The Versatile Master Artist

Even if she didn’t quite understand what exactly Gu Weijing had grasped, she still felt slightly relieved in her heart.

The most taxing thing for a painter is to sit and meditate in front of a scene.

The more you think about it, the more it bothers you, the more it drains you, and finally, in a burst of emotion, you might want to fire a shot at someone else’s head or your own, something Koizumi Katsuko had heard of before.

It’s actually better to start moving the brush.

No matter what Gu Weijing had in mind, once he started painting, as he painted, he would realize his own issues and wouldn’t be so set in his ways.

”If you fail and hit a wall, you’ll turn back.” Koizumi Katsuko chuckled.

Facing Gu Weijing’s attempt to seize the opportunity, to emulate the artistic spirit of the female artist Carol.

Some might see him as foolishly overestimating himself, but Koizumi Katsuko just found the guy beside her quite interesting.

To achieve exceptional results on the art stage, ambition is crucial.

Even if it’s a bit foolish, it’s endearingly so.

A little failure can actually help the other person grow.

Koizumi Katsuko had seen much of the world, but Gu Weijing hadn’t.

A small-town prodigy, who seldom meets peers at the same level, can easily overestimate his abilities.

When they go to Paris, to Florence, St. Petersburg, WYN... in the top art academies and environments, suddenly surrounded by equally outstanding peers from around the world, they might find themselves mediocre.

The huge mental gap can lead to discouragement and lost motivation.

Many small-town prodigies in art history emerged this way. This issue even troubled a whole generation of outstanding African artists.

Encountering setbacks more often and adjusting quickly can actually benefit future development.

Thinking of this,

Koizumi Katsuko was in no hurry to paint herself; she planned to wait until Gu Weijing tried and failed, then analyze the problems with him.

It wasn’t that Miss Sakai lacked confidence in Gu Weijing’s skills, but she knew just how strong the brushwork of the female predecessor, Carol, was.

As the saying goes,

If her brushwork wasn’t terrifyingly strong, it wouldn’t have caught Uncle Sakai’s eye during a casual stroll as something extraordinary despite its dirty and dusty state on a street stall, with ”Old Church on a Stormy Day.”

No matter how confident Gu Weijing appeared, Miss Shengzi wasn’t optimistic.

Sudden enlightenment and qualitative leaps in technique are not uncommon in the art world.

You can find similar descriptions in biographies of master artists like Picasso, Monet, and Koizumi Katsuko herself had experienced it once.

However, overall, such epiphanies remain rare occurrences.

Koizumi Katsuko didn’t naively believe that Gu Weijing had coincidentally encountered one.

Most of the time, what art students think is enlightenment is just a frog in the well making a small leap on the slippery walls, soon realizing they’ve landed back in the well in vain.

Koizumi Katsuko watched Gu Weijing as he mixed colors from cool to warm on the palette, arranging them like a rainbow with small portions of each, holding two brushes in hand.

Koizumi Katsuko immediately guessed that he intended to use delicate brushwork to express the effect of light blending.

So she volunteered, ”Shall I help clean the brushes for you? You can focus on painting.”

”Thank you, I just need a small brush, size one or two.”

Gu Weijing nodded and didn’t refuse Koizumi Katsuko’s kind offer.

Oil painting differs from traditional brush or gouache, with the adhesive nature of the paints making them harder to clean. If any paint remains uncleaned in the brush hairs, it can contaminate the work.

To facilitate painting, each major color often uses a separate brush, switching brushes when changing colors, then cleaning them all together later.

They were sharing one person’s painting tools between them. Even though there were many brushes, there were only four fine-bristled small brushes in total.

With larger brushes, painting small lines would feel awkward, like Zhang Fei embroidering.

The candlelight here has a range of colors; a one-time brush usage surely wouldn’t be enough without Koizumi Katsuko’s help in cleaning them.

”Are you trying to use the smallest brush strokes to gradually render color transitions?” Koizumi Katsuko nodded in encouragement, ”Mm, that’s a good idea.”

Similar to pointillism, using fine gradient strokes for subtle shadow and highlight transitions.

Koizumi Katsuko had thought of this method too.

Carol, the female artist, painted in this manner.

However, Koizumi Katsuko felt her skills weren’t up to it, so she never specifically switched to extremely fine brushes.

If you can’t paint it, you can’t paint it.

It’s not something that changing brushes more frequently or mixing more colors can solve.

If having more tools solved brush experience issues, everyone could be an artist by just buying more brushes.

Some exaggerated art students would stack up dozens of brushes, holding one in the right hand and three in the left while painting, looking more like brush sellers.

No matter how it should be painted, it will still be painted as it is.

If the skills aren’t there, relentlessly pursuing the utmost detail in lines makes the painting appear chaotic.

Koizumi Katsuko didn’t want to dampen Gu Weijing’s confidence, so she kept her thoughts to herself and instead, offered suggestions.

”Actually, if you simply want to express delicate lines, using a filbert brush would yield better results, but we didn’t prepare any.”

Oil brushes are mainly divided into filbert (pointed), flat, and fan shapes.

Medieval tempera painters and Renaissance realist oil painters mostly used filbert brushes, while Impressionists favored flat brushes.

Fan or slanted brushes are a modern development of oil brushes.

The filbert brush, with its pointed tip, is the best tool for expressing delicate lines.

This makeshift studio converted from a porter’s lodge was quite basic, Koizumi Katsuko and her companion were using flat brushes, which weren’t convenient for handling small lines.

”Next time, I’ll get you...”

Koizumi Katsuko, holding the rinsing cup, leaned against the windowsill, watching Gu Weijing paint, casually chatting when suddenly her voice halted.

She sharply held her breath, her clove-colored pupils fixed on the canvas before Gu Weijing without blinking.

Miss Shengzi noticed that Gu Weijing’s brushwork was incredibly elegant and fluid, each line exuding a sense of grace.

Flat brushes inherently produce strokes of uneven thickness.

The smallest brush in Gu Weijing’s hand, a size one oil brush, had a tuft end only about four millimeters wide, roughly as thick as the smallest cotton swab stick, and any instability would ruin the line.

Koizumi Katsuko realized,

Gu Weijing’s arm hadn’t quivered the slightest from start to finish, his wrist steady like a robotic arm, with bold gestures and lively lines.

The flames flowed, ethereal and formless, brilliantly radiant.

And under his brush, the lines captured the intangible with form.

One line, two lines, ten lines...

The more Miss Shengzi watched, the more meticulous and focused she became.

Regarding each of these lines, she felt she could also draw them.

But to perfectly combine them into a whole was difficult.

For Gu Weijing to achieve this, it wasn’t merely explainable by sheer luck.

”Brush?”

Miss Sakai was startled, realizing Gu Weijing was ready to switch to another color. She quickly handed him a clean brush and dipped the one he just used into the rinse cup.

She silently watched Gu Weijing paint, witnessing the miracle unfold before her eyes.

With Gu Weijing’s brush movements,

the firelight began to slowly kindle on the blank canvas, resembling tiny colorful fireflies coalescing into a wondrous spiral.

Deep and mysterious, just like the image from memory under Carol’s brush.

Koizumi Katsuko needed to slowly cover her mouth to suppress an incredulous joyful gasp from escaping her rising chest.