Author: Apricot and Pear

Gu Weijing closed his eyes and felt the rich content covered in the "Summary of the Essence of New Body Painting" provided by the system.

Holding a brush, holding an oil brush, mixing colors, using a brush, focus perspective...

A huge amount of information flows through my mind,

He even had colorful hallucinations in front of his eyes, as if he had walked into the Forbidden City of the Qing Dynasty three hundred years ago and was witnessing with his own eyes how this foreign painter, who was awarded the title of the third rank and wore a flower feather on his head by Emperor Qianlong, painted.

He once obtained Wang Wei's "Notes of Mojie".

That book is more like a literati essay by a traditional scholar-bureaucrat in the Eastern Xia Dynasty, with a strong literary temperament.

Although there are many painting techniques that are refreshing and inspiring,

However, it is still far from being as comprehensive and detailed as this "Abstract of the Essence of New Style Painting" in its explanation of the painting techniques of Lang Shining's works.

The works of court painters like Castiglione were passed down in an orderly manner, just like the porcelain from official kilns, and rarely found among the people.

Therefore, the Forbidden City on both sides of the East Xia Dynasty and museums in the United States, Japan, and France have collected more than 90% of Lang Shining's works, and most of them are well protected.

There are many experts and scholars at home and abroad who specialize in the study of new body painting techniques.

However, it is based on the completed work to restore the painting techniques. It is also based on the artist's own painting experience, trying to figure out and study the work.

The difficulty of the two is completely different.

The rich colors and gorgeous visual appearance of the work are made up of the most subtle brushwork interwoven layer by layer.

Trying to extrapolate is like inferring from a grand symphony how the fingertips of the first violinist's left hand gently tease the strings as thin as hair.

It's not completely impossible, just very difficult.

In history, there are actually many painting techniques that left behind paintings but lost their painting methods.

The double hook and heavy color technique of Chinese painting, certain pigment formulas of Western tempera painting, the light perspective technique of the Renaissance...

Some are because of the war, some are because the techniques are too complicated, some are because of the self-preservation of minority painting schools, or even simply because some pigment ores have been exhausted a hundred years ago.

It can only leave future generations of scholars to sigh in vain and rack their brains to speculate and recover.

Gu Weijing didn’t know either.

This art theory work is a systematic restoration and summary based on the works of Castiglione Castiglione. Or maybe the artist Castiglione in history really wrote down his technical experience, but it was lost in the long river of time without being known to outsiders.

Castiglione's own specific painting techniques were like a black box.

There are many records about the characteristics of his paintings in the literature - "grand scenes, smooth brushwork, delicate paintings, and no single failure" and so on.

There are almost no records of detailed painting techniques.

In the memoirs of Nian Xiyao, a famous minister of the Qing Dynasty and a great painter, he mentioned a few words that he had learned Western heavy colors from Lang Shining and benefited a lot.

It is also recorded in "Records of Living in the Qing Dynasty" that Qianlong once ordered, "Select six smart and delicate children from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to learn line drawing from (Lang) Shining and others. This painting method is quite delicate and refreshing.

, cannot be lost.”

Later generations can find these fragmentary historical records, which makes people imagine endlessly.

Gu Weijing is well aware of the preciousness of this system reward.

In the history of Eastern Xia, there were actually very few professional art "textbooks".

The famous "Painting Classic" and "Six Methods of Painting" are more often just literary works that describe the philosophy of art from a macro perspective, rather than teaching techniques.

I want to learn the real thing.

Otherwise, it will be a good pregnancy.

Otherwise, first work with the teacher for five or six years, serve tea and water as a painting boy for seven or eight years. Then be an apprentice for a few years, and finally test your character. After passing five levels, you can kill six generals. A great painter can earn five in a lifetime.

Six true disciples entering the house are considered too many.

The apprentice wished he was more important than his son.

This is why Mr. Cao’s recruitment of disciples will be a big event that shakes up the animation world.

In ancient times, if the Wen Zong and Hua Zong of the scholar-bureaucrat class accepted close disciples, the emperor would probably pay attention to them.

The court painters who made a living by painting were even less willing to teach others their housekeeping skills.

From father to son, son to grandson, hereditary iron rice bowl.

As long as you don’t lose your craftsmanship, you won’t starve to death.

It wasn't until Gu Weijing started learning painting when he was a child that his old man taught him traditional Chinese painting techniques passed down from his family. Even if they weren't very advanced, even his uncles who didn't do this were not allowed to listen.

This "Abstract of the Essence of New Style Painting", which explains painting techniques in detail, is undoubtedly worth a fortune.

In ancient times, just reading this book thoroughly was enough for a top painter to establish a sect. In martial arts novels, this is a peerless secret book that is enough to cause a bloody storm in the world.

With this book,

There should be a solution to the sense of fragmentation in my fusion painting style that has been bothering me.

Gu Weijing suppressed the excitement in his heart, quickly threw all the random thoughts out of his mind, and calmed down.

he knows,

The system only provides knowledge cards, not one-stop skills.

What is needed between understanding how to draw and actually making the drawing come alive on paper is often extremely tedious practice and hard work.

The tips in "Mojie Notes" are more empirical than technical.

Take mixing cinnabar with your fingers as an example. I found that this trick requires a lot of experience, but after knowing the method, even a kindergarten child can easily do it.

Even so,

In order to adjust the most appropriate colors on the mural of "The Picture of Worshiping the Buddha and Protecting the Dharma", it also took Gu Weijing a full noon.

Berryman's "Human Structural Anatomy" can only produce a stunning effect if it is combined with Menzel's drawing skills, which are as terrifying as Level 9.

If it were Gu Weijing's original sketching level, he would immediately become Lu Bu riding a dog, which can only be said to be amazing among middle school students.

If you want to really use the knowledge cards rewarded by the system for your own use, and draw like Lang Shining, you still have to practice.

…

At night, the lights in Gu's calligraphy and painting shop are still on.

After returning home, Gu Weijing was not in a hurry to go back to his bedroom today.

He just got a new knowledge card. If he doesn't draw something, it will be difficult for him to fall asleep.

Gu Weijing wandered around the front of his small gallery for a while, and finally stopped in front of a wall.

["Bean Blossom of Changchun Atlas"]

[Type: Color on silk (fine reproduction)]

[Artist: Qing Langshining]

[Price: US$1,500/Kats 3.68 million]

Gu Weijing carefully took the scroll off the wall and placed it on the table aside.

This picture scroll is a collection-level cultural relic replica produced by the East Xia Cross-Strait Palace Museum Cultural Relics Collection Exchange Project in 2017.

At that time, in addition to issuing some imitations of famous paintings, they also produced some commemorative lacquerware, fine blue and white porcelain and so on.

Although the collectible print is reproduced and printed by machine, Castiglione's original painting brushstrokes are well preserved, and it is completely incomparable to the cheap souvenirs sold in front of tourist attractions.

Each purchase price is more than 800 US dollars.

At that time, Mr. Gu selected a batch of Lang Shining's works and bought them.

In addition to this "Bean Blossoms from the Immortal Calyx Changchun Album", there are also several "Jurui Pictures" and "Emperor Qianlong's Great Reading Pictures" for sale in the store.

The sales are pretty good.

Basically, the galleries in Yangon mainly deal with foreign tourists.

When European and American tourists come to Southeast Asia, they want to buy some oriental scrolls in addition to local oil paintings when visiting galleries.

But, to be honest,

Just like the Qing Dynasty court did not welcome traditional oil paintings.

Traditional Chinese paintings that do not focus on realism may be a bit too "exotic" for them.

If you don’t have enough cultural accumulation, you really won’t appreciate it.

Western tourists are very obsessed with some cool, oriental concepts, but at the same time, the threshold for exposure should not be too high.

It would be best if you can make them understand something but not understand it.

For example, cultural concepts such as "ninja" and "bushido" are very popular in Europe and the United States.

The fusion of artistic works is awesome here, without any cultural barriers.

Castiglione's new body painting could handle the three generations of emperors of Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties back then, but now it is even easier to handle tourists from beautiful scenic spots in Europe.

Gu Weijing once saw a blond foreigner covering his mouth and shouting "OMG" more than once in the store. He thought these paintings were so cool.
To be continued...