The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 53: Chapter 38: Hyperion1077

”Hello, if possible, could you clarify your requirements and price?”

Across the ocean, Gu Weijing tapped on the keyboard, sending a question mark.

Commissioned artwork is very customized, each order has its own situation.

Although Gu Weijing had a sign reading ”ten dollars,” this was just to indicate his fees were not high, and specifics had to be negotiated with the buyer individually.

Charging ten dollars for a simple sketch of a rabbit is normal, but if someone wanted a ”Mona Lisa,” you couldn’t charge just ten dollars, right?

”Character illustration, requires a paper version, cannot be purely electronically drawn.”

He just received the commission message from the other side, they should also be online, so the response was very quick.

”Character.”

Originally, Gu Weijing accepted any kind of work, though he did little character drawing, as characters are much more complex than pets.

Now having obtained ”Human Anatomy,” Gu Weijing indeed had the urge to draw human figures, similar to how when you get a new hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

However, he first clicked into the user’s homepage.

A string of English and numbers for a username was not distinctive, nor was there an avatar.

Except for showing the shipping address as San Francisco, gender, preferences, and purchase habits were all blank.

Gu Weijing slightly shook his head.

It felt like a Nutshell account someone casually registered just to make some quick deals, not giving a very reliable impression.

”Hello, for online commissions... I don’t do butter art, or anything involving R18 or above content with blood and extreme violence as restricted by law; if it’s character private art, the content needs to comply with platform limits.”

Gu Weijing does not reject drawing naked curves, as most artists are not unfamiliar with the human body; many famous paintings exhibited in museums could make conservative people blush.

For pure art, laws in various countries are quite lenient.

Even world-class masterpieces featured in art textbooks in various countries include many nudes, just to name a few classic works, such as one of the Louvre’s main pieces, Ingres’ ”Grande Odalisque,” and the Royal Art Association of Britain’s John Kricfalusi’s ”Lady Godiva on horseback”...

Koshiba Tarou’s father, Japanese painter Koshiba Kentaro, is known as the ”Klimt of Osaka.”

And Austrian painter Klimt himself had a famously resounding phrase among artists - ”All art is erotic.”

However, with online commissions, you don’t know the specific identity, age, or even the use of the painting by the other person.

So Gu Weijing’s standards tended to lean conservative.

He thought for a moment, feeling that he had basically covered everything he needed to say, then added one final note: ”Payment is only accepted through the platform, no private transactions via telegraph or virtual currency.”

There was no response from the other side.

A few seconds later, Hyperion1077 sent a big smiley face.

...

”LOOK, this is the next deal we...(audience, this is the next deal we’re closing) from San Francisco, in Thomas’ personal video studio.”

At the same time, in the United States, San Francisco, Thomas’ personal video studio.

The new video in the series [From One Dollar to One Million Dollars] is being intensively recorded.

One hundred dollars and one thousand dollars are easy to find, but a price of ten dollars is indeed a bit low, most part-time painters don’t think much of it, especially in regions where average income is higher like Europe and America.

Thomas himself didn’t expect a ten-dollar artist to produce anything spectacular; after all, he only needed it to set the stage for more impactful million-dollar works.

No matter how bad it is, he was mentally prepared.

In this price range, it’s all students and hobbyists, if he could tell where the head and feet are, he would feel satisfied.

After all, he had previously bought a drawing for one dollar from a homeless artist on the streets of San Francisco.

How can I put it?

The homeless ”artist” took just twelve seconds from receiving the money to delivering the artwork.

Thomas couldn’t even tell which side of the drawing was the front.

For being able to buy a work for ten dollars, Thomas wasn’t expecting anything.

If such a low-cost artist could create something perfect and vivid, then why would he spend a million dollars?

In Thomas’ opinion, anyone could roughly tell the difference between an illustration priced under ten thousand dollars and one priced over it, even if they don’t understand art.

”This is a newly registered part-time painter’s account named Detective Cat. We can see its poster is also a cat with a monocle, quite cute, I like it...”

He lifted his head from the computer, looking at the twenty-thousand-dollar Alé 4K movie camera in the cameraman’s hand, with his hands gestured by his side.

”Ten dollars, with this money you could buy a triple cheese burger meal at Burger King, four hot dogs from a street vendor in San Francisco, or on Nutshell, find a cheap painter willing to finish an illustration for you. But I doubt there’ll be any surprising works.”

His hands tapped in the air three consecutive times.

Thomas wasn’t live-streaming, it was still in the video recording stage.

The effects team would later add corresponding effects and illustrations, labeling them with images of Burger King, hot dogs, and Detective Cat’s posters.

With his over one billion followers, he has long since moved beyond the small workshop model typical of regular YouTube creators.

The production cycle for the channel’s short videos ranges from a few weeks to a month.

Thomas only needs to be responsible for conceptualizing content and overseeing the show, while the post-production, special effects, audio tuning, and video editing are done by a highly professional team.

By the time the video is officially uploaded on YouTube, throughout the video, the post-production team will use special effects to edit the homepage cat from this ten-dollar charging website alongside posters from other differently priced painting studios, displaying them in the video’s top right corner accompanied by a ($10) sign.

”The shop replied to my message, hm... no butter paintings, no R18... I didn’t know painters also offered these services.”

Hibernian jokingly made a big funny face towards the camera, placing the screen of his phone before the camera.

A video lasts twenty minutes.

The time dedicated to introducing such small shops won’t exceed ten seconds, this chat is considered a moderate video highlight, and could be kept as a frame for later.

The cameraman gave an OK gesture.

...

”Ten dollars for a portrait is really low; does drawing this big require extra charges? You see...”

Gu Weijing typed tentatively.

”Only ten dollars.” The other party answered without any room for negotiation.

”But... I don’t need you to draw something too big.”

”The size should be about 10 centimeters high, 6 centimeters wide; a bit of personal creativity can be added, but should not exceed 15 centimeters or be less than 4 centimeters.”

Thomas has a keen business mind.

Over one million dollars was invested in this video, aside from revenue from video playbacks.

He also plans to paste the purchased artwork as creative simplified drawings on mugs, and launch them in his merchandise store.

”Ten centimeters? Hmm.” Gu Weijing gestured roughly.

It’s quite tiny for a portrait.

But it’s not too small; even before the invention of cameras, people would invite artists to sketch portraits or busts of family members to put in portable pearl pendants or folding mirrors, those were called miniature, needing specially designed ultra-fine brushes.

”Rest assured, draw it decently, I won’t demand repeated revisions.”

The other side, fearing Gu Weijing might refuse the order, hurriedly said.

”Alright.”

Gu Weijing thought, since he needed to quickly gather positive reviews to complete chain tasks, anyway.

Compared to another complicated building scene order, although it only earns ten dollars, he still prefers this order.

”Is it a photo?”

He asked.

The other party sent over a photo of a masked man wearing a Batman armor, with a bat mask, waving US Dollar bills.

On the cape fluttering behind the doll in the wind was the trademark for the merchandise shopping site ”Hyperion Store.”

This is Thomas’s collaboration between [Hibernian Channel] and DC Batman for the bat costume.

Because each video production cost often exceeds several million dollars, and the content is often very exaggerated.

Due to his ”money power,” Thomas is also dubbed by fans as YouTube’s money-thrower, the Super Rich Brother, or YouTube’s Batman.

”Batman Cosplay? Sure. For anime content, I only provide fan-oriented illustrations for enthusiasts, but if you use it for other commercial purposes, you’ll have to bear the infringement risk yourself.”

There’s no issue drawing Batman.

Gu Weijing doesn’t know who the customer is, he doesn’t think the other party holds Batman’s copyright.

Even if Time Warner Group’s legal department has time, they probably wouldn’t bother pursuing a ten-dollar illustration.

But growing up in a bookstore, he understands the importance of being prepared.

This time the other side replied quickly.

”I have three views and professional commission contracts here. Deliver within three days at the latest, OK?”

The other party sent over two documents.

Gu Weijing quickly looked them over, one was photos of the cape guy from different angles, front and back.

The other was an illustration contract.

The contract was very professional, roughly stating that Gu Weijing would sell all other benefits apart from the legally non-transferable author’s rights to the user Hyperion1077, also stating that the buyer will bear any commercial profit risks.

Being familiar with various formats of art contracts in bookstores, Gu Weijing found no issue with the contract, if not mentioned, he would have similar instructions sent over.

”Deal.”

Once the buyer confirmed the order, Gu Weijing took out paper and pen.