover of fashion magazines, fashion design, art color grading in the later stage of film and television, and even studying civil engineering...

These are all very good, but after all, they are still far away from the profession of a painter.

Gu Tongxiang has been in the industry for so many years, not because he loves the house and the house for his grandson, but because there are not many people who are dissatisfied. After the young man was just lured by the underworld for profit, he still has this calm and detached calmness when he picks up the paintbrush .

Having more affection for hard-working young people is something common to almost all elderly painters.

"Huh? Drawing models again?"

Old man Gu Tongxiang frowned again. He knew that his grandson had a good grasp of the spatial structure. He usually likes to draw some mechanical models for homework or amateur creation.

Through the glass, the old man can't see clearly what Gu Weijing is painting now, but he can clearly see the antique car model on the coffee table and the oil painting in the corner that is drying naturally in the shade.

"How many times have I told him that there is no day-to-day study of painting skills and improvement of the stability of brushwork. Relying on talent alone has no future."

The old man was a little angry.

To be honest, he has always felt that his grandson's talent for spatial reproduction may not be a good thing for a painter.

Not to mention Brother Hao and others who came to the door.

Painting itself also pays attention to genre.

Whether you want to admit it or not, in terms of the ability to record reality, painting is beaten by modern photography.

Drawing too much likeness is sometimes a disadvantage.It is not as real as photography, and lacks the agility of painters. It is a short board that brings together two art forms.

If you draw a good photo and paint a statue of God in a medieval church, it might be regarded as a miracle and can be consecrated or something, but there is only one way to go to the street in the modern art market.

Those top galleries and oil painting dealers are after the next Manet, the next Cezanne, the next Picasso, not the second Picasso.

They will spend crazy money on promising young people, but they will not spend a penny on poor imitators.

Although Gu Weijing has an outstanding talent for grasping space, his basic painting skills can only be regarded as good among his peers.

For young painters, only solid basic skills are the foundation for establishing a school in the future.

There is only one practice, so there is no room for speculation.

"We should have a good talk with him. His age is just the time to practice basic skills. He should learn lines, structures, and colors honestly. He must not just lie on his talent to waste time."

Seeing that Gu Weijing had finally put down his paintbrush, the old man knocked heavily on the window.

……

Gu Weijing heard the sound of knocking on the window behind him, and when he turned around, he saw his grandfather's displeased face. Only then did he realize that there were several missed calls on the phone on the other side.

He opens the door.

"Drawing, colored pencil?"

Gu Tongxiang, who walked into the calligraphy and painting shop, didn't say a word about the visit to the door with a bald head, but asked at the door.

"Yeah, it feels better..."

Just as Gu Weijing was about to say something, he was interrupted by his grandfather.

"This is a good thing. Colored pencil drawing is a work that can test a person's proficiency in handling the pen. However, you should try to focus on the basic skills of the drawing itself and do more hard work. It is not enough to just draw. Look at yours line……"

Gu Tongxiang picked up the painting on the table.

In the eyes of an old painter like him, it is not difficult to pick out the flaws in a painting, especially the works of young painters like Gu Weijing who have not yet attended a serious academy of fine arts.

There are thousands of handwriting in a painting, and you will always be negligent, maybe the line segments are not cleaned up, maybe the coloring is too thick, or the light and shade are not clear.

Even if it is an experienced old painter, it is impossible for a work to be perfect without making mistakes in such a short period of time.

He lowered his head and glanced at the painting, ready to pick out some imperfections.

Then there's the second glance.

But the third eye.

Mr. Gu suddenly stopped talking.

(End of this chapter)