The Versatile Master Artist

Burman’s ”Human Anatomy,” is most effective only when paired with the penmanship level of Menzel’s Painting Basics at an impressive Lv.9, creating an astonishing impact.

If Gu Weijing used his original sketching skills, it would immediately become akin to a dog riding Lu Bu—a marvel only within the realm of middle school students.

To truly utilize the system’s reward of Knowledge Cards and paint to the extent of Lang Shining, there’s still much practice needed.

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The lights in Gu’s Calligraphy and Painting Shop remained lit at night.

After returning home, Gu Weijing did not rush back to his bedroom today.

Having just acquired new Knowledge Cards, he found it difficult to sleep without painting something.

Gu Weijing wandered around the small gallery front at home for a moment before finally stopping in front of a wall.

[”Bean Blossom of Changchun Atlas”]

[Type: Silk color (fine replica)]

[Artist: Qing · Lang Shining]

[Price: 1500 US Dollars / 3,680,000 Myanmar Kyat]

Gu Weijing carefully removed this scroll from the wall and placed it on a table beside him.

This painting is a collector-level replica from the 2011 historical exchange project between Taiwan and Mainland Forbidden City Museums of Dongxia.

At that time, besides issuing replicas of famous paintings, some commemorative lacquerware, high-quality blue and white porcelain were also made.

The collector-level prints, although machine replicated, retained Lang Shining’s original brushwork excellently, far superior to the cheap souvenirs sold in tourist sites.

Each piece’s cost price was over 800 US Dollars,

Mr. Gu at the time selected Lang Shining’s works and bought a batch,

besides this ”Bean Blossom of Changchun Atlas,” there were a few other paintings such as ”Gathering Auspices” and ”Emperor Qianlong’s Grand Inspection Painting” available in the shop.

Sales have been quite good.

The galleries in Yangon mainly cater to foreign tourists.

European and American tourists visiting Southeast Asia, besides local oil paintings, want to buy some Oriental-styled scrolls.

However, to be honest,

just like how the Qing court was not fond of traditional oil paintings.

Traditional Chinese paintings that don’t focus on realism may appear too ”exotic” to them.

Without sufficient cultural foundation, it really becomes difficult to appreciate them.

Western tourists are very fascinated by some cool, Orientally styled concepts while keeping the entry threshold low enough.

If they can grasp them vaguely, that’s even better.

For example, cultural concepts like ”ninja” and ”Bushido” have gone insanely popular in Europe and America.

Fusion style artworks are impressive because they transcend cultural boundaries.

Lang Shining’s New Style Paintings managed to captivate three generations of emperors Kang, Yong, and Qian, and now effortlessly appeal to tourists from Western scenic spots.

Gu Weijing has witnessed blonde, blue-eyed foreigners in the shop exclaim ”OMG,” thinking these artworks are incredibly cool.

They not only understand them but believe these paintings are filled with rare Dongxia charm.

Unfortunately, the small batch of replicas by the Palace Museum back then, now only this ”Bean Flower Painting” remains in the gallery.

Under the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill, the impression of replica prints certainly cannot compare to original works.

Yet, the perception is still slightly better than cold digital albums, and more convenient than painting from an iPad.

[”Bean Blossom of Changchun Atlas”]

[Oil Painting Technique: Lv.7 Tier One Grandmaster]

[Chinese Painting Technique: Lv.6 Tier Three Professional Painter]

[Emotion: Simple Works]

When Elder Cao asked him to study Lang Shining’s works, Gu Weijing had seen many of his pieces and had already appreciated this ”Bean Blossom Painting” using Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill.

The results were quite surprising.

The emotion only received an evaluation of Simple Works, which isn’t unusual.

Similar works from Emperor Kangxi given to the Qing Palace Painting Academy for painting tasks that praised auspicious signs, the painter’s lack of passion is understandable.

Yet for the painting techniques...

It’s not that Lang Shining’s paintings were poor,

The Master Level painting skill is nothing short of excellent, belonging to the top pyramid elite.

But compared to Lang Shining’s fame and historical status—especially the exceptional impression these paintings left on Gu Weijing, evoking high expectations—

During system analysis, this artist’s technique seemed rather mediocre.

He was a great painter who impressed Emperor Qianlong, known for his seal mania and ultimate collector of cultural relics, to the extent of writing poetry to praise, ”Portrait skill Shining excels, capturing my youth.”

One Tier One Grandmaster, one Tier Three Professional, indeed not high.

Take the works Gu Weijing has admired for example,

The oil paintings weren’t as impressive as female artist Carol’s.

For Chinese paintings, there’s no need to compare with Elder Cao; even compared to Mr. Cao Xuan’s youngest disciple Tang Ning’s skills when he was in his twenties, they’re much inferior.

Thinking carefully, while this result was unexpected, it was also reasonable.

Lang Shining was never among the best oil painters.

Don’t mention Europe, just within the missionaries who visited Beijing with similar painting skills to Lang Shining, records show there were two or three more.

Regarding more talent and artistic sentiment-oriented Chinese paintings, Lang Shining failed to hold up against Dongxia-native painters and scholars.

It’s doubtful he could rank among the top hundred during the same period.

Some painting techniques inherently could create a charm greater than 1+1 equals 2.

Lang Shining’s oil paintings were not top-notch, and his Chinese paintings weren’t outstanding either.

Yet, relying on skillfully fused painting styles, he gained favors from three generations of emperors and was honored as one of the greatest ten painters in Qing Dynasty history spanning 268 years, attaining a high official position.

Gu Weijing was ready with pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, fixating on the ”Bean Blossom Painting.”

Lang Shining’s existing works include those using Oriental-style brush and Xuan paper and those using linen canvas with Western painting tools.

New Style Painting is a painting approach and concept that doesn’t stick to specific tools.

In his mind, the ”Summary of Essence of New Body Painting” is divided into Chapters.

Primarily focused on painting flowers, plants, natural scenery, highlighting Eastern composition and skeleton with Western light-shadow and color, [Western-style Heavy Color Chapter], and architecture and figures, combining Western structural and perspective focus with Eastern sentimentality in the[Line Draft Chapter].

The Line Draft Chapter involves more fusion of sketch lines compared to the Western-style Heavy Color Chapter.

Gu Weijing decided to start from simpler areas.

This ”Bean Blossom Painting” is a typical work of ”Western-style Heavy Color,” involving only [Chinese Painting Technique]and [Oil Painting Technique].

Upon picking up his brush, the ”Summary of Essence of New Body Painting” began providing abundant painting detail elements.

”Western-style Heavy Color emphasizes oil painting, supplemented by Chinese techniques. Flowers and birds are chosen for light from the front, dilute shadow effects or eliminate them, soft, fresh, vivid; colors are splendid...”

The so-called Western-style Heavy Color,

can be simply understood as remolding Western oil paintings using Chinese painting methods.

The flowers and birds retain oil painting light-shadow effects, and abandon large shadow gray tones, leading to a softer overall picture, presenting a fresh style.

In some cases, even using non-water-soluble gemstone pigments for color adherence is boldly employed.

Of course, these are merely theoretical methods of ”Western-style Heavy Color.”

Many later scholars have summarized this, but painting isn’t straightforward as the theory; like relativity exists, building an atomic bomb still needs more effort beyond its theory.

Gu Weijing’s prior understanding of these theories was also superficial.

His paintings appeared neither Eastern nor Western, neither Chinese nor foreign, looking aesthetically unpleasant.

But now, the ”Summary of Essence of New Body Painting” provides not only theory but also specific operational details.

”Painting the bean blossoms, first points the leaves, then raises the flowers, finally writes the branches. Western oil painting focuses on proportion, hence branches and leaves can’t directly connect to flower heads, use emerald green curves to fill them. Light shadow variations fill with central brush strokes, veins and leaf integrated as one.”

Gu Weijing contemplated for a moment.

Following the above guidance, when painting bean blossoms, one should first point out leaves, then paint petals, and finally use emerald green curves to fill the gaps between branches.

To express light-shadow variations, one should use the brush’s central strokes to reverse-cast and outline leaf veins and leaves.