Gu Weijing took a clean paintbrush from the pen holder, placed it on the easel about half a centimeter away from an empty spot, and gently rubbed the paint-free areas of the canvas with the brush, simulating the feeling of using a brush when painting. .
"It's much more precise."
The fineness of brush control is the cornerstone of an artist's painting ability.
From the perspective of oil painting, all images on the work are composed of hundreds of ink lines, color blocks and color points.
All the complicated techniques and ingenious ideas need to be expressed with a brush in your hand.
The more control a painter has over his brush, the more accurate and precise his strokes will be. Generally speaking, the final picture is more realistic.
Even if you are an informal Fauvist,
The brushwork can be scattered but not chaotic.
You can be rude, but you can't lose control.
No matter how avant-garde art is, no matter how abstract and wild the lines it expresses, it will be difficult for the audience to understand. As long as the artist still wants to express something, the brush must be controlled. No matter how you escape or take the wrong approach, you cannot leave this framework principle.
When it jumps out, it’s not a painting, but a child’s graffiti.
Objectively speaking, art works with uncontrolled graffiti... do exist, and some are even very expensive.
The art market is a mixed bag, and everyone's aesthetic needs are different. However, this kind of work must be classified into the category of art. It is also performance art and space art rather than painting art.
A painter who cannot even use a pen well has no qualifications to talk about artistry.
Wattle, the sketching professor at Dewei, asked students to draw small grids with sketching pencils in the improvement class, which is to train the ability to control the pen.
It is undoubtedly much more difficult for soft pens such as brushes and oil brushes to draw accurately and accurately than hard pens such as pencils and carbon sticks.
The brush is an extension of the painter's arm and consciousness, or so the theory goes.
In fact, among the painters, those who can use the small pencil that can rotate the fingertips and use the fingers like an arm are already very good.
Soft pens made of soft and elastic boar bristles, mink hair, wool, squirrel hair, weasel hair, etc., are like "prosthetics" in the hands of most students, with a layer of alienation that is difficult to eliminate. , cannot be precisely controlled.
By analogy to the ancient battlefield,
If you want to split an apple in half on someone else's head, the proficiency required for using a light weapon such as a dagger and a heavy weapon such as a European two-handed epee must be different.
After the Song Dynasty, the masters of traditional Chinese painting in the Eastern Xia Dynasty were often masters of soft-brush calligraphy, and the principles are the same.
Gu Weijing felt,
If he, who has now reached the second-level professional level, is allowed to use a small oil paintbrush to play the game of drawing small grids.
Compared with a master like Mondrian, who could control every oil painting line with half-millimeter precision in his work, there is still a long way to go.
But it's not difficult to draw a pretty good picture.
In the scene of copying "The Old Church on a Thunderstorm" in front of him, the significant increase in experience points brought about the most significant change for Gu Weijing, which was that he could express some lines that he could not draw originally.
The beating candlelight flames of the old church were broken down into hundreds of flowing lines in Gu Weijing's mind.
Only by expressing as many of these color lines as possible on the paper with pen can the vivid and brilliant light of the colorful candlelight be restored.
Without the support of brushwork skills, paint is dead. This is why, Gu Weijing and Miss Sakai said, it is not enough just to mix the paint accurately.
The dancing lines of candlelight are clearly in front of my eyes, but most of them are beyond my grasp. This feeling is very frustrating.
Knowing the principle in your brain is completely different from whether you can draw it in writing.
The story that it took Leonardo da Vinci a child a year to draw an egg with smooth lines is doubtful.
There are too many ordinary people in the real world, but when they draw a circle with their bare hands, they end up with all sorts of weird and bumpy shapes.
Drawing a candle is an order of magnitude more difficult than an egg.
It's easy to draw simply.
Just use two of the simplest lines to form an upside-down heart on a candle. As long as you don't worry about being laughed out of your mind, this is also called candlelight.
If you want to draw something realistic enough, you will always have the only way to continuously challenge your own limits.
Gu Weijing could only pick out the lines in his mind that were easy to draw and express them one-tenth of the way. If there were more lines, they would become tangled up like messy yarn.
He now,
But I am confident that I can use the brush in my hand to reproduce 50% of the lines on the paper, or even more.
With the paint on the tip of his pen, Gu Weijing flicked his wrist, and a beautiful and mysterious line, like an antelope hanging its horns, appeared on the canvas.
His confidence soared.
"Don't run, I caught you!"
Gu Weijing took another look at the rainy night outside the window, and muttered happily to himself at the lines in his mind that were as elusive as naughty elves, with a smile on his face like an old hunter holding a shotgun.
He believes that as long as he captures these lines, the "thin" candlelight he drew when copying will immediately become fuller and three-dimensional.
"Gu Jun is much more mature than Gang Chang in how he deals with people. Occasionally he will show such a persistent and serious side like a child, which is cute."
Sakai Katsuko heard Gu Weijing's muttering and smiled.
Even though she didn't quite understand what Gu Weijing had caught, she still felt a little relieved.
The most depressing thing for a painter is to sit there and meditate in front of the scenery.
The more you think about it, the more annoyed you become, and the more you think about it, the more nervous you become. Finally, you get emotional and shoot someone else in the head, or shoot yourself in the head. Sakai Katsuko has heard of it.
It's better to start writing.
No matter what Gu Weijing's plans are, as soon as he starts painting, he will realize his own problems and won't get into trouble.
"If you fail, you'll hit the wall, so you'll have to turn back." Sakai Katsuko smiled.
Facing Gu Weijing's move to seize the opportunity and copy the works of the female painter Carroll.
Some people may think that this guy is stupid and doesn't know the heights of the world, but Sakai Katsuko just thinks that the boys around her are interesting.
If you want to achieve something beyond ordinary people on the artistic stage, how can you do it without some ambition?
Even if he is stupid, he is still cute.
A slight failure can actually help the other person grow.
Sakai Katsuko is a person who has seen the vastness of the world, but Gu Weijing is not.
Wild geniuses in small places, because they never meet anyone of similar level to themselves among their peers, it is easy for them to believe too much in their own abilities.
In the future, I will go to Paris, Florence, St. Petersburg, WYN... In the top art academy and art environment, surrounded by the best students from all over the world, I suddenly find that I have suddenly become mediocre.
A huge psychological gap will make people feel depressed and lose their fighting spirit.
Many small towns in the history of art were born in this way. This problem even troubled an entire generation of outstanding African painters.
If you hit the wall a few times in daily life, as long as you can quickly adjust your mentality, it will be beneficial to your future development.
Thinking of this,
Sakai Katsuko herself was not in a hurry to write. She planned to wait for Gu Weijing's attempt to fail, and then analyze the problem with him.
It's not that Ms. Sakai has no confidence in Gu Weijing's level, but that she knows how strong Carol's writing skills are.
Again,
If it weren't for her formidable brushwork skills, it would have been impossible for Uncle Sakai, who was just wandering around in the evening, to spot the dirty and dusty "Old Church in a Thunderstorm" on the calligraphy and painting stall at a glance. Be different.
Even though Gu Weijing looked confident, Miss Shengzi was not optimistic.
Stories of sudden enlightenment and qualitative leaps in technique are not uncommon in the painting circle.
Similar descriptions can be seen in almost all the biographies of famous figures such as Picasso and Monet. This feeling of sudden enlightenment was also experienced by Katsuko Sakai once.
However, overall, epiphany is still a very rare event.
Sakai Katsuko would not naively think that Gu Weijing happened to meet him by such a coincidence.
Most of the time, what art students think of as an epiphany is just the frog at the bottom of the well jumping lightly onto the smooth well wall, and they will soon find that they have fallen back to the bottom of the well in vain.
Sakai Katsuko saw Gu Weijing mixing rainbow-like paints on the palette one after another from cold to warm colors. Each paint was spread out in a small spread, and he was holding two paintbrushes in his hand.
Sakai Katsuko immediately guessed that the other party wanted to use delicate brushwork to express the effect of light and color mixing.
So she took the initiative and said, "Shall I help you wash your brushes? You can paint in peace."
"Thank you, I just need a small paintbrush, size one or two."
Gu Weijing nodded and did not refuse Sakai Shengzi's kindness.
Oil paintings are different from brushes and gouache. Paste pigments have stronger adhesion and are slightly more difficult to wash. If there is unwashed paint between the bristles of the brush, it may contaminate the painting.
For the convenience of painting, when expressing color mixing, one brush is often used for one main color. When changing colors, the brush is directly changed, and finally the brushes are washed together.
They were originally one person's painting tools and two people were using them. Although there were many brushes, there were only four small brushes in total with sufficiently small peaks.
If you use a thicker brush and draw small lines, it will look like Zhang Fei's embroidery.
The colors of the candlelight here are changeable, and the brushes are definitely not enough for one-time use. It is much more convenient for me to have Katsuko Sakai help me wash the brushes.
"Do you want to use the smallest brush strokes to exaggerate the color a little bit?" Sakai Katsuko nodded and encouraged: "Well, the idea is still good."
Similar to pointillism, delicate brushwork with fine gradient lines is used to express subtle changes in dark and light parts.
Katsuko Sakai has also thought about this method.
This is how the female painter Carroll painted.
However, Katsuko Sakai felt that her ability was not up to par, so she did not deliberately switch to extremely fine brushes.
If you can’t draw it, you just can’t draw it.
This cannot be solved by changing pens more diligently and mixing more paints.
If there are more stationery, the problem of experience in using pens can be solved. Then as long as we buy more pens, everyone will be an artist.
The more exaggerated art students have dozens of paintbrushes in two or three stacks around them. When painting, they hold one in their right hand and three in their left hand. They look like they are selling brushes.
What should be painted is not what it should be.
If you don't have enough skill and just pursue the extremely fine lines, the picture will look messy.
Sakai Katsuko didn't want to undermine Gu Weijing's self-confidence, so she didn't express her thoughts and instead made suggestions on the side.
"Actually, if you simply want to express delicate lines, it would be better to use a hazel-shaped oil brush. Unfortunately, we were not prepared."
Oil paint brushes are divided into three main brush categories: hazel-shaped (pointed), flat-headed and fan-shaped.
Medieval tempera painters and Renaissance realist oil painters basically used hazel-shaped oil paint brushes, while impressionist painters preferred flat-headed oil paint brushes.
Oil paint brushes with fan-shaped or tilted quadrilateral tips are a type of oil paint brush that only appeared in modern times.
The hazel-shaped oil paint brush has a sharp tip and is the best tool for expressing delicate lines.
This temporary studio, which was converted from a porter's hut, is relatively simple. Sakai Katsuko and the others all use flat-headed oil paintbrushes, which are not very convenient for handling small lines.
"Next time, I'll give it to you..."
Sakai Katsuko held the pen washer and leaned against the window sill, tilting her cheeks to watch Gu Weijing draw. The casual chatter suddenly stopped.
She held her breath violently and stared at the canvas in front of Gu Weijing with her lilac-colored pupils unblinking.
Ms. Shengzi noticed that Dao Gu Weijing's writing style was very elegant and smooth, and the lines in his writing conveyed an elegant feeling everywhere.
Flat brushes are prone to uneven strokes.
The tip of the No. 1 oil paint brush is only about four millimeters wide, almost the same thickness as the smallest cotton swab. If there is any instability in the brush, the lines will be blurred. destroyed.
Sakai Katsuko discovered,
From beginning to end, Gu Weijing's arms did not tremble at all. His wrists were as steady as mechanical arms, his movements were bold, and his lines were agile and not sluggish.
The flames flow, are ethereal and formless, and are brilliant in brilliance.
The lines he writes use the tangible to depict the intangible.
One line, two lines, ten lines...
Miss Sakai looked more and more carefully, and the more she looked, the more seriously she looked.
She felt like she could draw each of these lines alone.
But it would be difficult to put them together without making any mistakes.
Gu Weijing's ability to do it cannot be explained by pure luck.
"Pen?"
Ms. Sakai was startled when she realized that Gu Weijing was about to change to another color. She hurriedly handed over the clean paintbrush he had washed in her hand and soaked the paintbrush he had just used up into the pen holder.
She just watched Gu Weijing paint in silence, watching the miracle happen before her eyes.
Following Gu Weijing’s writing,
Little by little, the fire began to slowly burn on the blank canvas, as if tiny colorful fireflies gathered on the canvas to form a wonderful spiral.
Deep and mysterious, just like what Carroll wrote in his memory.
Sakai Katsuko needed to slowly cover her mouth to suppress the incredible exclamation of joy from her heaving chest.
(End of chapter)
