Kelly's fingertips lightly ran across the plastic protective film on the book cover.
She really didn't expect that she would see such amazing works after participating in an internal investigation of the publishing house.
"It's enough to be used as a teaching material for oil painting classes."
The thought crossed her mind.
Hua Dao Hua is a very small circle. There are probably less than twenty famous professional painters in the world, and even fewer full-time professors.
Except for rare cases like the Brooklyn Academy of Art, where Professor Boggs, who is known as the "first person to paint with knife and brush", would promote knife-and-pen oil painting as the school's signature.
Even the Royal College of Art, one of the four major art academies in the world, does not offer courses such as knife painting.
Generally speaking, this is not necessary.
Ninety-nine percent of art students in the world will never be exposed to similar content during their careers.
However, not being exposed to knife painting does not mean that the techniques and ideas of knife painting cannot be used in the normal oil painting process.
The oil painting knife is the most commonly used tool for any artist in the process of painting.
The paintbrush and oil painting knife are the left and right hands in learning oil painting.
The oil painting knife is not only used to shovel paint, but also to modify the lines of the picture, or to create some special color block textures on the canvas that cannot be painted with soft brushes. These are very common operations.
The illustration before her looked like an exquisite specimen.
Straight edge, side edge, smearing, flat cutting, the spine of the knife creates hard fold lines...
Kelly can find almost every use imaginable for an oil painting knife on it, and she handles it all skillfully.
"It would be great if there was a teacher like this who could teach me how to use an oil painting knife."
Kelly was fascinated.
It's a pity that volunteers like her have to sign a confidentiality agreement before participating in the Scholastic Group's marketing department survey.
Electronic products such as mobile phones are not allowed to be carried with you.
Kelly couldn't even secretly take a picture of the illustrated cover and take it out to share with her college roommates for appreciation.
She shook her head regretfully, picked up this amazing work, and walked to the sofa in the sitting area of the bookstore next to her.
As for the Townsendman hardcover version of "The Little Prince," which was printed more beautifully than the paperback version and came with a gift box, Kelly didn't even take a second look before leaving the shelf.
Her mind is now filled with this touching work, and she has long forgotten that she originally came here for the hardcover gift box.
"I'm not in a hurry to leave!"
Kelly should seize the limited time and appreciate this illustration for a while.
Even just looking at this cover brings an ethereal and dreamy fairy tale feeling to the girl's soul, which is very comfortable.
"Detective Cat?"
She sat on the sofa and looked at the illustrator's name on the cover of the book, feeling a little undecided.
Illustration is a huge industry. Illustrations are required for publishing, advertising, newspapers, magazines, and game companies. The demand for illustrators has always been huge.
It is probably not an exaggeration to estimate that the total number of practitioners in related fields around the world is one million.
The number of people who can truly be called illustrators is only one in a thousand, or even one in ten thousand.
The Scholastic Group can cooperate with it, and enjoy the same treatment as the original author and the translator in a prominent position on the cover, each with a line of signature, and all of them are leaders in the industry with deep qualifications.
Among these artists,
Ordinary people may know the name of the godfather of Pop Art like Andy Warhol, whose total market value of his works easily exceeds 10 billion US dollars, which is extraordinary.
But Kelly, a semi-professional and experienced illustration enthusiast, knows the leading illustrators in the entire industry.
For example, when she saw Wehrlein's name, she could quickly reflect on the other person's resume and identity, and she was well aware of his past works.
"The senior master who can create such amazing illustrations... shouldn't be unknown."
Kelly frowned.
She vaguely remembered that she seemed to have heard the name Detective Cat somewhere.
etc!
After thinking for a while,
She finally equated the author of the illustration in front of her with the Internet artist who became famous in the Internet celebrity video that was circulated in the circle some time ago.
It's her?
Kelly pursed her lips, feeling half shocked and half enlightened.
"It turns out to be a new painter."
His sketches and knife drawings are so amazing. With such a genius, it is estimated that a large number of classic illustrations will be born in the industry.
Scholastic Group may have found a treasure this time.
There was not only Kelly on the sofa at this time, but also a black aunt with her daughter.
The black aunt and little girl should also be volunteers invited by the publishing house this time.
Their task cards were placed aside, but the scenario written on them was different, becoming "housewives who have to choose gifts for their children within a budget of 20 pounds."
The aunt is not in the mood to pay attention to any investigation tasks now.
When she was getting coffee at the bar, she accidentally spilled some hot drink on her daughter's arm.
The little girl was young, just at the age when her teeth were changing. She was missing one of her front teeth. She was holding her arms on the sofa and whimpering in a low voice, her cries still missing a bit.
A staff member had already come running over with a medical kit.
The little girl's burn was actually not serious. Her arm was slightly red and she had already applied medicine.
But I still cried very sadly.
The uniformed boy wearing a publishing house staff badge was squatting on the ground, holding croissants and small cakes behind the bar and trying to comfort him.
The little girl didn't appreciate it.
She raised her head, wiped away her tears, and was about to focus on crying again, when her eyes happened to slip over the cover of the fairy tale book in the hands of the blond sister on her side.
The little black girl blinked slightly.
Kelly noticed the change in the little girl's eyes, and she was not surprised that the child would be attracted to the "Little Prince" in her hand.
Children are the ones most impressed by fairy tale illustrations.
They are more innocent and childlike, more in line with the temperament of fairy tales.
An adult like her would be moved, let alone a child of about ten years old.
"Girl, do you want to take a look?" Kelly smiled and handed over the book in her hand.
The little girl seemed a little shy.
She first rubbed her head in her mother's arms, and then slowly took the fairy tale book from Kelly's hand.
It's like magic,
She really stopped crying all of a sudden.
The big eyes stared at the little prince sitting on the sand dune on the cover of the fairy tale book, and the corners of his eyes became slightly crooked, like small crescents.
"OH, My god..."
This scene is really amazing, it seems like a designed plot that only happens in a stage play.
Even the young man and the black aunt on the side were very surprised. They didn't expect that a beautiful illustration could produce such a good effect.
The aunt covered her mouth and exclaimed in a low voice.
"That's the charm of art. Beautiful paintings are more effective than any language and can soothe the soul." Kelly praised softly.
She stood up and touched the little black girl's hair.
"Kid, you are beautiful. You have a pair of eyes that are good at understanding beauty. You are welcome to study art in the future!"
Kelly looked at the time;
It was almost time to complete the task. She had just given the book to the little girl, and was going to pick up another [Detective Cat Edition] of "The Little Prince" and go to the checkout counter of the bookstore to wrap up this volunteer activity.
"The shelves...are actually empty!"
Kelly was a little surprised.
Most volunteers have already chosen their goals by this time.
She browsed several shelves in the fairy tale section and discovered that there were many more versions of "The Little Prince" from [Weillein]. There are also many remaining copies of the classic version of "The Little Prince" produced by Townsendsmann, both in paperback and hardcover versions.
There is only the "Detective Cat" version of the little prince. She walked around the huge bookstore and only found the last lonely book on a remote bookshelf in the corner, and was also found by someone who was also looking for it. The slow little old man took it away.
Anyway, if you take it, you will just register it at the cashier, and you cannot actually buy it.
Kelly was too embarrassed to compete with the old gentleman.
I had to walk towards the cashier empty-handed.
"Thank you for your help, miss. Please register here and return your task card." The staff at the cashier handed Kelly a registration form and put her task card back in the drawer under the counter. .
"There is not a version that suits your taste? Then please check [Others] at the end and indicate the reason why you do not want to buy it."
There is a row of names of various versions of "The Little Prince" on the registration form. Whichever version you choose, just tick that version.
The staff saw that the blonde girl had empty hands and thought that Kelly was dissatisfied with all versions of "The Little Prince". This situation was not impossible.
Volunteer surveys are all about simulating various situations.
Readers are only limited to choosing one copy at most. If you are very disappointed with all versions of "The Little Prince" and feel it is not suitable for gift giving, you don't have to buy it at all.
It's just rare.
"No, Ms. [Detective Cat]'s version of "The Little Prince" is really great, but I can't find it on the shelf."
Without hesitation, Kelly checked the name of the second-placed illustrator Detective Cat.
She seemed to feel that this could not express her fondness for the cover illustration created by the illustrator, and she specifically marked the comment "Amazing" behind Detective Cat's name.
He raised his head and handed the registration form to the staff.
"What's going on? The sample book of the Detective Cat version is gone. Who set up the experimental site? How could such a problem happen? Didn't they prepare 50 copies of each!"
The staff member complained to a colleague behind another cash register.
He thought it was because there were fewer samples of Detective Cat on the shelf in the bookstore. This kind of flaw was really unprofessional.
Because of the tight schedule, the logistics team only managed to manually bind fifty volumes of each of the two illustrators' works overnight. In theory, this left a large margin.
There were only eighty volunteers in the first group.
Even if half of the people particularly prefer the works of a certain illustrator, reaching a 50% share would only amount to 40 copies.
Not to mention, there are several other versions of "The Little Prince" that have been released in the previous half century to divert.
Moreover, in order to conduct simulations of various scenarios.
Among the eighty volunteers, in addition to having different budgets, twenty were assigned task cards that did not require them to purchase "The Little Prince."
For example, what Kelly just saw, the black aunt's task card was only limited to choosing a children's literature work for her children.
This [bookstore] is built in a one-to-one real-life setting. The shelves in the bookstore cannot only sell the Little Prince, but there are also many different types of children's fairy tales.
As long as it falls within this category, any book will do.
In this case, it is almost difficult to choose a single version of "The Little Prince"... right?
"It's fifty volumes, that's right. I checked them one by one when I put them on the shelf. There should be enough samples."
Another staff member shrugged and pointed to the sample return area behind him.
“But having said that, I did notice that a lot of people chose the Detective Cat version of The Little Prince.”
They had just been busy taking back the volunteers' task cards and processing the registration forms. They just noticed that the proportion of volunteers who chose detective cats was definitely not low, but they did not pay attention to the specific number.
At this time, he turned to look at the place where the sample manuscripts were returned.
Nothing in the bookstore, except coffee and snacks, can be taken away.
Whether it is the sample books of Detective Cat and Wehrlein, Townsendsman's version or other fairy tales, they will be recycled at the sample return place.
Dozens of various fairy tale books were piled up in a mess, like a dark yellow brick wall blown down by the wind.
Dark yellow is the background color of the Detective Cat illustration.
At a casual glance, these fairy tale books are almost all made from the same mold, with only very sporadic Wehrlein illustrations with red background and Townsendsman edition with simple drawing style.
"Also...it's too exaggerated."
The two staff members were shocked when they realized what had happened.
In this case, more than 50% of the volunteers still chose the detective cat.
What kind of monster is this!
"Excuse me, when will you officially put the Detective Cat version of "The Little Prince" on the market? Will you hold an illustrator meeting in a local physical bookstore in the UK?"
While the two staff members were shocked, Kelly had already filled out the registration form and asked impatiently.
She was now itching to see what the other illustrations in "The Little Prince" looked like.
This feeling of seeing something but not being able to buy it is terrible.
She can't wait for the day when she can actually own this new version of "The Little Prince" on the market.
"Well, this is just a preliminary market survey. The group has not officially decided whether to print on a large scale. You can wait for the news."
The staff could only respond with an embarrassed look.
"Miss, please go to the lounge next to you and fill out another questionnaire. Each volunteer will also be provided with fifteen pounds of book purchase vouchers."
He took a ten pound and a five pound voucher from under the counter and handed them to Kelly.
Kelly didn't answer at all.
"What do you mean we haven't officially decided whether to print on a large scale yet? You wouldn't destroy Detective Cat's works if you're not satisfied with the results of the market survey. That would be a crime!"
The blonde girl's eyes widened and she almost shouted: "If you really do this, I will never buy any works published by the Scholastic Group in the future. This kind of commercial publishing house that does not respect art is not worth a penny from me. !”
She threatened loudly.
(End of chapter)
