"Professor, gravity?"

Wattle nodded.

He picked up the porcelain lid of the teacup on one side and held it in the palm of his hand, on which there was a layer of tiny droplets of water vapor condensed by condensation.

The sketch teacher rotates the lid of the cup at an angle.

The droplets gradually merge with each other and converge into a few droplets.

The water droplets eventually collide with each other, forming a crystal water ball the size of a soybean.

Gu Weijing watched the water balloon on the arc-shaped surface of the white lid, swirling with the shaking of Wattel's hand, and felt as if he was watching some kind of strange balancing game.

"Got it?"

The teacher, who was tilting and shaking the porcelain lid in his hand, stopped the movement of his palm.

"You made me feel the flow of paint...... The feeling of flowing with gravity after the pen is written. Gu Weijing guessed what the sketch teacher wanted to say, and asked uncertainly, "It's for this reason that I can't practice watercolor on a tablet." ”

"Yes."

Wattle nodded.

"That's the unique charm of water, it's alive. Gu, the biggest charm of watercolor lies in the agility of water. The stickiness of the oil paint is so strong that the toothpaste-like color sticks to wherever it is applied, so it is already set the moment the end of the pen touches the substrate. ”

"Well, in the words you're familiar with...... It's like a dog skin plaster from a bone shop by the Yangon River, and it's on the canvas. ”

He couldn't hold back, revealing a naked disciplinary discrimination face: "Think about it, can you expect a piece of dog skin plaster to have the ethereal and transparent feeling of art?" Of course not. Watercolor is different, it is a way of painting that flows all the time. ”

"Paint flows on the paper like liquid beads on a porcelain cup."

"As the painter paints with a brush, the pigment flows along the inclination of the canvas under the action of gravity, spreads, and finally is absorbed by the paper, seeping into the gaps in the plant fibers."

The Germanic man snapped, put the lid of the cup in his hand back on the teacup, and pouted.

"Watercolor has a delicate attribute that oil painting does not have. The laws of nature and the painter hold both ends of the brush at the same time and paint together on the paper. ”

Speaking of his old profession, Professor Wattle spoke with a bit of smugness in his tone.

He studied watercolor in college, and he loves one line of work, so he naturally thinks that watercolor is the best.

In the art circles of Europe and the United States, watercolor has been sitting on the second throne in the world for a long time in the 600 years from the Middle Ages to today, and it cannot be moved.

It cannot be said that it is not valued.

But things are often bad because of the saying that they are second in the world.

In terms of the number of painters, the degree of attention from critics, and the popularity of the market, it is always slightly inferior to oil painting.

Even Turner, a representative master of the spiritual leadership of watercolor painters.

His oil paintings are still more expensive than watercolors.

Although this is due to the fact that he painted 50,000 watercolors in his lifetime, there are only a few hundred oil paintings, not because of technique.

But in the end, regardless of whether the watercolorists liked it or not, in the auction market, Turner's works sold for more than $50 million each, and all of them were oil paintings.

Think about it.

A woman who thinks she is more beautiful has been a second-room concubine for six consecutive centuries, even though she has a nice name like "Mrs. Ru" and "Mrs. Ping" on her head.

How can I resist the urge to tear the eldest woman in my heart.

The watercolor painter is this "little concubine",

Therefore, the painters either watercolor and oil painting are left and right.

Painters who paint watercolors full-time always have the occupational disease of can't help but ridicule oil painters.

At this moment, Wattle deliberately wanted to stimulate Gu Weijing's interest and prevent this talented student from falling into the "magic path" of oil painting.

His square, serious face couldn't help but frown.

"Water is the natural enemy of paper, and the two elements that are mutually reinforcing and mutually reinforcing are skillfully integrated into one under our brush, what a wonderful and noble way of painting! What about the little painters who only apply paint to the canvas? ”

"If you want me to say, a painter, just learn sketching and watercolor at the Academy of Fine Arts. Guys who don't have confidence in the technique go to learn oil painting! He bragged.

"Don't look at the cheap watercolor painting on the market, painting a watercolor is much faster than painting an oil painting. In terms of hourly wages, among the middle-level painters who are almost the same, we are the ones who paint watercolors and make the most money. ”

Gu Weijing smiled.

Get.

Three or two sentences of effort.

In the mouth of Mr. Wattel, the oil painter has changed from an old orthopedic Chinese medicine doctor who applies plasters by the Yangon River to a small house worker who decorates others.

He pondered softly.

Gu Weijing is definitely not thinking about whether Professor Wattel's argument will be beaten if he is put outside.

Excluding the weird part of oil painting, the sketch teacher's statement is really interesting.

Flowing Colors –

Gu Weijing did not pay much attention to this feature of watercolor painting before.

WHETHER HE PAINTS WATERCOLORS WITH COLORED PENCILS OR ON IPADS, THERE IS NO WAY TO OBJECTIVELY EXPRESS THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS WATERCOLOR PAINTING.

"Professor, you didn't seem to mention these things to us in class before." Gu Weijing asked strangely.

"It doesn't make sense. If I was talking about it in this office, I really thought that at your age, when you were in high school, you had to practice sketching. But if it weren't for the entrance examination, taking a watercolor class or an oil painting class, the difference and significance were not great. ”

Wattle spread his hands: "It's usually difficult for you to draw complex paintings well, and you're laying the foundation. It would be good to lay a good foundation for lines, structure, and color, and more malleable painting methods will be discussed in the university art school. ”

"More than half of the art students don't study painting in college, and there is no essential difference between knowing and not."

"It's just an international school, and there are not many classes. How can you make your parents feel that the money is well spent? He smiled, "Gu, you can't say this to the principal. If Dulwich were to cut expenses and lay off employees one day, it would be miserable. ”

Gu Weijing knew that the teacher was joking with him, and he was still amused.

Similar arguments.

Professor Lin Tao also mentioned it when he took a WeChat online class.

Art and music, in ancient times, the East and the West were one-to-one, one-to-several, such a small class teaching that was passed down from master to apprentice, because this thing was different from person to person.

The differences in talent are particularly large.

Gu Weijing has studied art for more than ten years, and before he obtained the system, the most powerful technique was semi-professional, and he was still in the stage of laying the foundation.

This is a very common phenomenon among art students.

Influenced by the traditional concept that everything is inferior, only reading is high.

Dongxia is definitely the region where parents on the whole planet yearn to send their children to good universities, art students work hardest, practice techniques the most, and have the largest art population.

The total number of students who take the art examination every year is around 650,000.

Professor Lin Tao said that in this vast sea of people, there will be student portraits written silently, and the still life sketches are particularly popular, and the paintings make the teachers sigh that they are not as good as the top ones.

But on the whole.

Of the 650,000 art students, nothing else.

The most basic students who can draw people as if they were individuals are not many.

Even less pitiful.

Gu Weijing's semi-professional level of painting can make Brother Hao take a fancy to his talent, and send the bald little brother to come to the door with bundles of cash to expand the fresh blood of his counterfeit painters.

Professor Wattle believes that in high school, art students only need to lay a good foundation of lines, structures, and colors, and it is not surprising that there is no special need to know too much about specific techniques.

"But I think you're different."

Wattle leaned forward, his hands on his chin on tiptoe, and stared at Gu Weijing's cheeks.

"I think since you said that you want to improve your watercolor in particular, you probably want to hear some different points of view, some more original point of view."

"Yes, sir."

Gu Weijing nodded in gratitude.

"So, how do I improve and practice watercolor on paper?"

"Practice watercolor on watercolor paper and feel that spiritual flow of liquid. Don't use sketch paper cheaply, different paper has different water absorption, this is the most basic. Only watercolors drawn on watercolor paper are works that can truly be called the word 'watercolor'. ”

Professor Wattle thought for a moment, "You said you found that you couldn't control the mixing of the pigments when you were dyeing?" ”

"Yes, I want to do something simple. Therefore, I did not try the gradient method, wet painting method, dry method, etc. Let's start with the basics. ”

"I use a lot of techniques like over-dyeing and whitening in oil paintings—"

"No, don't cover it, it's wrong."

With a wave of his hand, Wattle interrupted Gu Weijing.

"What?" Gu Weijing is not clear.

"Oil painting is oil painting, watercolor is watercolor, don't practice over-dyeing. For those who have not yet found the full doorway, the most basic and essential painting method can bring the most significant improvement. "The over-dyeing method isn't basic enough, you have to make it even more difficult." ”

"For example?"

"For example, flat coating."

"I don't practice the cover dyeing method, practice flat painting, and paint some simple square houses, chimneys, and other basic large patterns. It's like practicing drawing small squares with a sketch pencil in class. ”

Gu Weijing sighed softly.

Flat coating method.

Indeed, he could not imagine that there was a simpler way to draw than flat painting in the world.

It's so simple that it doesn't need special explanation.

As the name suggests, the so-called flat painting is to use a brush dipped in a monochrome pigment and apply it from left to right.

Professor Wattle satirized that oil painters do their work with stuccoers, but the flat painting method is not much different in nature from painting a house with a paint roller.

It's so simple that even a three-year-old child can practice on his own in a nursery school, and it's so simple that it can't even be called a specific "drawing method".

"Can I improve by practicing flat coating? Teacher, I don't mean anything else, but this may be a little too basic, more similar to drawing horizontally with a brush and learning to write 1 with a pencil. Gu Weijing was a little unconvinced.

"It's basic, but it's also the most versatile. Any text is made up of strokes, and writing good strokes is the basis for writing good words. After practicing flat painting, you will have the foundation to paint the advanced techniques of overcoating, gradation, wet painting, and drying. ”

"And Gu, the flat painting method is not as simple as you think. It's not the flat painting that's hard, it's the real difficulty is getting your heart to flow with the brush. ”

Wattle stood up and pushed open the door to a room in the back of his office.

"Come on, it's better to try it, let's draw, you should probably understand."

——

Most of the foreign professors in the school, such as Wattle, were invited by Dulwich to be stationed in Yangon after receiving a basic salary of 2~3% higher than that of the Magic City Campus in Europe or Japan, and a remote subsidy, and ensuring a good working environment.

They don't just have a housing allowance.

The office also has a large suite for teachers to hold some large-scale club activities in the school, and students can rest directly in the school during the exhibition of students' works, and take a lunch break at noon.

The commercial apartment in which Wattle rents is right next to the Dulwich campus, a five-minute bike ride away.

The suite in his office has no single bed, but is furnished like a small painting studio.

There are still frames on the walls, and instead of easels for oil paintings, a large solid wood workbench takes up most of the room, with a picture frame on the table, a wood-colored stand, and several plastic watering cans filled with water.

"Letting the paint flow and diffuse doesn't mean letting it drip uncontrollably on the paper, the shelves are custom-made for me, and the painting stand and the horizontal ground are at a 15-degree angle, so that gravity works its magic at the perfect angle."

Wattel's palms face each other, simulating the appearance of a plane angle.

"I recommend that when you practice watercolor, you should also use a watercolor stand like this, or use a custom workbench that can adjust the inclination. Of course, when there are no conditions and when collecting wind outdoors, you can also use a simple foam cushion board instead. ”

He patted the shelf on the workbench: "When you have been painting for more years, you can directly pick up the drawing board and put it on your lap, and you can accurately pose the desired plane inclination." ”

"Of course, that's for later."

Wattle took a drawing board and watercolor paper from the outside and handed them to Gu Weijing.

"Practice painting grids?"

Gu Weijing fixed the watercolor paper on the drawing board and asked.

"Oh no, it's easy to apply flat, but you don't need to practice it that simple either. With your line skills, we can make it a little more difficult and don't need to practice from the most basic. ”

Wattle picked up the picture frame on the table and handed it to Gu Weijing.

"Museum Island – Berlin's landmark, on a small island in the heart of the city, is made up of old and new museums, the National Gallery, the Pergamon Museum, the Bode Museum and many other galleries. The old museum was built as a Greek temple. Including spherical vaults and intricately carved columns, they were once Goethe's favorites. ”

"Don't be afraid, I'm not the devil. It won't make you come up and challenge such a difficult landscape painting. ”

"I saw the covered bridge along the river on the far right of the picture, a simple rectangular building, we will draw it this time."

(End of chapter)