The Versatile Master Artist

”Unfortunately, after you modified it for me, this work actually has the suspicion of cheating; it’s not an independent creation.”

Koizumi Katsuko lightly stroked the top of the canvas with her finger, sticking out her tongue.

”If this is considered cheating, then you helping me handle the lightness transition of the paint colors with your fingers is actually cheating too.”

Gu Weijing said nonchalantly, ”You help me, I help you, you don’t say anything, I don’t say anything. How would the judges know?”

”Hmm.”

Koizumi Katsuko nodded lightly, making an adorable nasal sound.

She did not dwell too much on this issue.

Just like how many grand galleries and artists always want to use various non-standard means to get their agent painters or close relatives into exhibitions through special channels.

Cheating and ghostwriting are also traditional and reserved programs in large art exhibitions.

In art competitions at the elementary and middle school level, without the help of parents or agencies creating portfolios for them, it would be like a Champions League game missing hooligans.

It loses some flavor.

So for projects organized by grand galleries to select young artists, the semi-finals and finals require on-site creation.

Otherwise, who knows what kind of weirdos would pop up among the winners.

The art biennales require submitting a series of Sketchbooks (inspiration sketches), Study Proposals (records of creative purpose)... all these flashy appendices.

They also require a lot of electronic auxiliary files, including personal drawing drafts, creation photos, on-site painting videos, etc., to prove that the competition work was entirely completed by the creator.

The Singapore Biennale even hires authentication teams and review committees to individually check and verify the authenticity and originality of the works.

The effect...

At most, one can say it’s better than nothing.

Having it is better than not, completely eliminating cheating is almost entirely impossible.

Frankly speaking, to what extent external involvement in a painting counts as a character issue for the contestant, and to what extent it’s normal art guidance.

The academic circle doesn’t even have a basic unified standard.

From ancient times to today, the act of ghostwriting in painting is almost completely tangled with art history; there are not only masters painting for their apprentices but also apprentices painting for their masters to fool collectors.

The former is for fame, the latter for selling.

Titian once painted for his senior Giorgione because Giorgione was more famous and his works sold for more. Meanwhile, Titian and Giorgione, these two senior brothers, also imitated their teacher Bellini’s works and sold them to collectors in Florence.

The painting styles of these three masters’ works were very similar, even their signatures were imitated by each other.

Modern museums may not clearly distinguish which is the original and which is a ghostwriter’s work.

However, there is one point.

Often, the lower-level and more education-linked art competitions occur more frequently with cheating and ghostwriting.

Like the famous London Art Beauty, almost every year there is a big change in application rules, and the admissions officer, facing media interviews, is almost driven to tears by the mass-produced ghostwriting portfolios by overseas study agencies.

As for awards like the Turner Prize and Venice Biennale.

Lobbying is heard of, but ghostwriting cheating scandals are almost unheard of.

This is the same reason as there are no fools who would write a Nobel-level research paper for others.

In conclusion, Uncle Sakai did not personally step in to paint for his daughter, which already shows a lot of integrity.

The mutual help between two young people is not worth mentioning at all in the artistic pond that’s never been clear.

”You can help me modify paintings, teaching me how to integrate emotion into the work, while I can only help you by smearing the paint with my fingers a couple of times.”

Koizumi Katsuko’s eyes glanced over the pens, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table nearby, her tone regretful.

”I can see that you’re trying to infuse a certain floral charm into your brushwork, but Dongxia National Painting is not my specialty—”

It is said that in the yard of the Good Fortune Orphanage are two small easels placed side by side.

What stands in front of Gu Weijing is actually a small table.

A paperweight holds down a large piece of prepared rice paper on the table, dotted with many thumbnail-sized wisteria blossoms.

No branches or leaves, only petals.

He has been practicing the painting technique of wisteria flowers on this daily.

Hundreds of purple petals have already climbed over the white paper page, and the breeze slightly moves the edge of the rice paper on the small table, like a flowing purple waterfall.

Under tireless practice.

On the system panel, Gu Weijing’s Chinese Painting Techniques experience points have reached the level of [Lv.4: Tier One Professional Painter (4326/5000)].

Just lacking one last thing to achieve the feeling of the wisteria painting in Lady Tangning’s ”Hundred Flowers Painting” on paper.

He is deeply pondering.

Koizumi Katsuko can write calligraphy, appreciate the clouds over Shu Region, understand the divine light of Mount Emei, can easily recite a couple of haikus, sit kneeling at the pavilion, eat Three Thousand Families’ snacks, and listen to the senior monk at Asakusa Temple talk about the ”Lotus Sutra.” Eastern culture has deeply permeated her.

Yet she still holds ample reverence for the profound and extensive national painting.

Different industries are worlds apart.

She has no problem tracing lines as per the sample book illustrations given by elders outside the Great Golden Pagoda, but instructing Gu Weijing on national painting is entirely out of the question.

The best way not to create chaos is to be a silent observer.