The Versatile Master Artist

Gu Weijing picked a moderately elastic mink oil painting brush, dipping it into a deep-colored pigment, as the outline for the sketch of the base pattern.

Before starting,

he specifically used paint containing heavy metals, only adding a small amount of turpentine, to draw the outline.

Cobalt, manganese, lead, and other metal elements are often used as chemical driers to help paint dry quickly.

For instance, the paint Gu Weijing is currently using,

was designed for timed exams and on-site art competitions, and has a rapid-drying effect, almost drying instantly upon contact with air.

The trade-off is a slight sacrifice in the color’s brilliance, and the paint is relatively toxic.

If Gu Weijing got mesmerized and dared to emulate the ancient Wang Xizhi by dipping bread in paint, he’d definitely end up in the hospital for a stomach pump.

Fortunately,

the base sketch would gradually be filled and submerged by more complete paint details in the later painting process, like a house with a roof added, the keel covered by layers of decks.

Eventually, only a small part of the base sketch will be visible on the finished painting’s surface, not affecting the visual impression.

Therefore, a bit of sacrifice is no big deal; the faster it dries the better, as there’s naturally no need to wait two or three days for the base sketch to dry after finishing it.

Painting the base sketch,

is essentially about letting the creator see the final image effect on the canvas in the shortest time possible.

Although the audience won’t see the original base sketch when appreciating the final painting,

for professional painters, a glance at a painting’s base sketch allows them to imagine most of the final result.

The base sketch is the preliminary projection of the art piece on the canvas, an outline of its final appearance.

If the process of creating a painting is likened to a little girl’s growth,

as they say, you can tell a person’s future by what they’re like at three or at eight.

A draft is akin to the painting in its toddler phase, and based on the design’s quality, it can be called a ”beauty frame,” a mere ”mediocre form,” or even worse, ”ugly visage.”

However,

after all, a sketch only displays the creator’s compositional ability, at most, tests the artist’s proficiency in sketching lines.

The future of the work itself is still uncertain, with the possibility of evolving as it matures.

If the technique is crude, even holding a draft of Raphael’s ”Academy of Athens,” some would end up creating a painting that looks like monkeys having a meeting.

Similarly,

a portrait like ”Mona Lisa,” painted by Da Vinci according to a precise pyramidal standard structure, lacking composition creativity, can still be rendered into a timeless masterpiece.

With sufficient artistic appreciation and cultivation,

whether you’re a gallery manager, an art critic, an art curator, or a seasoned collector like Chen Shenglin, you might design good drafts.

But it’s impossible for non-professional painters to create the base sketch.

A draft tests the design, the base sketch begins to test the painter’s real technical painting skills.

The base sketch doesn’t need intricate, complex details to fill the screen, but beyond sketch lines, structural form and color matching abilities, these most crucial elements of a work, are all clearly exhibited.

It’s like the painting has reached the stage of a middle-school graduate, with defined facial features.

At the moment the last stroke of the base sketch is completed, the final visual impression of the painting is essentially formed.

Zhong Wuyan can’t turn into Xia Yingchun, and Xia Yingchun can’t transform into Zhong Wuyan.

An artwork can’t undergo cosmetic surgery.

As long as the artist doesn’t change, the final impression can only vary within a range, and the limits of the canvas are about eight or nine tenths certain.

Some art dealers and gallery agents, after seeing the semi-finished base sketches in the artist’s studio, can already start proposing formal acquisition contracts, setting prices, and assessing market expectations.

Because the base sketch is the projection of the final product,

whatever significant shortcomings there might be in the end product will all be reflected when painting the base sketch.

When Gu Weijing previously tried fusion painting, while completing ”Good Fortune Orphanage in Sunshine,” he first felt a ”sense of disjointedness” and ”weirdness” start from the base sketch.

The fusion of traditional Chinese meticulous painting’s lines with sketching technique bore different aesthetic and brush use differences: one simple, one complex.

The paint color concept was also different, one emphasized spirit, the other form.

Everyone talks about learning from others’ strengths, but that often remains just talk.

The objective differences between painting methods in different cultural systems are like a whale and a shark; they look like fish, but they’re not the same species at all.

Fusion painting is lauded as the painting genre of ”artistic masters” like Wu Guanzhong, Zhao Wuji, capable of easily selling works to meet a small goal. Its difficulty and prestige are evident here.

Theoretically,

for an art student of Gu Weijing’s age to complete such a high-end technique is as improbable as David challenging the giant Goliath.

The visual impression of his previous works was quite poor.

However, after a few days,

now with hundreds of line drawing sketches as a foundation, and a complete painting approach from Lang Shining,

as soon as he started painting,

Gu Weijing immediately felt a distinctly different experience from before.