The Versatile Master Artist

”Were you upset and frustrated just now because you thought her work’s creative design was lacking?” Lady Anya understood what Professor Boggs meant.

If there is still room for discussion about this painting,

then it would be the creative concept.

Professor Bogg’s black and white reincarnation was evidently carefully considered and designed before creation, with each image interrelated and echoing, the transition between virtual and reality akin to a deftly crafted Nine-Hearted Ivory Ball Carving, meticulously polished.

A work’s creative design and painting techniques are equally important, the two legs of a piece.

The first painting of ”Amy” catches the eye, and the viewer can immediately sense Zen.

Viewing the painting is like entering a temple to worship Buddha. Before understanding the theme of ”reincarnation” upon entering the great hall, one can already smell the incense ashes wafting in the air.

Detective Cat’s work, however, fails to break free from the confines of the canvas.

She merely relies on her exceptional cat painting skills to recreate scenes from life photos using the oil painting knife.

As Professor Boggs puts it, ”relying on sheer talent,” without her own creative concept.

Both the creative design and painting techniques of ”Amy” could score a perfect ten.

Detective Cat’s painting techniques might even be a perfect twelve, but the thought put into the creative design doesn’t even reach six.

”Hmph, drawing comic strips, what a waste.” Professor Boggs snorted angrily.

In his view, only two factors might cause this.

Firstly, Detective Cat lacks guidance from a renowned teacher.

Secondly, it’s because Detective Cat has done too much work as an illustrator, this ”driver” for hire, thus lacking her own painting concepts.

Professor Boggs wished he could fly to Africa, bind Lady Detective Cat, and lock her in his academy’s studio to teach her painting vigorously for a few years.

He wanted to tell her that only by forming her own artistic vision can she be a true artist.

”Let’s see. She should have her own ideas.”

Jean Arnou smiled, not too concerned that his esteemed artist profession had been reduced to ”drawing comic strips” in Professor Boggs’ words.

”What’s the use? We all know Amy’s outcome; she’s already...”

Boggs shrugged. ”It’s just a beautiful mistake doomed to destruction. If Detective Cat’s work ends abruptly here, it would only remind Tony of fragmented memories. If she continues, it would lead to Tony being hurt again.”

He pointed at the screen.

”The better Detective Cat paints now, the more severe the harm Tony experiences when memories are triggered.”

Eighteen works were displayed in sequence, and now the TV screen showed Detective Cat’s version of the group photo in front of the private clinic.

The cat’s paw rested on Tony’s head, looking into the camera with a gaze as gentle as ever.

Standing before the TV screen, Tony was completely immersed in those memories, unaffected by the discussions around him.

Tony quietly stared at the draft, his eyes glistening with tears.

Everyone else was solemn.

The painter doesn’t own the Time Stone from the Marvel movies; this anonymous painter is called Detective Cat, not Doraemon.

Even if she were Doraemon, in ”Universal Elixir”, the robotic cat possesses pills that cure all earthly diseases, except for death.

Amy is already dead.

In the face of this unchangeable fact,

the more beautiful the memories, the more painful the parting.

”Is there another one?” Jean Arnou asked softly.

The assistant swiped the screen, and the next draft appeared on the TV.

It was a scene in the pet ward.

Tony was huddled in the corner of the room, cradling a cat cradle.

At the edges of the draft, a few arms and fingers reaching towards them were visible; they belonged to those who wanted to take Amy for euthanasia.

For the first time, the color scheme on Detective Cat’s work draft became somewhat chaotic.

It wasn’t the chaos of a beginner flustered on the color palette, it was an intentional portrayal of a dull, irritable, oppressive emotion softly echoing the theme of this ”parting painting.”

To create a warm, painless atmosphere,

in the ”Love Ritual” video, the walls of the pet ward were pastel pink, but Detective Cat noticeably adjusted the tone of the painting, turning the entire ward cadmium orange.

Cadmium orange is a special color on the pigment table, a reddish hue with a touch of yellow and white.

Generally made by mixing lemon yellow and alizarin red in different proportions.

Its specialty lies in the fact that different mixtures allow it to switch freely between warm and cool tones.

Imagine a stone wall, only half bathed in sunlight.

Under warm light, cadmium orange feels warm; under cold light, it gives a chilling, cool tone.

The direction of the adults’ outstretched arms in the ward remained a warmer orange glow, but as it spread and transitioned towards the main focus of the painting, the image grew colder and darker.

When it reached Tony holding the cat, the image was as gray as if even the air had frozen.

Just like the cat’s gray, shedding body.

And just like Tony’s grief-stricken, desolate eyes.