The Versatile Master Artist

David once spent 600 franc to order 92 color palettes of different shades from an art supply merchant in Paris, each palette transitioning from light to dark, from pure white to deep black.

This was not due to some peculiar obsession or compulsion of the artist.

The advantage is that the artist can choose different palettes based on the painting’s base color and the complex textures and colors of the background and characters.

Beginners use white palettes the most because the canvas is white, and a white palette most easily highlights the true color of the paints on it.

But the base color of oil paintings is not always white.

An oil painting with a black background, the paint you mix on a white palette, and the colors presented after applying it to a dark background.

Because the contrast between light and dark is different, the perception also differs subtly.

Based on this principle, if conditions allow.

When painting the color of the sky or on rainy days, you can use a gray-brown palette. When painting jungles, you can use a verdant palette, and during sunsets, you can use a golden-red palette as a base color to match the paint, making it easier to find the color you want.

Uncle Sakai’s idea is a simplified advanced version of David’s.

Although plastic palettes don’t feel as good as wooden ones when painting.

But with this kind of transparent acrylic board, you can directly place your mixed paint on top of the base color you’ve just laid down or even on the original work itself for comparison.

Mix the paint according to the original piece, depicting finely detailed textures, luminance, and landscape colors becomes much simpler.

”Oh, by the way, Gu Weijing, which of these three colors do you like better?”

Koizumi Katsuko picked up the ruler on her arm and sneaked a glance at the boy, pretending to ask casually.

”I don’t understand lipstick, let alone makeup.”

Gu Weijing didn’t dare to give random advice to others.

Before Miss Sakai, his only somewhat close female friend was Mona.

Mona often liked to wear makeup,

She knew Gu Weijing didn’t really understand these things, and his family conditions were average. So Mona never asked him to buy her cosmetics as a birthday gift or anything.

She didn’t even discuss the prices of those bottles and jars, lipsticks, and eye creams in her room with Gu Weijing, probably to avoid giving him any mental pressure.

In this regard, Miss Mona has always been quite considerate of Gu Weijing.

But she generally wouldn’t seek the aesthetic opinion of her little boyfriend, preferring to makeup as she liked.

Gu Weijing only needed to say ”It looks good,” ”Really good,” and ”Very good” when they went out together.

”It’s okay, I don’t really understand either. These three lipsticks were given to me by my mom, so I’m asking for your guys’ opinions.”

Hearing that her always bare-faced baby daughter finally wanted to learn makeup to become more beautiful,

Mrs. Sakai was half-happy, half-complicated in mood as she stared at Koizumi Katsuko for a moment in the morning, selected three lipsticks from the drawer, and tossed them to her daughter.

Koizumi Katsuko arrived early in the study room, hesitated in front of a small makeup mirror for a long time, unable to decide which lipstick color suited her better.

”Give me a suggestion, okay? Just think of it as painting, use my skin as the canvas. If you were to paint on me, what color do you think would look best as the match?” Koizumi Katsuko lowered her head and tidied her hair.

Using skin as a canvas?

Suddenly, a classic scene from a Japanese biographical movie ”Liu Rushi,” with a high rating a decade ago, surfaced in Gu Weijing’s mind.

Liu Rushi, one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai of the Ming Dynasty, was renowned for her integrity. Despite being a courtesan, she was able to marry the literary giant Qian Qianyi as his legitimate wife.

On the wedding night, Liu Dacai, a talent of unmatched intelligence and beauty, took off her wedding clothes and let Qian Qianyi paint a flower on her smooth back with a brush.

Veils falling gently, skin as white as jade, colors infuse with ink...

The late reputation of Qian the Elder from the later years of the Ming as a collaborator akin to Hong Chengchou of the time is a matter of historical record.

At least from an artistic perspective, the scene was quite striking.

Gu Weijing glanced at the slender waist of Miss Shengzi, shook his head with effort, mentally slapping himself twice and forcing the alluring and nosebleed-inducing thoughts out of his mind.

He knew Shengzi could not possibly be joking indecently or teasing him at such a moment.

She was just using a simple example.

Moreover, painting on bare skin has a long tradition in Japan. Historically, there was a custom of applying paint tattoos in the coastal areas of Japan, where women would use natural plants to draw carp, flowers, etc., on their backs and arms.

Later, under the influence of the Confucian ideology of the ”body, hair, and skin bestowed by parents” in the Dongxia cultural sphere, men also began using painting as a substitute for tattoos.

This habit was carried forward even to the Edo and Meiji periods. In the early ukiyo-e prints circulating today, there is a significant amount of content depicting warriors and courtesans with tattoos or paintings on their skin.

The painted content evolved from simple flowers and insects into local mythological stories and iconic stories from Japanese novels like ”The Tale of the Heike.”

In modern times, a survey conducted by the British Academy of Fine Arts found that body painting in Japan received the highest acceptance in all of Asia, trailing only slightly behind New Zealand, Holland, Australia, and a few other European countries.

”Cherry and Cream?”

Gu Weijing gazed at the three lipstick shades on the ruler, thinking hard within himself: ”This color is softer and suits your warm undertone, Miss Shengzi.”

”Cherry and Cream, huh.”

”Yes, and the name sounds cute,” Gu Weijing said as he scratched his head.

Koizumi Katsuko took out the lipstick branded with the small golden print ”Cherry and Cream” and lightly traced around her lip line.

”Hmm?”

She pursed her lips, showing off the color to the boy, emitting a playful nasal sound that sought his opinion, looking exceedingly cute.

Gu Weijing was a little stunned.

”Is it beautiful?”

”Beautiful.”

Miss Sakai really is a wonderful girl, cool yet adorable, and they share common interests.

Even if it isn’t about emotions,

working with such a girl is a pleasant experience. Even if she were just quietly sitting there, she looks like a beautiful doll, pleasing to the eye.

”By the way, speaking of painting, will you continue painting in the public art studio at school after your thesis is completed, Shengzi?” Gu Weijing extended an invitation, ”You are also studying Lady Carol’s ’Old Church,’ right? May I invite you to one of my outdoor studios?”

After replicating more than a dozen pieces of ”Old Church,” in terms of brushwork similarity, Gu Weijing could already achieve a pretty decent level.

However, in the system panel evaluation, the degree of similarity between his replicas and the original ”Old Church” was stuck at around 35% and stagnant.

The highest he’d ever reached was just 37.6%.

The system’s benchmark for obtaining an Intermediate Treasure Chest is 50%, and the final ten percentage points feel like an insurmountable hurdle.

Gu Weijing vaguely felt that 50% was a threshold.

Although he knew there was room for improvement in his color mixing and paint handling.

But to truly achieve over 50% similarity, it’s not just about the combination of paints, the meticulousness of brush strokes... But a deeper sense of completeness, a painting’s overall aura.

To put it more plainly, it’s a shift from requiring resemblance in form to requiring in essence.

Currently, aside from painting storm clouds some likeness, the main subject of the canvas, the ”Old Church,” and the shifting candlelight within differ significantly from the masterly aura portrayed by the original artist.

Achieving essence likeness, painting on site like the female artist Carol is the best way.

Gu Weijing knew that Koizumi Katsuko had also been replicating ”Old Church” recently, so he suggested that, like him, she relocate the studio to the orphanage.

”It’s at the Good Fortune Orphanage, right? You want to do some on-site painting.”

Koizumi Katsuko knew about the original location of Carol’s work, a look of longing in her eyes.