Kelly's fingertips slid lightly across the plastic protective film on the book cover.

She really didn't expect to see such amazing works when she participated in an internal survey of the publishing house.

"It's enough to be used as a textbook for oil painting classes."

The thought crossed her mind.

Knife painting is a very small circle, and there may be less than twenty professional painters in the world, and even fewer full-time professors.

Except for Professor Boggs, who is known as the "first person to paint with a knife" at the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts, it is rare for him to use his knife and pen oil paintings as a school signboard to promote them.

Even the Royal British Academy of Art, one of the four major art academies in the world, does not offer such a course as knife painting.

Normally, it is not necessary.

Ninety-nine percent of the world's art students are not exposed to similar content at all.

However, not touching knife painting does not mean that the techniques and ideas of knife painting cannot be applied in the normal process of oil painting.

The oil painting knife is the most commonly used tool in the process of painting oil by any art student.

Brushes and knives are the left and right hands in the study of oil painting.

In addition to being used to shovel paint, oil painting knives are used to modify the lines of the picture, or to create some special color textures on the canvas that cannot be drawn with soft brushes.

The illustration in front of her is like a delicate sample.

Straight edges, side edges, smearing, flat strokes, and spine to create hard fold lines......

Kelly could find almost every use of the knife she could think of on it, and it was handled very cleverly.

"If only there was a teacher like this who could teach me how to use an oil painting knife."

Kelly was a little fascinated.

Unfortunately, volunteers like her had signed a non-disclosure agreement before coming to Scholastic's marketing department.

Electronic devices such as mobile phones are not allowed to be carried around.

Kelly couldn't even sneak a cover of an illustration and take it out to share with her college roommates.

She shook her head regretfully, picked up the amazing book, and walked to the sofa in the lounge area of the bookstore next to her.

As for the hardcover version of "The Little Prince", which is more beautifully printed than the paperback version and presented with a gift box, Kelly didn't even look at it before leaving the shelf.

Her mind is now full of this moving work, and she has long forgotten that she originally came for the hardcover gift box.

"I'm not in a hurry to leave!"

Kelly has to seize the limited time to appreciate this illustration for a while.

Even if you simply look at this cover, it brings a sense of ethereal and dreamy fairy tales to the girl's soul, which is very comfortable.

"Detective cat?"

She sat on the couch, looking at the name of the illustrator on the book cover, a little undecided.

Illustration is a big industry, and there has always been a great demand for illustrators in newspapers, magazines, game companies, and illustrators for publishing, and for advertising.

It is probably not an exaggeration to say that the total number of practitioners in this field is estimated to be in the millions.

There are only one in a thousand or even one in 10,000 who can really be called an illustrator.

The Scholastic Group can work with them, and in a prominent position on the cover, they will be treated the same as the original author and the translator, and each will have a line of signature, all of which are the most senior in the industry.

Among these artists,

Ordinary people may know the name of the godfather of pop art like Andy Warhol, whose works easily have a total market value of more than 10 billion dollars.

But Kelly, a half-professional and veteran illustrator enthusiast, has an understanding of the top illustrators in the entire industry.

For example, when she sees the name of Vellein, she can quickly reflect the other party's resume and identity, and knows his past works well.

"The senior boss who can create such amazing illustrations...... You shouldn't be nameless. ”

Kelly frowned.

She vaguely remembered that she seemed to be somewhere, and had heard the name Detective Cat.

Wait a minute!

After thinking about it for a while,

She finally equated the author of the illustration in front of her with the Internet celebrity artist who became popular in the Internet celebrity video that circulated in the circle some time ago.

It turned out to be her?

Kelly pursed her lips, half stunned, half stunned.

"It turned out to be a rookie painter."

Sketches and knife drawings are so amazing, such a genius, it is estimated that a large number of classic illustrations will be born in the industry.

The Scholastic Group should have picked up a treasure this time.

There was not only Kelly alone on the couch at this time, but also a black aunt with a daughter.

The black aunt and the little girl should also be volunteers invited by the publishing house this time.

Their task cards were placed on the side, but the scenario was different, and it became "housewives who have to choose gifts for their children within a budget of £20".

Auntie is not in the mood to pay attention to any investigative tasks now.

When she was receiving coffee at the bar, she accidentally spilled a hot drink on her daughter's arm.

The little girl is not very old, she is the age to change her teeth, she is missing a front tooth, and she is holding her arms on the sofa and whispering aggrievedly, crying a little bit of a leak.

A staff member has already come running over with a medical bag,

The little girl's burns were not serious, her arms were a little red, and she had been medicated.

It's just that I'm still crying, and I'm very sad.

The uniformed guy with the badge of the publishing house staff was squatting on the ground, trying to comfort him with croissants and small cakes behind the bar.

The little girl didn't appreciate it.

She looked up, wiped away her tears, and was about to concentrate on crying, when her gaze slipped over the cover of the fairy tale book in the hands of the blonde sister on one side.

The little black girl's eyes blinked slightly.

Kelly noticed the change in the little girl's eyes, and she was not surprised that the child was attracted to the "Little Prince" in her hand.

The most impressive thing about fairy tale illustrations is children.

They are more innocent, more childish, and more in tune with the temperament of fairy tales.

Adults like her would be impressed, let alone a child around ten years old.

"Girl, do you want to see it?" Kelly smiled and handed the book in her hand.

The little girl seemed a little shy.

She rubbed her head in her mother's arms before slowly taking the fairy tale book from Kelly's hand.

It's like magic,

She really stopped crying all of a sudden.

The little prince sitting on the sand dunes with big eyes staring at the cover of the fairy tale book, the corners of his eyes became crooked little by little, like a small crescent moon.

“OH，My god……”

This scene is really amazing, it seems to be a well-designed plot that only happens in a stage play.

Even the little brother and the black aunt on one side were very surprised, and they couldn't imagine that a beautiful illustration could produce such a good effect.

The aunt covered her mouth and exclaimed in a low voice.

"It's the charm of art, beautiful paintings are more effective and soothing to the soul than any words." Kelly exclaimed softly.

She stood up and stroked the little black girl's hair.

"Child, be pretty, 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's almost time for the mission, she just gave the book to the little girl, and she is going to get another copy of "The Little Prince" [Detective Cat Edition], and go to the cashier of the bookstore to finish this volunteer activity.

"Shelf...... It turned out to be empty! ”

Kelly was a little surprised.

Most of the volunteers have already chosen their goals by this time.

She turned around the shelves of several fairy tale areas, only to find that there were many more versions of "The Little Prince" in the [Welllein] version. The classic version of "The Little Prince" produced by Townsensmann Company is also left in both paperback and hardcover versions.

Only the [Detective Cat] version of the little prince, she walked around the huge bookstore, and only found the last lonely copy on a remote bookshelf in the far corner, and was taken away by a slow little old man who was also looking for it.

Anyway, if you take it, you just register it at the cash register, and you can't really buy it.

Kelly was embarrassed to rob the old gentleman.

I had to walk towards the cash register empty-handed.

"Thank you for your help, miss, please register here and return your mission card." The staff at the cash register handed Kelly a registration form and put her task card back in the drawer below the counter.

"Not a version to the taste? Please tick the [Other] box at the end and indicate the reason why you are not buying. ”

On the registration form, there is a list of names of various versions of The Little Prince, and you can tick which version you choose.

The staff saw the blonde girl with empty hands and thought that Kelly was dissatisfied with all versions of "The Little Prince", and this situation was not impossible.

Volunteer surveys are all about simulating situations.

Only the reader can choose a maximum of one, if you are very disappointed in all versions of "The Little Prince" and feel that it is not suitable for gifts, you can not buy it at all.

It's just rare.

"No, the [Detective Cat] lady's version of The Little Prince is fantastic, but I can't find it on the shelf."

Kelly didn't hesitate to tick the back of the name of the illustrator Detective Cat in second place.

She doesn't seem to think it expresses her liking for the cover illustrations created by the illustrator, and she goes out of her way to mark the Detective Cat's name with the comment "Amazing".

Raising his head, he handed the registration form to the staff.

"What's the situation? The Detective Cat version of the sample book is gone. Who set up the experimental field, how could there be such a problem? Didn't you prepare 50 copies each! ”

The staff member complained to a colleague behind another cash register.

He thought it was a lack of proofs of the detective cats on the shelves of the bookstore, and this kind of mistake was too unprofessional.

Due to the rush of time, the logistics only managed to hand-bind 50 copies of each of the two illustrators' works overnight, which in theory has left a lot of margin.

The first group of volunteers consisted of 80 people.

Even if half of the people have a special preference for a particular illustrator's work, reaching 50% of the share, it is only 40 volumes.

Not to mention, there are a number of other versions of The Little Prince that have been released in the previous half-century to divert it.

Moreover, in order to carry out the simulation of various scenarios.

Among the 80 volunteers, in addition to different budgets, there are 20 people who are assigned task cards, and there is no requirement to buy "The Little Prince".

For example, what Kelly just saw, the black aunt's task card was limited to choosing a children's literature for the children.

This [bookstore] is built on a one-to-one basis, and it is impossible to sell only the little prince on the shelves of the bookstore, and there are many different types of children's fairy tales.

As long as it is within this category, any book will do.

In this case, a single version of "The Little Prince" is almost impossible to pick up...... Right?

"It's fifty copies, yes, I've checked them one by one when I put them on the shelves, and the samples should be sufficient."

Another staff member shrugged and pointed to the sample return behind him.

"But then again, I did notice that a lot of people opted for the detective cat version of The Little Prince."

They were just busy collecting the volunteers' task cards and processing the registration form, but they noticed that the proportion of volunteers who chose detective cats was definitely not low, but they didn't pay attention to the specific number.

At this point, turn your head to look at the sample return area.

Anything in the bookstore, except coffee and snacks, is not to be taken away.

Whether it's a sample book for Detective Cat and Willlein, a version by Townsensmann, or other fairy tales, they will be collected at the sample return.

Dozens of books of all kinds of fairy tales were piled up in a mess, like a dark yellow brick wall that had been blown down by the wind.

Dark yellow is the base color of the Detective Cat illustration.

At a casual glance, these fairy tale books are almost all made of a mold, with only very sporadic illustrations of the Weirlein edition with a red background and a Townsendsmann version in the style of stick figures.

"Also...... That's an exaggeration. ”

Both staff members were shocked to realize what had happened.

In this case, more than 50 percent of the volunteers still chose the detective cat.

What a monster this is!

"Excuse me, when will you officially launch the detective cat version of "The Little Prince" on the market, and will there be a meeting of illustrators in a local physical bookstore in the UK?"

When the two staff members were shocked, Kelly had already filled out the registration form and couldn't wait to ask.

She now has an itch in her heart to see what the other illustrations in "The Little Prince" look like.

It's a terrible feeling to see but not buy.

She can't wait for the day when she can actually have 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 news."

The staff could only respond with an embarrassed look.

"Miss, please go to the lounge next door and fill out another questionnaire, and each volunteer will be provided with a fifteen-pound voucher for the purchase of books."

He took out 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 that there has not been a formal decision on whether or not to print on a large scale? You won't be dissatisfied with the results of the market research and destroy the work of the detective cat, this is a crime! ”

Goldilocks' eyes widened, almost shouting, "If you do, I won't buy any Scholastic releases 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)