A few time zones away is the city of Gleze.
It's still a wonderful afternoon.
The spring sun is warm but not dazzling, hanging warmly in the sky.
Young people riding suburban bikes on the green mountain roads circled the cliffs, and the ancient lakeside manor on the plain in the distance came into view. The white sea of clouds and the Greek column-style manor dome almost merged into one, and it was as beautiful as an endless scene. A real mirage.
The old house of Elena's family is very lively today.
People were coming and going in the manor, and the male and female guests were whispering and laughing while holding trays filled with exquisite food.
The blue-purple curtains that stretch like a Roman palace extend for hundreds of meters, from the flower fields and lawns to the lakeside pier where two white motorboats are moored.
The smell of classical music and gin floated in the air, and it seemed like a sizable afternoon tea party was taking place.
"Auguste?"
somewhere in the garden,
A dog with its chest covered with off-white spots and its back covered with bright brown hair like satin, raised its head alertly from its lazy afternoon nap.
Its two large, rather festive, dark ears drooping on the side of its face twitched slightly, making sure that it heard its owner's call.
The dog happily jumped out towards the sea of yellow and white flowers in the European primrose field that bloomed in early spring.
As a big dog that considers itself noble and proud,
A large dog whose territory covers an entire estate of 1,500 acres, including the surrounding woodland and some lakes.
In nature, only predators at the top of the food chain such as brown bears or leopards have such huge territories.
He is as proud as an emperor among dogs.
Big dogs have always treated their fellow coquettish bitches with heartfelt disdain for those coquettish bitches on the road who, after being caressed twice by passers-by, happily discarded their dignity as a dog and wagged their tails like tambourines without shame. .
It moved its slender limbs and nimbly avoided two bikini girls who sat up from the sun beach chairs by the lake and screamed "so cute".
He also bared his teeth to scare away a human cub who quietly came over from the long table where the buffet food was placed. He looked to be only five or six years old but was wearing a handmade formal suit and a meticulous tie.
snort,
The other party went so far as to try to exchange a piece of steak and secretly touch its tail!
It didn't even care about the rib-eye steak thrown to it, and without even smelling it, it vigorously picked up a tennis ball from the grass.
He bit the ball lightly and continued running along the path beside the field ridge.
The big dog took a few familiar turns in the field and found his target in the shade of a secluded walnut tree.
It came close to the young woman in the wheelchair, handed over the tennis ball in a flattering manner, and showed its pointed front teeth with a flattering grin.
"August, you are already a middle-aged guy. We need to exercise more and get more sun. We must ensure that we live to be fifteen and strive to live to be eighteen."
The woman in a cream chiffon dress stretched out her hand to catch the tennis ball and put it on the ground. She scratched the dog's ears and warned her softly.
The dog rolled happily on the ground after being scratched.
It wagged its tail and licked the woman's palm, then obediently lay on the side in the sun and fiddled with the tennis ball with its forepaws.
That tennis ball has been its toy since childhood.
The surface of the tennis ball is slightly pitted due to dog bites all year round. The letters "AUGUSTE" are written on the grass-colored surface with a marker pen that is about to fade.
Regarding the first pet adopted in life, what should be the specific name?
Anna and her aunt had studied it carefully for a long time.
Anna wanted to call it "Renoir."
The aunt suggested naming the dog after Rodin, her favorite sculpture artist, and insisted that the smooth curves of the dog's back resembled Rodin's bronze sculptures.
then,
One night the two of them had an idea, and the dog ended up being called August.
[AUGUSTE] - is not only the Christian name of the sculpture artist Auguste Rodin, but also the middle name of the oil painting master Pierre-Auguste Renoir whom Anna admires.
The two masters were born in the same era.
One person shaped the history of modern European sculpture, and the other changed the trend of world art, echoing each other.
"August? What do you think of my painting?"
Anna, who was under the shade of a tree, called her pet dog to her side, pointed at the hazy paint on the drawing board in front of her, and asked casually.
The dog didn't know whether he understood it or not, and whimpered low in his throat.
"Well, it's true that the color point processing is very average, but it lacks a bit of aura. My August is indeed a very demanding artist."
Anna patted August's upper body, which was almost as tall as her wheelchair, and smiled casually to herself.
nine years ago,
My aunt was diagnosed with cancer.
She still remembered that it was the Easter holiday of the girls' public school she attended, and her aunt was taking her to attend the wedding of a member of the royal family in the British Isles.
before returning to Austria.
My aunt suddenly decided to go to the pet store to adopt a puppy.
When they returned to Ileana Manor again, the pet suitcase in the hands of the housekeeper accompanying the family contained this Springer Spaniel from Ireland.
In addition to art,
Anna is a girl with a cold personality in daily life. When she was a child, she didn't like pets like other little girls.
If she had to raise something, Anna would actually prefer an English shorthair cat like a silent elf.
This springer spaniel didn't look pretty when he was a puppy, and his bloodline wasn't pure enough.
The two pairs of big ears like cattail fans are even a bit rustic.
Compared with those cute, elf-like puppies that are worth 70, 80,000 or even 100,000 euros in the hands of noble ladies and can win awards in European pet beauty contests, August’s pedigree is completely unworthy of the country. Country boy.
They are all low-priced products in pet stores.
Even the clerk repeatedly confirmed that the aunt, who was dressed with an air of luxury, really wanted this local dog, which was only priced at 1,160 pounds, before the transaction was completed with great confusion.
When her aunt pushed Anna's wheelchair out of the store, she could still hear the clerk behind her regretting that she didn't make a big deal.
"Anna, you are a strong child, but you cannot survive alone forever. You must always try to love something."
"Biologically, dogs have much higher IQ than cats, and can reach the level of a child of several years old. They can easily understand human instructions, listen to music, and can even tell whether their owner is happy through their body odor." The aunt explained, stroking her hair.
"Many beautiful pageant dogs are specially cross-bred by breeding companies for the preferences of the wealthy class. The bones are slender and fragile, and the lifespan is less than half that of normal dogs and they will die of respiratory failure or paralysis. Although this puppy looks It’s a bit silly, but it’s very healthy. It can take my place and accompany you for many years until you meet the person you truly love.”
Auntie was right.
August was just born at that time, and he was only a ball the size of the palm of his hand. Even Anna, who was still a little girl, could easily hold it in her arms.
Now my aunt has been buried in the family cemetery in Melk Abbey for a long time.
And August is still healthy.
He is nine years old and is already a large dog with a body length of half a meter and a weight of nearly 60 pounds.
Except for a few exceptional cases with extraordinary longevity,
The normal life span of a Springer Spaniel is approximately eleven to fourteen years.
Nine-year-old August may have started to grow gray hair in human terms, but fortunately, he doesn't show any signs of aging yet.
Occasionally, the carer would take him to the city center to relax. If August got interested, he could still chase other people's pets and jump up and down like a rabbit in the sun.
As for Miss Elena, she no longer cares about the other person's bloodline.
"Remember your favorite story in "The Little Prince" when you were a child? As long as you spend enough time with it, watch it grow up little by little, give it a bath, tidy its hair, and accompany it to the litter box. Tennis, walking with it in a wheelchair at sunset, or even admiring art together, one day you will fall in love with it.”
"Auguste will then be cuter to you than all the beautiful poodles in the world put together." When my aunt wrote its name on the tennis ball with a marker, her tone was like a A profound prophet.
Thinking of this,
Anna withdrew her thoughts from the memories of the past, sighed softly, and lovingly touched the big furry ears of the springer spaniel lop-eared rabbit.
She retracted her hand and stroked her fingertips across the drawing board in front of her. Her skin felt like the wet semi-solidified paint was about to dry.
"August, I feel really frustrated many times. Things like artistic talent are totally unreasonable."
Anna shook her hair, her face as cold as a queen was as stubborn as a little girl.
"I obviously have such boiling emotions in my heart, but I am stuck with mediocre techniques and cannot express them. Obviously I tried so hard to practice and try to draw Grandma Kara's original feelings, but all I got was a picture of lifelessness. The work of a craftsman. A hundred percent of your efforts will not bring you a single point of gain."
Anna bit her lip gently.
The drawing board in front of her.
The first thing you see is a cover painting of The Little Prince, a "fake" written by Anna.
Not long ago,
Detective Cat's outstanding technique and expressive ability in the works are like a spark that ignited the unquenchable creative desire in Miss Irina's heart.
That kind of extremely gorgeous brushstrokes,
There seemed to be a mysterious magic that touched something on her mind.
Anna then had the idea to draw an illustration of the little prince, imitating the composition of the detective cat sister.
This picture is of no practical use.
It is just a tribute to the master from the perspective of an art lover, a kind of self-soothing for her soul.
The reason for doing this is
Maybe it's because Anna has always had a vague regret in her subconscious.
August smelled the sad smell of melancholy coming from his master. He shook his hair and sneezed loudly.
"You also think I'm a little greedy, right?"
Anna looked at the big dog at her feet and pinched her fingers gently.
She believes that the Detective Cat version of the illustrations for "The Little Prince" will definitely become a landmark work in the history of illustration in the next ten, fifteen or even fifty years.
Anna was convinced of this conclusion.
Being able to see this technique that was even more outstanding than my most optimistic expectations, I shouldn't have any regrets anymore.
It was originally the same,
Miss Irina feels honored from the bottom of her heart to be able to personally participate in the creation of such a work.
But……
There was just a little bit of unwillingness in her heart to be inhumane to outsiders.
It’s not because Ms. Detective Cat is not good enough, but on the contrary, the other party’s picture completion is too high, so Anna will feel the regret of a full moon and a mirror stained with dust.
This is a respect for the best art.
Anna didn't care how many clumsy mistakes there were in a crude piece of work.
But she would be so heartbroken that she could hardly breathe because of a few scratches on a painting that was so perfect that it was almost sacred.
The tutor who taught her classical music when she was a child once lamented in front of Anna.
If Debussy's compositions could have the solemnity of Haydn, and Haydn's symphonies could have the variety and passion of Debussy, then they would be the most sacred music in the world. She is willing to go through fire and water just to listen to the sound of nature for a moment.
After seeing the painting of Detective Cat, Anna felt the same way.
If the detective cat could draw her emotions, or if he had the skills of the other party, no...even if it was only one-third of the Algerian sister's skills.
What a perfect work that would create!
Anna could tell from the painting that Ms. Detective Cat was not a person who was very familiar with "The Little Prince", at least not someone who was really deeply moved by the Little Prince.
She has tried her best to help the other party, but there is still a gap.
The two figures seemed to be exchanging breaths through a layer of wet paper.
She could only smell fragments of her own breath.
Miss Irina tried her best, but she could only inject some of her very small emotions into the other person through the sound of reading.
After all, the joys and sorrows of people are not the same.
There are no two people in the world whose heart beats at the same frequency.
Anna was even embarrassed to share her regrets with the other party.
When drawing illustrations, painters who can read the background text provided by their employer are already very dedicated.
When many magazine illustrators are busy, they only have to scan a few pages of content and keywords, confirm the content of the picture, then put the text aside and start drawing.
Where do I have the spare time to study the ideas of articles, the emotional themes of works, etc.
If you were in the painting business and had to do a set of reading comprehension beforehand, the painters would have lifted the table and cursed you.
Or even more simply, enter the keywords directly into MidJourney, StableDiffusion, and other commonly used AI neural network painting software that have developed very maturely.
Let the computer run several sets of programs.
The painter only needs to tell the website the painting style you need, from knife painting to watercolor painting, from graffiti line drawing to flat style, even if you enter a "cyberpunk + Dunhuang mural collage style".
Artificial intelligence can also analyze what "cyberpunk + Dunhuang murals" is in the database, and then try to figure it out for you.
Ten pictures can be produced in as fast as 30 seconds, just take your time and filter through them.
At least 30% of the work in the industry today is done this way.
The emotion contained in the images of Ms. Detective Cat is one of the most touching in the illustration industry.
(End of chapter)
