When Kelly left angrily, she accidentally spotted a thin man with gray hair in the corridor who looked familiar.
He was holding a copy of Little Prince and staring at the illustrations in a daze.
"Are you...Mr. Wehrlein?"
Kelly was a little surprised.
She had seen Wehrlein's photo on the official Twitter, but she didn't expect to see the illustrator himself here.
Kelly dug around in her pocket and found only two paper vouchers that the staff had just given to her.
She took one of them and approached the white-haired man.
"Mr. Wehrlein, I am a loyal fan of your illustrations and have always admired your works. Can you sign your autograph?" Kelly asked for an autograph.
Wehrlein seemed to be deep in thought. He had been staring blankly at the cover of Detective Cat's drawing knife in his hand, muttering something to himself.
The Montblanc rose gold Writers' Series pen, which sells for over a thousand pounds, spun in the palm of his left hand like a fidget spinner.
The people coming and going around him never distracted him for a moment.
"fan?"
Wehrlein raised his head when he heard this claim.
Europeans who are star-struck like to ask for autographs.
If you like a singer, you will be asked for an autograph. If you like a basketball star, you will be asked for an autograph. If you like an academic professor or an artist, you will be asked for various autographs.
Not to mention, the signatures of famous artists are actually quite valuable.
Signed hotel receipts by Picasso, Andy Warhol and the like can easily sell for thousands of dollars at pawn shops or Ebay.
Great artists don't often sign autographs.
The main concern is that after these leaks are leaked, counterfeiting gangs will use various technical means to imitate oil paintings. In order to avoid trouble, some oil painting artists deliberately use different fonts for their signatures in daily life and signatures on calligraphy and painting works.
Wehrlein is just an illustrator and has less of this worry.
He subconsciously took the voucher handed over by Kelly, but paused slightly.
"Are you a volunteer this time?" he asked.
"Hmm, I really didn't expect to see an artist like you here." Kelly nodded immediately. As she spoke, she looked around in the corridor to see if she could see the detective cat.
Unfortunately, Wehrlein is alone here.
She also had no idea what Ms. Detective Cat looked like.
"I am an art student at the Royal College of Art. I have your illustration work "Green Wilderness" in my collection. I also wrote a letter of recommendation to your studio, but unfortunately I did not receive a reply." Kelly introduced herself.
"Then who should you choose, me or Detective Cat?" Wehrlein didn't care who Kelly was, and just asked coldly.
"Uh...is this originally a selection review?"
Kelly looked a little embarrassed.
She is not stupid. The probability that the publisher will release two versions of "The Little Prince" illustrated by two different artists at the same time is extremely slim.
Seeing the registration form just now, and the painter Wehrlein asking this.
She could guess the purpose of this market survey.
"Oh, it seems I won't get the signature."
Kelly was a little embarrassed.
Just now he claimed to be a loyal fan of the other party, but he behaved like a fool. She hesitated to tell a lie.
Wehrlein had noticed the blond girl's hesitation.
The skinny man's already pale skin became even paler, making the artist look a bit like a skeleton.
He didn't get angry or rip the voucher out of his hand, as Kelly expected.
"never mind."
Wehrlein just unscrewed the pen cap with a calm expression, signed his name on the voucher and handed it to Kelly.
"You are also an art student. The good and the bad are there. I won't make things difficult for you."
"Thank you, actually... your painting is not bad either." Kelly looked sarcastic.
"No need to comfort me."
Wehrlein turned his head and looked at the pile of Detective Cat's works like a hill where the manuscripts were returned. He sighed softly as if resigned to his fate: "The results are right in front of you, so what's the point of lying to yourself."
When the volunteers just arrived.
Illustrator Wehrlein felt something was not right.
Even if the sound was not broadcast, he could clearly see the crowds of people stopping, gathering, talking and marveling in front of some easels from the display screen in the observation room.
"what's going on?"
Been in business for so many years.
Wehrlein can judge the quality of an illustration just by looking at the reactions of readers in the bookstore.
Based on his experience,
There are only two possibilities to achieve this situation.
Otherwise, the illustrations are particularly shocking.
Otherwise, there is a high probability that it is a restricted illustration.
Physical bookstores and shopping websites in Europe and the United States all have restricted erotic sales sections classified as [R18+].
The illustrator will add a variety of illustrations of naked girls posing and posing that will make your blood pumping and your hormones surging.
The content taste is similar to the well-known "Fifty Shades of Grey", and it can be regarded as a fresh style in the [R18+] category.
It's like a drawing book,
Playing is a thrill.
But this is obviously impossible. It is one thing that Western illustrators have looser standards.
But this is a children's fairy tale solicitation. If the Scholastic Group dares to publish any marginal content, even the Ten Billion Group will be directly punished and go bankrupt.
Not to mention that "The Little Prince" is a very small and fresh fairy tale.
If Detective Cat gets crazy and dares to submit any heavy-flavored illustrations, the group will definitely want to follow the network cable and hack her to death, and then kick her into the blacklist and never use it.
If it's the former?
His sensibility told him that the detective cat might have drawn a great work, but his reason did not want to believe it.
Wehrlein thought to himself,
Illustrations with such magic are all classic illustrations that can be recorded in the history of publishing.
He himself is already a top-notch painter.
If he really wanted to say that after so many years, any of his works could be regarded as handed down classics, he really didn't dare to be arrogant enough to say so.
This cover created for "The Little Prince" falls far short of this standard.
It was hard to see clearly through the camera screen, and Wehrlein couldn't wait for the group of volunteers to finish their investigation before looking at the report submitted by the marketing department.
He said hello directly, ran to the [Bookstore] across the wall, picked up a sample book from the sample return desk that the volunteer who had just come out put down, and took out the Montblanc pen from his collar pocket.
This is Wehrlein's habit when reviewing manuscripts.
He is not only a well-known painter, but also the owner of Wehrlein Illustration Studio.
When facing the drawings submitted by the young painters and interns under his studio, Wehrlein would review the drawings and draw various errors and details with a pen circle for them to correct.
In most cases, inexperienced young painters may have to revise the draft five or six times before they can barely meet the standards submitted to the employer.
The dark pen lines on the drawing can make it look like a spider web.
Wehrlein looked at it like this for twenty minutes.
He didn't even open the cap of the pen spinning in his hand.
Weierlein was a little dumbfounded.
These lines, this texture, this color... the slightly solidified texture of fresh oil paint, as if it could overflow from the paper at any time.
Scholastic Group attaches great importance to illustration.
On the one hand, this is reflected in the fact that the publishing house is willing to spend high salaries to hire well-known illustrators, and on the other hand, it is reflected in the fact that the cover art completely adopts the printing standards of the art gallery album level.
For professional-grade art albums, in order to restore the slightest changes in color tone as much as possible, the printing cost is very high, and a special production line for printing art albums is required.
A set of 500 paintings by famous artists produced by the Louvre is sold on the market for a few hundred euros, which is a very conscientious price.
If you hire a private printer to print a picture album, you may be quoted one pound or even several pounds per page. Small printers may not have this capability and equipment.
In other words, "The Little Prince" has an expected sales volume of one million copies.
Large-scale printing can greatly flatten and reduce the cost of each volume, and this is a key product that competes with competitor Townsend Mann Group for market share. The strategic significance is greater than the profit value, so Scholastic Group is willing to spend such a large amount of money.
Art-level printing is art-level printing.
This cover painting restores the performance of the original Detective Cat painting to a very high degree of similarity. Wehrlein could clearly see every tint of color change on the cover.
Perfect,
Nothing but perfection.
The colors are full and rich, delicate but not dull, and full of changes.
If he hadn't seen the representative line trajectories on the painting and the texture of the ridges pressed out by the painting knife, Wehrlein would not have believed that there are really people in the world who can use a wide-open and wide-open oil painting knife to create centimeter-sized squares. , handling the details so exquisitely.
"Damn it, I actually want to compete with such a person?"
The more Wehrlein watched, the more doubtful he became about life.
If the only shortcoming of this painting is that it may be that it completely adopts a composition style similar to that of Saint-Exupéry.
Not to mention professional.
"That's not right either..."
At first, Wehrlein felt that this was a shortcoming, but as he looked at it, he slowly began to appreciate the composition.
Before painting, he repeatedly studied the manuscript and original illustrations of "The Little Prince".
My own painting is more professional than that of Saint-Exupéry, but it also lacks a bit of the Zen feeling like clear spring water.
Wehrlein thought he was overthinking.
Now, looking at this painting of the detective cat lady, he once again found the same feeling as the fairy tale temperament of "The Little Prince" in this illustration.
"Is the secret the exaggerated proportions of the composition?" Wehrlein licked the corner of his mouth and discovered the secret.
He simply lost completely.
The other party's picture composition is better than his, and his painting skills and emotions can even be said to be inferior.
Wehrlein lost and couldn't even express his dissatisfaction.
The painting was so pleasing to the eye that even he looked great.
As an illustrator, Wehrlein could feel his opponent's smooth flow when painting. He felt happy just thinking about this kind of freedom and wonderful feeling.
only,
Why do I have to encounter this monster?
"Fuck."
Wehrlein cursed aggrievedly and put the pen back into his jacket pocket.
…
In the observation room,
"When will the marketing department be able to produce the first round of statistical tables and detailed data at the earliest?" Director Morgan shook his head, and there was no trace of fatigue on his wrinkled face.
The group's two Gulfstream business jets have important business reception activities during this period and have no free time.
Director Morgan flew ten hours on Virgin Atlantic's intercontinental route before arriving at London Heathrow International Airport from Scholastic North America's Los Angeles headquarters this morning.
The conditions of the first class cabin and the kneeling service of the flight attendants are also very good.
But this senior member of the board of directors, who played an important role in the publisher's post-World War II expansion of business territory, is now very old.
After he came to the observation room, before the volunteers entered the room, he started to breathe incessantly and looked drowsy.
The brief scene of the first round of volunteer testing was like a powerful stimulant, sweeping away the tiredness on the directors' faces.
It was as if a Morgan director who was twenty years younger had awakened from the old gentleman. His back was straight and his face was as bright as a young man's.
The old gentleman is a professional businessman,
He doesn’t understand art, but he understands the market very well.
Wehrlein saw the crowd's reaction, and so did Director Morgan.
In the ups and downs of the business world for so many years, he has released countless works by famous artists, and he has also seen more popular scenes.
Rowling’s book signing in the late Harry Potter period, readers’ meetings held by Nobel Prize winners or sports superstars…
Nine books were published just for retired presidents and secretaries of state.
But those are all works that are extremely topical and popular among fans, so that such a scene can be achieved.
"The Little Prince" is not a "very popular" book. Of course, its sales volume is very high, but after all, it has been published for more than half a century, and now even the copyright protection period has expired.
The enthusiasm of the volunteers should not be due to the works of Saint-Exupéry, it could only be due to the illustrations.
An illustration can achieve this effect.
Director Morgan had only seen some of the exhibitions of Pop godfather Andy Warhol and the works of master illustrator Jane Arnold before.
It goes without saying how many business opportunities the works of these two people have.
That is an art giant who can sell prints for 70 million euros. At auction, the average unit price of Andy Warhol's works is only slightly lower than that of Leonardo da Vinci, but he painted more.
There are only 7 works of Leonardo da Vinci circulating in the market. How many works of Andy Warhol?
The total number of Andy Warhol paintings on the market is worth more than the market value of business giants like Scholastic Group.
The most profitable artist in human history.
A real price of tens of billions of dollars.
Of course, the amount of an artist’s work cannot be simply added up.
Things are rare and valuable,
If all Andy Warhol's works were sold by collectors in a short period of time, they would definitely not be sold at this price, and they would not even be sold at half of the price.
But even if it’s only one-tenth, it’s still billions of dollars.
Detective Cat is the third one he has seen in his life.
(End of chapter)
