Winter turns to spring, and time enters early February.
As the last lingering smell of the year in the air gradually dissipated, Gu Weijing stood in the studio room and looked toward the open Yangon River in the distance.
The view here is very good. In the rainy season when there are no clouds, you can see the primitive jungle outside the city in the distance and the smoke gradually rising from the jungle.
Aside from the inconvenient traffic and mud-covered roads, Yangon is a beautiful place.
There are few cities like it, so beautiful and so decayed, and the contradiction between them makes people feel emotional.
The prosperity of the past was like a fantasy dream of foreign masters in the colonial era in those old photos. When I woke up from the dream, only a desolation was left.
The pen tip in front of Gu Weijing used the side edge to gently pull out a line of clear ink on the rice paper as the finishing touch to the Yangon ink landscape painting on the desk.
[Chinese Painting Techniques: Professional Level 1 (201/5000)]
[Mood: Simple work]
A new prompt was uploaded to the task panel.
Gu Weijing put down his pen and saw that the ink in front of him was still wet. He picked up his mobile phone and took a photo. He found Professor Lin Tao among his WeChat friends and sent it.
"This is the "Yangon Landscape" I just improvised. Isn't it a bit introductory?"
Gu Weijing was typing on his mobile phone.
He was extremely busy during this holiday.
Every working day he goes to the Shwedagon Pagoda to participate in the mural restoration project. After returning home in the evening, he has to complete the acceptance of manuscripts on Fiverr. On weekends, he also visits the orphanage.
However, the harvest is also very full.
Relying on Mr. Cao's occasional guidance, his understanding of color from "Mojie's Notes", and his hesitation, he decided to add some free experience points to Chinese painting techniques.
The three complement each other, and his Chinese painting techniques naturally became the second one to break through the semi-professional bottleneck and reach the level of a professional painter after his sketching techniques.
The reason why he sent the message to Lin Tao.
It's because whether this professor will be his master or senior brother, he is now Gu Weijing's leader.
Although Mr. Cao admires Gu Weijing.
But a world-class artist naturally doesn’t have time to spend all his time on a beginner like himself.
Gu Weijing added the WeChat accounts of Professor Lin Tao and Mr. Cao’s assistant Lao Yang. If he has any questions about painting, he can communicate with Professor Lin Tao at any time.
This "Yangon Landscape" is his first complete ink painting after he broke through to the first level of his career in Chinese painting.
He wanted Professor Lin Tao to help look at his paintings.
…
Rich area of Yangon,
Aman Group International Hotel.
Professor Lin Tao, who had just attended the celebration cocktail party, returned to the room and leaned on the bed sleepily.
The first phase of the Shwedagon Pagoda mural restoration project is nearly completed during this Spring Festival holiday.
Real professionals in the field of cultural relic restoration and related work such as the completion of monument protection will continue until two years later.
However, for these painters and artists who are responsible for painting, they have done almost everything they can do, and it is impossible to stay in Yangon all the time.
Great painters like Professor Lin Tao have their own work arrangements.
Ordinary faculty members of major art academies also need to return to school after the semester starts. Being able to stay here in Yangon for a month during the Spring Festival is already a break from their busy schedule.
Many of us want to take a good rest during the last week of free time.
For example, go to tourist attractions or enjoy the services of a hotel.
Of course Professor Lin Tao is not short of money, but this kind of free five-star executive suite treatment is not always available.
Especially when traveling for business.
Dongxia University has a lot of funding, but the housing standard for full professor level plus food subsidy is only a few hundred yuan. If you want to stay in Aman or Hilton for daily business trips, don't even think about it.
Only for this kind of international cooperation project will the local tourism department in Yangon make great efforts to entertain artists like them.
He picked up the landline and called the concierge at the hotel front desk.
At this time, younger professors would still think about taking a photo on the treadmill in the hotel membership gym, pouring some mineral water on their clothes, and posting on WeChat to pretend to be a refined and respectable bourgeois life in Kochi.
When he reached Lin Tao's position, he no longer cared about these things.
He put the ice jade bracelet that he spent 60,000 US dollars on for his wife in his suitcase, fell comfortably on the bed, and made an appointment for a Thai spa.
"Sevadika!"
After a while, a young man wearing a hotel badge and wearing traditional Thai clothes walked in pushing a trolley containing essential oils and fragrances.
Professor Lin Tao put on his bathrobe and put on his favorite opera on the airpods in his headphones. He lay on the bed and groaned as the young man kneaded his body like he was rolling dough.
"... If the king refuses to surrender, oh, oh, it will be a crime for the minister, uncle... oh, how dare you, uh, bully the lord..."
The spa specialist in the Aman hotel is absolutely superb in his skills. The young man is very energetic and knows the acupuncture points accurately.
Professor Lin Tao was humming and enjoying himself.
I heard a ding-dong notification sound coming from WeChat.
He usually turned on Do Not Disturb messages for unimportant chats. When he heard the WeChat notification tone, he raised his head and took a look.
"This is the "Yangon River Landscape" I just improvised. Isn't it a bit introductory?"
He saw a new message from Gu Weijing.
getting Started?
Young man, you still can't hold your breath.
Professor Lin Tao smiled.
His current relationship with Gu Weijing is very delicate.
There is a high probability that the other party will become his apprentice, the probability of becoming his junior brother... I can't say for sure... After all, there are still some people who will be struck by lightning when they walk on the street. Professor Lin is not optimistic about it anyway.
In any case, Gu Weijing is now considered half of Cao Xuan's disciples.
The master asked Lin Tao to take some time to give some advice to the young man.
What he did was pass a set of CAFA's Chinese painting open classes to the other party, and he put the matter aside.
It's not that Lin Tao doesn't care about his teachings.
But Chinese painting has always been difficult to learn and even harder to master.
Regardless of whether you have talent or not, if you study oil painting for a while, you will at least be familiar with the process.
Many students who have never been exposed to traditional Chinese painting have been learning for a year and a half - and they cannot practice the eight basic brushwork methods of pressing, sweeping, hooking, uncovering, resisting, dragging, guiding and sending.
As for the higher techniques and artistic conception of calligraphy and painting, it is completely nonsense.
Although this Gu boy's ancestor was a court painter, he had been exposed to the environment of a calligraphy and painting family since he was a child, so he didn't have a zero foundation.
But Lin Tao learned about his level of Chinese painting from Gu Tongxiang and had also seen his previous Chinese paintings.
He is probably a decent student among ordinary students, far from outstanding.
It can't compare with the outstanding sketching skills of the other party, and it can't be compared with his aura of talent for Chinese painting pigments.
Then Lin Tao has nothing to teach him now.
In the field of Chinese painting,
Is it important to have a good master?
Of course it is extremely important, much more important than a teacher of Western painting.
Chinese painting not only emphasizes technique, but also artistic conception.
Of course, Western painting also pays attention to the environment.
It can be said that the more modern the art school is, the more it pays attention to emotions compared to the realistic images and reality of basic scenes.
At this point, the concepts of modern art schools and traditional Eastern Xia painting methods coincide.
But at least for professional painters who are relatively basic in Western painting - oil painting is still a very [real] technique.
What's wrong with the painting - the light and dark lighting isn't adjusted properly, or the structural lines are too hasty. Even if the level is not good, it is still easy to know where the problem lies.
Basically any professor at the Academy of Fine Arts is qualified to teach students oil painting.
Regardless of whether the teaching is good or bad, even if it is a second- or third-rate art academy, it will probably not mislead students.
But Chinese painting is different.
At a certain point, having a good teacher or not makes a huge difference.
Many painting structures and ideas, the shades of plum blossoms, the character of bamboo... are all slightly different in terms of the brushwork, and the final effect is completely different.
Why do so many painters really beg their grandfather or grandma to ask Professor Lin Tao to show them their paintings?
Why is it that when Mr. Cao wants to mention a few words about Gu Weijing, those great professors lick their old faces and want to stay in class?
It's because Mr. Cao's casual remarks may make the other party break through the long-standing mental barrier.
In many cases, even if you have a relationship with a master and the other person really takes a serious look at your paintings, the conclusions he gives will be very general.
“The painting is boneless”, “the writing style is obscure”, “the flowers are too beautiful”, “the snow-capped mountains are too cold”…
As for why the peach blossom painting is too charming, and the snow mountain painting is too cold.
hehe,
Enlighten yourself.
If you think about it, it is normal to improve your painting skills.
I don’t understand, but it’s common to see these passages for three to five years, ten years or more.
The personal nature of Chinese painting is so strong that it is difficult to teach it in batches.
If you really want someone to teach you step by step and guide you on your mistakes - I'm sorry, the master is very busy. This is the treatment only a direct disciple can get.
This is talking about after reaching a certain technical level.
In Lin Tao's opinion, Gu Weijing's previous level of traditional Chinese painting was still that of a novice.
There is no way to talk about the technique of raising the level.
It's like the practice in martial arts novels from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the old days.
The newcomers first learn to walk on horseback and step on plum blossom piles, and the young monks have to strengthen their muscles and bones to carry water for the temple.
Do you have any advanced martial arts skills?
have.
But when it comes to teaching others Zumabu, it doesn't make much difference whether it's a martial artist at the entrance of the village, a guard at the gate of the mansion, or a top master like Qiu Chuji, Wang Chongyang, or Zhang Sanfeng.
Lin Tao asked Gu Weijing to come back to him for guidance when he could draw a work that he was satisfied with.
I didn’t expect that it would only be a few days.
This guy Gu felt that he had already started.
getting Started?
"He is a child after all. He is impatient and can't hold his breath."
Lin Tao was a little funny.
He would not underestimate Gu Weijing. It is common sense for children to want to be encouraged.
There is a good thing waiting ahead, such as being a closed-door disciple of Mr. Cao, who is considered a big pie in the history of modern art, even if Professor Lin Tao seems to be nothing more than a moon in the water or a flower in the mirror.
But it's normal for people to be arrogant and want to show off.
It's just that maybe it's too much.
It is understandable that if he could be admired by Mr. Cao at this age, Lin Tao would just draw an egg and want to show it to him, hoping to impress the master more.
"Children, even if they don't draw well, they should encourage them first and supervise them secondly."
He made up his mind, even if Gu Weijing's painting was not good, he still hoped to encourage Gu Weijing by pinching his nose.
I just need to have a good talk with the other person and hope he can be more at ease.
Lin Tao thought, straightened up and climbed onto the bed.
While letting the Thai spa technician step on his waist, he hummed the song "Shuang Tou Tang" and opened his phone to load the photos just sent by Gu Weijing.
"... Wang Bo's party is the only one left, and now I guarantee you to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. Loyalty and righteousness are not mentioned. You have a human face with an animal heart, a human face with an animal heart, and an animal heart - oh?"
Professor Lin Tao opened the photo on his phone and made a nasal sound.
He stared at the picture on the phone for a long time, his mouth slightly opened, and the last line of the song was choked in his stomach.
At this moment, the technician stretched out his foot and stepped on Professor Lin Tao's waist.
His breath stuck in his chest and abdomen.
"Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh……"
In the executive suite of the Aman Hotel, there was a sound like a rooster crowing.
