Gu Weijing tried for the first time to prepare the paint according to the formula recorded in "Mojie Notes".
He picked up the knife on one side and roughly drew on the cinnabar ink ingot, cut off a few small pieces and placed them in the mortar on the side, carefully mashing and grinding them.
After seeing that it was almost a bright pink color, Gu Weijing put down the porcelain rod in his hand and added a little diluted gelatin to increase the viscosity.
Logically speaking, the current cinnabar ink should appear as a clear liquid like red ink.
But Gu Weijing could clearly see that the bottom of the paint showed many small, uneven particles like sand.
Precipitation - this is what Gu Weijing was worried about before using cinnabar ore.
There is a huge property gap between naturally mined raw mineral pigments and modern chemical red pigments, and one of the obvious shortcomings is easy precipitation.
Unless you are very experienced, there will be a problem of adding more water to the noodles and more noodles to the water.
If you add too little water, sand-like particles will appear on the brush, ruining the overall texture of a painting. If you add too much water, the paint will not solidify and may even drip on the mural.
There is a reason why each pigment is eliminated. Perhaps the effect is not good, or the conditions for use were harsh in the past.
The masters of these mural restoration projects may not have considered the possibility of using cinnabar to color.
However, the conditions for using cinnabar are difficult and the preparation process is complicated, which is the main reason why this natural mineral pigment was not used in the end.
"Serve with warm soup and stir with your fingers until smooth and moist."
In the notes in my mind, a line of comments flashed across my mind.
Gu Weijing was stunned. He rolled up his sleeves, tentatively fetched hot water, put his fingers into the paint tray, and used the porcelain rod to grind it.
I didn’t expect this method to be surprisingly useful!
He could feel the cinnabar powder melting little by little in the hot water through the clear touch on the skin between his fingers.
When he just felt that all the particles had disappeared, he immediately stopped adding water.
The paint in the plate immediately turned into a just right color, with a slight jelly-like feeling but never sticking to the pen.
[Painting experience +7]
[Chinese painting: lv.3 semi-professional (8/1000)]
The virtual panel in front of him indicated that his painting proficiency had increased. This was the first time that Gu Weijing did not gain experience points while painting after obtaining the panel.
This unique tip cannot be summarized without having used cinnabar hundreds of times.
Simple yet incredibly effective.
Add warm water and use your fingers to stir the paint.
Only these two incredibly simple points have easily solved a problem that has troubled countless Chinese painting painters.
Gu Weijing sighed with emotion. He knew that according to the old master's habit, in order to prevent the master's disciples from starving to death, this kind of little trick is often a magic weapon to keep.
For example, pass on a male but not a female, only pass on the incoming disciples, not famous disciples, only pass on the junior disciples, not the eldest disciples, etc...
The dyeing formula in the hands of the old cobbler, and the temperature of the fruit-wood roast duck in the master's mouth are all similar.
If a disciple dares to learn secretly, his master will not say anything even if he is beaten to death.
This is a social experience with local cunning, and it is also the reason why many precious skills have been lost.
People keep reinventing the wheel again and again.
Needless to say, he can think of techniques like using warm water and fingers. In history, there must have been many inventions by masters like Wang Wei who were proficient in calligraphy and painting, but they were gradually lost, waiting for someone to invent them again.
Gu Weijing is not a sentimental person.
He just sighed for a moment, then continued to follow the instructions in the notes, quickly adding items such as clay silver and cyanine in sequence. Various corresponding tips would pop up in the notes from time to time.
When the Chinese painting proficiency on the panel in front of Gu Weijing reached [Chinese Painting: lv.3 Semi-Professional (35/1000)].
The small pool of paint in the tray in front of me has turned into a lovely, translucent pink and blue.
Just like a lotus floating in the water.
Gu Weijing excitedly picked up the paintbrush in his hand and dipped it gently into the palette.
…
time flies.
Preparing pigments is not only a technical job, but also a manual job, especially when it is separated from the convenient modern chemical reagents in tin tubes and completely uses the ancient method to mix ink.
But when you watch the mineral pigments of various colors dissolving and infiltrating into each other in the palette under your command, and finally turning into a texture-filled color on the painting, this sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in your heart is also indescribable. Explained in words.
Seeing the pink-red texture of the lotus on the mural, Gu Weijing was very fond of it.
This color is really beautiful. Just by virtue of the unique three-dimensional effect of the paint color under the sunlight, it actually feels like drawing a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane.
Gu Weijing looked at it and was so satisfied. Looking at the unused paint in the tray, he even had the urge to lick it with the tip of his tongue.
He finally experienced the feeling that Wang Xizhi's child had when he dipped steamed buns in ink and ate them.
Not to mention, this use of five colors and five flavors may really be the expression of the ancient Eastern Xia literati's way of conveying Tao through writing and painting, and living without madness is impossible.
In "Mojie's Notes" in my mind, there is also a record of Wang Mojie's painting process, using his sense of taste to assist him in preparing the pigments he wanted. He also noted the sweetness, bitterness, etc. behind different ores. describe.
The handbook in his mind has a lot of pages recording the combination of different paints and related tips, waiting for Gu Weijing to put it to the test. Now he even feels like opening a treasure chest in an online game.
It is true that Chinese paintings are not as scientific as Western painters in dealing with perspective and character texture.
But the so-called freehand charm lies precisely in the unpredictable changes between the light and dark colors.
He sped up his work and couldn't wait to try more color combinations.
[Painting experience value +9]
[Painting experience value +7]
[Painting experience value +5]
Gu Weijing completed the coloring work faster and faster.
His most experience now comes from the process of pigment preparation, which is also a kind of learning about light, shadow and color in painting.
As for the coloring itself, he now knows the best way to draw without spending too much time reasoning and thinking based on the manuscript.
As for whether you can draw well, the only way is to practice more.
When Gu Weijing finished all the work on the mural in front of him, the time on his watch had only gone for more than half an hour.
He looked at his watch. It was already a little late for dinner at this time.
Gu Weijing didn't want to wait until everyone started working together in the afternoon.
He was looking for the next set of tasks assigned to him. The card Tsunasa Sakai signed and received before leaving for lunch break was in Gu Weijing's pocket.
It is the wall numbered "No.17".
All the walls in need of repair have their own Arabic numerals, with the wall numbered seventeen further inside.
Gu Weijing took his brush and paint tray and walked to the west side of the Shwedagon Pagoda for a few minutes, crossed several sets of isolation lines, and finally came to Wall No. 17.
He looked up.
"Huh?"
This turned out to be a somewhat incomplete picture of worshiping the Buddha and protecting the Dharma.
