The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 27: Chapter 17: Task

Painting team, fresco No.9.

”Tch, if only I knew, I wouldn’t have come with my father. Even a house painter could do this crappy job.”

Yakai Gangchang put down the tray in his hand and let out a big yawn through his mask, grumbling in his mind out of sheer boredom.

He looked at the paint smudged on his fingers and then down at his companion below the ladder.

”Hey...”

Gangchang racked his brain to recall the other’s name.

”What’s-his-name, don’t you find this boring?” he asked.

Gu Weijing merely lifted his head, gave him a glance, and shook his head.

”It’s fine.”

Gu Weijing’s reply was concise.

His attention was completely absorbed by the task at hand. If Yakai Gangchang were as focused on the current dyeing work, he probably wouldn’t have had such doubts.

He glanced up at Yakai Gangchang.

If his sister were here.

”Maybe... there wouldn’t be such questions,” Gu Weijing thought silently.

This was the second day after the fresco restoration project had begun.

The official title of this project branch is the ”Shwedagon Pagoda Fresco Restoration” master project, simply translated as the ”Great Golden Pagoda Fresco Restoration and Recovery” project.

To speak in detail, it’s actually a very complex job.

The Great Golden Pagoda is merely a general concept. Since the Pagan Dynasty in the eighth century AD, Myanmar has been known as the land of a thousand pagodas and is one of the largest sites of Buddhist murals in Southeast Asia.

This project includes the Great Golden Pagoda itself, the Chinese-style Fuhui Temple built during the Guangxu Period with donations from local Chinese merchants to the left of the Great Golden Pagoda, as well as a series of related local historic sites, and projects in cities like Bagan.

It encompasses sculptures, murals, metal engravings, and many other categories.

Moreover, mural restoration is a very complex field that could completely stand apart from the painting system.

It includes pigment analysis, categorization of damages, preservation of original materials, protection of the on-site environment, and so on.

Knowledge within this specific professional field could fill hundreds of pages of extensive textbooks and would take days and nights to fully cover.

In summary.

For ancient temple murals, the focus is more on repairing rather than supplementing, with ”repainting” being the least preferred.

Tasks are divided into two categories: repair and paint.

For walls that are not severely weathered or cracked and can retain the original appearance of the historical site, methods like injection molding may be used... similar to cautiously applying a layer of adhesive between the wall base and the mural to fix it, and having a specialized relic restorer smooth out all traces of wind erosion using powder filling techniques.

This work, akin to restoring fragmented porcelain, is handled by scholars from a professional relic conservation team, involving cross-section sample analysis and chemical material reinforcement, running parallel to what these painters do, with little direct involvement.

The projects they handle are mainly painting.

There are two types of painting.

One is called restoration, the other is completion.

Firstly, and paradoxically the most important, is the creation of new murals in the project plan.

Some of the ancient sites in Yangon are over two thousand years old by now.

The vicissitudes of dynastic changes and weather. In modern times, the British, French, and Japanese colonial invasions came and went like a revolving door.

Many original frescoes have long been lost in the river of time.

This part of the work mainly targets murals that had historical records but have completely disappeared, recreating them based on ancient literature to bring them back to the world, doing some historical restoration work.

Secondly, completing the missing portions of partially damaged fresco remnants without damaging the original appearance and maintaining sufficient historical information.

A careless mistake in secondary restoration of frescoes can alter the original state, causing a ”guest overshadowing the host” visual effect, so this process must also be extremely cautious.

The purpose of fresco restoration is not to bring about an entirely new work, but to achieve harmony between the work and its surrounding environment.

Otherwise.

Why not just spray the whole thing with paint? But that’s a big taboo in relic conservation projects.

That’s also why the Myanmar Government officially invited so many internationally renowned master artists for this occasion.

Firstly, to enhance the international influence of new works, and secondly, to gain some mature international experience in these aspects.

The truly challenging painting tasks would definitely not fall on young people like Gu Weijing and Yakai Gangchang.

The recent projects have not actually taken place ”inside” the Great Golden Pagoda, but instead involve some peripheral work on other structures, mostly wrapping up details of works already completed by the senior painters.

Gu Weijing’s current task is to painstakingly paint the pink pigment on the wall according to the templates and drafts provided by others, filling in the petals of a lotus flower on the wall numbered NO.9 for this project.

”Color by numbers.”

The tasks assigned to young artists like him and Yakai Gangchang are exceedingly simple, just as Yakai Gangchang thought, even a house painter could handle it.

If a new mural were to be painted.

With the wall already primed white, the complete process of mural painting is divided into three major steps—namely: drafting, inking, and coloring.

These three steps can also be used explicitly to divide the work and hierarchical level within the painting team.

Drafting, also known as ”draft plotting” or ”sketch mapping.”

This part is both the simplest and the hardest.

The simplest because it requires the least physical exertion, just normally drawing on paper as in traditional Chinese painting.

It’s the hardest because this step forms the foundation; it determines what and how the mural should be painted, as well as the spatial layout.

Creating a rough draft and blueprint on paper is also where the painter’s skills are most tested.

This task is led by Elder Cao and esteemed artists like Yakai Ichiro and Lin Tao.

The second step is inking, where artists use charcoal to completely transfer the already created paper blueprint onto the wall and after ensuring there are no errors, outline the mural with black ink lines.

This step is the work of general painters like Gu Weijing’s grandfather, Gu Tongxiang.

The third step, and the most labor-intensive, is coloring.

The seasoned artists decide which colors should be applied to the base draft, such as (rice) yellow, (light) green, and each color shade has its own designated mark.

After marking is completed, to reduce workload, junior staff are tasked with applying the colors.

Since Elder Cao’s proclamation ”I won’t allow it,” every painter has been working diligently, afraid of crossing Elder Cao’s radar by oversight.

Even for the new works planned in this project.

Tasks like painting the faces of figures, animal forms, and the Dharma body of the Buddha, which require high color precision, are not something young artists get their hands on to practice.

They can only paint lotus flowers, apply base colors, and trace simple shapes like the streamers held by monks.

Tiring and lacking in a sense of accomplishment.

”Pretending to be serious.”

Yakai Gangchang seemed to catch something in the way Gu Weijing looked at him, making him even more disgruntled.

He originally wanted to be in the same team as his sister Shengzi, but upon arriving at the Great Golden Pagoda, he discovered a problem.

As a sacred place for the Buddhist sect, respecting their religious customs is very necessary.

Due to religious customs, some sites only allow barefooted men and monks to enter.

For example, the group associated with the fresco numbered No.9.

Koizumi Katsuko could only go to another project site, leaving Gu Weijing to be teamed with Yakai Gangchang here.

[Chinese Painting: Beginner (74/100)]

Gu Weijing carefully controlled the movement of the brush tip.

It’s already the second day of the project, and there’s less than thirty hours before the panel reward task deadline, so time is tight.

He has not taken a break since the morning. Gu Weijing must seize every opportunity to increase his skill proficiency.

Copying masters’ works is, in itself, an essential path to improve one’s artistic prowess.

Since the post-medieval period, almost every renowned art master started from copying the works of other great masters.

Every design on the paper template in his hand encapsulates the hard work of the senior artists in the team.

Even in simple coloring, one can learn a lot.

So he didn’t share Yakai Gangchang’s impatience at all.

Gu Weijing gently held the brush, tracing the petals of the lotus along the black ink lines, watching as the proficiency experience bar on the panel turned to [Chinese Painting: Beginner (75/100)].