Almighty painter

306 Pandora

At first glance at this painting, everyone was silent for a while, slightly suppressing their breathing, feeling that it was quite chewy.

It's not as outrageous as "The Cremator", but it still has a hidden charm.

Perhaps it is because it is difficult to express the detailed facial expressions of characters in knife paintings.

Perhaps Detective Cat's depiction of the characters' facial features has not reached the level of ecstasy that she did when drawing cats.

The more likely reason is that after Amy left, Tony's expression in the photos was always the same dull and confused look.

In short.

The main body of the characters in the drawing is blurred.

The main character in the canvas changed from Amy to Tony.

Detective Cat is the opposite of her previous portrayal of Mao Miao, which was extremely delicate and beautiful.

She just used the flat edge of a pear-shaped oil painting knife to dip the paint into it, and simply added points to the characters' facial features.

Eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose, mouth.

The painter simply swept across the canvas and painted it casually.

The only reason for their existence is to make the painting not look like a strange faceless man.

Just take Tony's image off the canvas.

Then this portrait is completely inferior to Amy's agility in the previous dozen paintings.

It is also not on the same level as the gentle and affectionate eyes of the young lady in the cover painting of "The Little Prince" created by Detective Cat.

This is a very perfunctory and dull person.

But the background atmosphere of the whole painting is not at all perfunctory and dull.

The highlight is the background - obviously the background in the actual photo is just pure white mountains. In Detective Cat's pen, the painting depicts something gorgeous and magnificent, like a night banquet in the palace of Frederick the Great.

The snow-capped mountains are as beautiful as the fairy palace in fairy tales.

The patterns of white falling snow condensing in the air and the different leaves of beech, linden and Norway maple that are evergreen at the foot of the Alps and in central and southern Europe all year round are all carefully painted with oil paints.

Tony's profile was facing the sun.

Under the painting angle chosen by Detective Cat, the sky and mountains are flattened, and the sunlight hits the leaves from different angles, creating a flickering spectacle.

"Great."

Her exquisite ability to depict the environment with the oil painting knife scratched the itch in the heart of landscape painting master Boggs.

It was so satisfying to watch the old man climax again and again.

He sighed in admiration.

Based on the fineness of the knife, polishing and polishing, it is also a good idea to specialize in natural scenery painting!

"The fairy tale scene is like a dream, with swaying light and shadow. She gives the same colors different meanings." Jane Arnold nodded slightly.

He believes that what is really interesting in the drawing is the treatment of light.

The snow is like a mirror focusing on the sunset in the sky, and the red sun reflects on the ground, giving it a unique texture of powder puff.

Take a closer look.

Detective Cat still uses a lot of cadmium orange as the theme color on the canvas.

same color.

Different brightnesses under different lights show completely different effects.

The blazing flames in "The Crematorium" are obviously high enough to annihilate everything, but they only make the audience feel cold to the bone.

In this painting now, there is a pale, flowing pink-orange light on the snow.

Detective Cat clearly depicts snow, but it still allows the audience to feel a warm atmosphere emanating from the screen.

Cadmium orange continued to gather and condense on the snow, and finally condensed at Tony's feet.

Where there should have been a dark shadow, a burning and moving phantom of a cat formed.

At first glance, the audience will think that it is not a shadow, but a cat crawling at his feet.

"I probably understand what she's thinking. It's interesting...a rare treatment...too rare."

Professor Boggs frowned slightly.

Oil painting theme.

Whenever there are characters in the paintings, the focus is always on the people, and it can only be on the characters.

Excellent portraits should actively guide the audience's visual focus to always stay on the face of the portrait and even the pupils of the portrait.

Everyone else is just noise.

If the environment is too complex and the characters are too thin, the look and feel of the painting will make the audience feel that the priority is uncertain and the guest is overshadowed.

Professor Boggs's "Amy", the main subject of the painting is always a cat.

So much so that Tony only appears partially in all his works.

A pair of eyes exposed under the hairline, an arm pushing the ball... The purpose of this is to prevent the character from fighting with Maomiao and competing for the audience's attention.

however,
The subject of this painting is obviously Tony, but the focus of the painting is the environment around the figure, which does not conform to the textbook art philosophy.

Excessive effort on irrelevant painting details is one of the classic mistakes often made by students who are new to portrait painting in art schools.

Professor Boggs has seen countless.

The reason why he muttered to himself was because the detective cat's unconventional painting idea in front of him was not bad.

A more accurate description.

As far as the expressiveness of this drawing is concerned.

Rather than saying that it is complex and simple, and the atmosphere of the characters and scenery is separated, it is better to say... the treatment of Detective Cat has an oriental sentiment.

It’s also very antique.

This involves the division of ideas about characterization in oil paintings in the history of Western art.

In the history of art, when people talk about Dutch painters and art styles, they will mention "two vans."

The most famous painter born in the history of the Netherlands is undoubtedly Van Gogh, but in terms of profound influence on the development of art, perhaps Van Wade, a fellow countryman 500 years ago, will be even better.

Wade was the first person in the history of Western painting to add rich facial expressions to characters in oil paintings, and was known as a master of emotional expression.

Because of social concepts, religious traditions, painting schools and some miscellaneous reasons.

Before Wade appeared, neither Camping nor Jan Eyck was known as the inventor of oil painting in academic circles.

Each of them is indeed highly skilled and talented.

However, if we look at the paintings of the late Middle Ages, we will all have one thing in common. The dying Jesus, the loving Virgin Mary, the cunning Judas... all of these characters are expressionless on the canvas.

This is somewhat similar to the "dignity of treasures" emphasized in Eastern figure paintings.

All the characters are happy or sad.

Painters around 1400 in the late Middle Ages all used changes in ambient light and shadow, color expression, facial shadows, staring eyes and body movements to represent expressions.

Rather than simple crying and laughing on the facial features.

This treatment of artistic sculptures with religious themes was common in early times around the world.

This is a mystifying philosophical treatment.

Different gods or Buddhas sit on the lotus platform with solemn expressions and calm faces. In the space environment around them, there are various scenes of dragons and elephants fighting each other, hell fire, and the pure land of bliss.

With a calm expression, he reflects the myriad worlds.therefore,

In fact, there are even some radical views.

The artistic conception of the works of Western painting schools is not as good as that of Eastern painting schools, which is related to the fact that Wade began to focus on the depiction of facial expressions, thus "taking shortcuts".

The work of Detective Cat in front of you is very much in the style of the first generation of oil painters in the Middle Ages.

In the drawing, Tony's physical body stands empty in the snow, but the essence of his soul blends into the surrounding environment.

The soul is above the shadow of the cat at his feet.

In the past few centuries, such "elegant" painting methods have rarely been used in the Western oil painting world.

After all, it is difficult to grasp the fine line between integrating the emotional expression of characters into environmental details and Miss Mona's "Self-Portrait" that was criticized by Mrs. Sakai.

Under normal circumstances, the artistic effect of playing with this "soul essence is outside the character" is not as good as honestly describing the character's facial features.

But here and now.

Paired with Tony, a dull autistic person, it is unexpectedly suitable.

"This painting has a Zen feel! In Buddhism, shadow is a reflection of cause and effect. Could it be that Detective Cat has also studied Eastern Buddhist murals?"

Professor Boggs's eyes shone.

This American layman thought he had found a Taoist friend who also loved meditation.

Actually.

The old professor over-interpreted it a bit and made the matter too complicated.

When Gu Weijing created this set of drawings, he was indeed influenced to a certain extent by the Buddhist art of Cao Lao's "Pictures of Worshiping the Buddha and Protecting the Dharma".

But more advice was given by Miss Elena.

What the painting depicts is not the Buddhist world view of cause and effect and reincarnation.

It is still too complicated for an autistic person who has been mentally retarded for 40 years to understand the concept of reincarnation.

Miss Irina hopes that Detective Cat will depict a simple outlook on life that is passed down from generation to generation.

To explain it in simpler terms.

From the beginning of the creative conception, Detective Cat's drawings were not religious preaching paintings with complex Zen meanings like Professor Boggs' "Amy".

It is just a set of parent-child paintings used to teach an older child who has lost a loved one how to bravely come out.

The most important work in this set of drawings is the "Cremator".

It uses flames to make Tony bravely face the suffering in his soul.

From this turning point, the rest of the works are just a process of facing reality and coming out strong.

Parents are the shadow of their children, and children are the spiritual continuation of their parents and the heirs of their families.

My aunt told Anna before she passed away.

Every time you say the name Elena, all your ancestors and family members in the past 1000 years are calling to be with you.

Fertility and continuation of the family line are the genetic "magic" that leads to immortality for a family, a surname, and even the human race.

Just this.

Whether it is the Confucian worldview of Eastern Xia, the Catholic worldview of the West, or the Puritan worldview, there is no essential difference.

Mr. Sloth treats the cat directly as a mother figure.

Amy would never live again.

There is no other cat in the world that can replace the Scottish Fold cat that he has been with since childhood in Tony's heart.

but.

As long as the past memories are still vivid in his heart, Amy will always be by your side to accompany you.You are never alone.

You can still love the world boldly and bravely.

Once you understand what concept the work wants to convey, the rest of the plot and composition design is a matter of course.

Mr. Sloth gave Gu Weijing some creative suggestions as a reference.

You can form the shadow of the cat under Tony's feet, or you can have Tony stand in front of the mirror and Amy's appearance will be reflected in the mirror.

There is also a similar photo taken by an emerald lake, using the rippling water waves to reflect the image of a folded-eared cat, which is also very intuitive.

After careful consideration, Gu Wei chose the first painting method.

Simply because of water waves, mirrors, and various spatial reflections, it is too complex to be realistic. It is one of the most difficult lighting conditions to handle in realistic oil paintings.

The cat shadow is still simple and direct.

After experiencing the ups and downs of the roller coaster-like appreciation process, the audience in the living room was a little tired.

Everyone watched in silence as the last seven drawings slid by on the screen.

Quietly experience the precious tranquility and warm emotions revealed in Detective Cat's writings.

Tony at the foot of the Alps, Tony in a coffee shop in Rome, Tony on a cruise ship on the Emerald Lake... Over the years, the old gentleman took his son to travel around and relax.

No matter how picturesque the surrounding scenery is.

In the sketch, Tony is always staring into the distance with empty eyes, staring blankly at the edge line where the horizon and the sky meet.

He waited persistently for a gentle fold-eared cat to emerge from the crowd, meow softly at him, and lick his ears lovingly like a mother.

The cat is never coming.

But as long as Tony in the drawing lowers his head and stares at his own shadow, he will find that no matter spring, summer, autumn or winter, the world is far away.

There was always a cat-shaped shadow lying quietly at his feet.

Tony's appearance in every drawing is very simple and crude. In some drawings, he has even been omitted and turned into a faceless man with blurred light and shadow.

Only the burning cat became more and more alive.

“The design is so beautiful and warm.”

The sentimental Ms. Anya gently wiped the moist corners of her eyes with her fingertips and said in a nasal voice like a bad cold: "I wrongly blamed the Detective Cat. She must be a very caring girl."

"I don't know what the name of this painting is? Just like Professor Boggs, it's fine if it's called "Amy"."

"'Pandora'." Dr. Jin said.

"Ok?"

"This set of drawings was named by Detective Cat's agent. Mr. Sloth said that if this set of drawings turns out well, it can be called "Pandora"."

pandora.

In ancient Greek mythology, the woman who opened the box of all sorrows in the world.

Dr. Jin Anqing once wondered what kind of bad taste led him to call this name a set of drawings for autistic children.

When I saw these last few drawings.

He gradually understood what Mr. Sloth meant.

Pandora’s box contains all the pain and trauma in the world.

In its mythological setting, the box not only contains natural disasters such as plagues, diseases, and disasters, but also friendship, love, family affection, and many other desires that can hurt people.

Zeus, the King of Gods, believes that the real supreme pain is precisely the transformation of life, separation and death based on love.

So "knowing love" - ​​this is the punishment given to the world by the monarch on the holy mountain of Olympus.

(End of this chapter)