The Versatile Master Artist

A group of Koukou’s girls around the corner observing the match started gossiping and chattering.

Misha could hardly hear what her friends were saying.

But the waves of hushed laughter made her feel a bit embarrassed.

Not eating the meat right in front of him—is he even a man?

”Tsk, stop putting on an act. Just be Mona’s servile follower forever and die on that crooked tree.”

The French girl pouted in shame and annoyance.

”Couldn’t care less about you.”

She swung her arms and walked away.

Misha didn’t believe the rumor about Gu Weijing having a mysterious girlfriend. It’s as unbelievable as those school otakus with their imaginary wives.

She’s seen plenty of guys and girls in school.

In today’s student days, those truly in love almost wish there were 36 hours in a day to stick together.

If he’s being so secretive as to not even reveal a name, could it be that he’s dating some female celebrity?

Faced with Misha’s embarrassment and annoyance.

Gu Weijing wasn’t bothered and couldn’t do anything.

He merely picked up the Chinese Painting textbook again, silently opened it from the bookmarked spot, using the book to isolate himself from the noisy hall.

The global Young Artist endorsement agreement of Koizumi Katsuko’s Tokyo Gallery was signed continuously since elementary school and until turning eighteen.

The beautiful female artist, in her single state, could secure the best promotional resources.

Opera, orchestras, ballet, painting, sculpture, and contemporary artist circles.

In any field related to art, single women always attract young affluent collector-playboys.

With many spendthrifts looking to show support financially, the market successfully gets hyped.

In the old Tsarist Russian ballet stages, the lists of lovers without any counts, marquises, or dukes wouldn’t be able to hold the scene.

The hormones of old lechers are the primary force in the art domain.

Mrs. Sakai initially wished for her daughter’s single status to be maintained outside for a while longer.

In the entertainment circle, some kids could already collect royalties.

To cultivate boyfriend fans, girlfriend fans, and romance fans, staying single in front of media cameras isn’t something to give up easily.

Absolutely no need to squander such a major advantage!

Miss Shengzi, however, insisted she disliked having secretive, underground romances—Gu Weijing was her boyfriend, not some shady kid to be hidden away.

She hoped collectors would be attracted to her art rather than any sort of ”female charm” babble.

In light of her daughter working hard and desperately painting.

Mrs. Sakai sensibly took a step back; if Gu Weijing and Koizumi Katsuko could truly jointly attend this year’s Singapore Art Exhibition Masters Group.

When skies want rain and a lady wants marriage.

Let the youngsters expose their love affairs as they please in front of media cameras.

Koizumi Katsuko already enjoys excellent artistic resources and does not need to market her single status as a public entertainment selling point.

All key points in the schedule return to the Biennale.

And the distance between Gu Weijing and painting an exhibit-worthy final piece he’s satisfied with is just a thin line away.

[Chinese Painting Techniques Lv.4: Tier One Professional Painter (4131/5000)]

He opened the system’s virtual panel, looking at the numbers above.

Recently, almost all of Gu Weijing’s creative energy was put into practicing the techniques of Chinese Painting.

No painting technique in the world stands isolated.

Three thousand ways to the great Dao, all lead to the same end.

Eastern painting art and Western painting art have completely different philosophies and cultural heritage.

Yet the three major aspects of painting, the ways they deal with structure, color, and spatial lines, have quite a few things to borrow from each other.

Things like proficiency in using the brush, perception of edges and contours, depiction of sunlight and shadow, knowledge and application of proportion and perspective.

These are common source techniques with little difference.

Building on two techniques already elevated to Tier Two Professional status, then exploring the Tier One Professional techniques of Chinese Painting again.

It’s like asking a naturally fit handball player to learn soccer.

Starting would be much faster than from zero basis, reaching the point of mastery quickly.

With a focused effort, Gu Weijing spent little time boosting the experience points of Chinese Painting techniques by over a thousand.

Even Professor Lin Tao, who gives him regular lessons via weekly WeChat video, was stunned by the enormous progress visible in Gu Weijing’s strokes.

However.

Before accumulating 3500 experience points.

The experience points seemed to fall from the tree like ripe apples, swaying lightly and crashing down.

Almost every time he picked up the brush, casually mimicking Tang Ning’s ”Hundred Flowers Painting” with a few strokes, he felt his brush mastery improving.

After filling two-thirds of the experience bar, the speed of advancement visibly slowed.

After 4000 points, this slowing trend became even more noticeable.

Not because he was practicing wrongly or imitating without diligence, rather it was the decrease in experience gain from the same amount of practice.

Bottleneck!

Gu Weijing began to feel the bottleneck between Tier One and Tier Two techniques slowly emerging.

Whether it was Teacher Walter, his grandfather Gu Tongxiang, or most of the artists in the surrounding Calligraphy and Painting Association, they got stuck at the Tier Two bottleneck their whole lives.

At the point of being a Professional Painter, different from a beginner. Every breakthrough feels like a transformation, an epiphany and elevation.

The world’s great painters typically focus on refining two to three techniques.

Building on sketching, then adding either oil painting or watercolor.

Artistic technique crossover seems both easy and difficult.

Easy because things interconnect, if your aesthetic skills and artistic literacy are there, the entry and improvement are quick.

Difficult because the bottleneck-breaking process shall remain.

Despite being a master in oil painting, spending over two years cannot make a ”Seventy-Two Immortals Painting” akin to one Wu Daozi would paint.

Even if Da Vinci himself or Picasso returned, they must learn bit by bit, gain insight painstakingly, and like other learners, could be stuck by an invisible, intangible bottleneck for years without advancing.

This is why Fusion Paintings are so rare and prized by collectors.

Such painters are living museums of art, walking textbooks. Across continents, Eurasia’s painting techniques come together in their hearts.

Any single technique they master well, showing no obvious weaknesses.

Looking broadly at art history, a great painter capable of elevating both oil painting and watercolor to high levels merits the reputation of having a flexible style and rich, splendid techniques.

The reason Elder Menzel is considered One of the most important artists in Prussian history stems not only from his deep personal friendship with the Hohenzollern Royal Family, painting many precious court history-themed works for Frederick the Great.

It’s because Menzel was an All-Purpose Great Painter fluent in sketching, oil painting, watercolor, printmaking, among other art categories.

Gu Weijing could wait; when the ”Little Prince” painting proceeds come in, use the system points to overcome all at once.

But he prefers to rely on his own skills, truly breaking through this bottleneck.

The system can directly improve his brush proficiency.

Still, many deeper insights, whether found through slow seeking and diligence or sudden enlightenment.

Only when self-understood and explicitly drawn does it truly belong to him.

In the process of approaching the Tier Two painting bottleneck, Gu Weijing vaguely sensed—the experience points gained from Elder Cao’s mural explanations and those enforced by the system to enhance brush proficiency.

Though seemingly the same experience points, they differ in whether there’s self-reflection and accumulation.

It’s akin to martial arts novels where breakthroughs happen through one’s potential and talent versus using potent elixirs and treasures to break through forcibly.

During lower Tier Two, Tier Three levels, this isn’t apparent.

The higher one climbs the peaks of art, when technique dominates man, or man dominates technique, it could lead to increasingly noticeable differences in resulting art.

No idea whether the system would provide compensatory methods.

Yesterday, Gu Weijing sought Professor Lin Tao’s advice on the bottleneck and confusion he faced.

This leading professor of both United States and China showed no surprise, seemingly expecting the difficulties faced by Gu Weijing, immediately offering two paths for seeking breakthroughs.