Chapter 193 On Painting
March 3th, Sunday, is Women's Day.

On Women's Day, I'm having a great time.

So, pass.

On the evening of March 3, Wednesday, in dormitory 11, Li Yan was chatting with Lin Zhiyuan.

Aspirations high: Mr. Yan, I heard that you really don’t have to go to class anymore?
Li Yan: Yes, that’s not necessary. Speaking of Zhiyuan, let’s change our nickname.

Kobayashi: Isn’t this very mature?

Li Yan: Not only are they mature, they should have children. You should listen to my advice.

Xiaolin: So what are you doing?

Li Yan: Drawing, singing, playing ball, reading, and playing computer.

Xiaolin: Is this considered busy or not... What kind of paintings are you painting?

Li Yan finally came to her senses. Could it be that the little fat boy was... lonely?

On International Women's Day, Xiaopang invited Li Yan to study at the secret base, but Li Yan declined on the grounds that she had to paint.

This guy, he has been worried about it until today and finally couldn't help but ask?

"This is what my master asked me to do. It's the first test after I became his disciple."

Lin Zhiyuan didn't dare to say anything and just sent a bunch of emoticons of bowing and cheering.

Li Yan spent almost all his daytime hours in the studio these days, and he felt a little stressed, which was rare for him.

Yang Chengzhang gave him a canvas of one and a half meters by one and a half meters, firmly attached it to the wall, and asked him to create a work as he pleased without any proposition.

It's really difficult. Ever since Li Yan received this task on Sunday morning, she couldn't think of anything else.

It was rare for his roommates to see this King looking so sad, so when they asked him, they found out that he had a headache because of drawing. They were all amused.

Especially Chen Fan, "I thought you were worried about the Computer Olympiad. Isn't painting a very free thing? And you're so good at it."

They don't understand.

Over the past week or so, Yang Chengzhang has appeared quite frequently. He has accepted an apprentice and given him a studio. He has also been very active in taking Li Yan to appreciate paintings and even conducting aesthetic research and discussions.

In the final analysis, he was nervous. This kid knows everything and is very good at everything. What if he comes less often and Li Yan's interest shifts to other things?

So after his master led him into the door, he decided to put some pressure on Li Yan.

He knew very well that for such children, pressure was motivation.

Didn’t Li Yan fall for it? Creating literary works is very different from solving math problems because there are no hard and fast standards.

Once you learn math and physics, you have learned it. If you think it’s awesome, you think it’s awesome. This is true from elementary school basics to top experts.

When literary and artistic works are divided into "can or not" and "good or not" at the initial stage, one can judge the level of the creator at a glance, just like Li Yan and Lin Heng shine in art class, and even those who can't draw can see their awesomeness.

When it comes to Yang Chengzhang’s level, it’s hard to say.

Art is not about who can draw more realistically or more like the real thing. And when it comes to aesthetic research, "good-looking" is not necessarily the criterion for judgment.

Li Yan is confident that she can paint remarkable paintings in the eyes of the public, but she is very unsure about getting Yang Chengzhang's approval.

During this period, I learned a lot of aesthetic theories and also deeply felt the "heart" of many paintings.

However, the more Li Yan studied, the more confused he became. The more he learned about mathematics and physics, the more confident and steady he became in solving problems. On the contrary, when it came to literature and art, his mind was filled with all kinds of aesthetic viewpoints, so much so that he now had a hard time finding a starting point for "self-expression."

"Create as my heart desires..." Li Yan was still staring at the blank canvas until Tuesday afternoon.

So far, Li Yan’s painting skill score is 51 points, which is definitely impressive.

But the main focus is on "skills". Although his paintings in art class are more spiritual than Lin Heng's, in essence they are just more advanced skills - in fact, abstraction can also be classified as a kind of skill.

In Li Yan's eyes, the world has a scale. He can judge whether the position is correct or not by the proportion between the points in the painting. Although it is not accurate, thanks to his strong spatial imagination, Li Yan can grasp the requirements of "restoration" and "accuracy".

Before his rebirth, the teenager Li Yan loved drawing fantasy content, such as mechas, monsters... But in essence, he was just recreating the anime characters he had seen back then.

He didn't want to draw realistic exercises, nor did he want to draw virtual characters, nor did he want to do design...

Until Thursday morning, when Yang Chengzhang came to the studio, Li Yan was still staring at the blank canvas.

"I heard from the kids outside that you come here every day recently." Yang Chengzhang was very kind. "Yes." Li Yan was very tired.

“Can’t think of what to draw?”

"Zhang Wuji hasn't forgotten Tai Chi yet." Li Yan raised the hand holding the pencil, "This causes me to have too many ideas no matter what I want to present."

“杂念？”

"No." Li Yan had already ignored the age difference between him and Yang Chengzhang, and the master-disciple relationship, and his mind was full of everything about painting. "It's just pure painting."

Yang Chengzhang walked to a painting that was almost pure red. "This painting is almost entirely red. Many people thought I was being mysterious. What do you think?"

Just like reading comprehension, the understanding and expression of literary works are very diverse and there is no standard answer.

This painting consists only of thick red paint and the title "Red".

If there is sufficient light, the red color will be vivid; if there is insufficient light, the red color will be dull.

Like blood.

But if it is blood, why not just draw the blood?

The brushstrokes of the coarse brush are very obvious, creating smooth lines, bends, and jumps in the thick layer of paint.

Like fire.

No... Li Yan was originally planning to talk to Yang Chengzhang about his impressions, but suddenly realized that the question was whether it was a mystery. The answer was very simple, only yes and no.

"It's not a mystery."

"why?"

"There are emotions and expressions." Li Yan looked at the painting.

"What is the meaning of painting, Li Yan?" Yang Chengzhang pointed to a hyperrealistic painting of a bunch of grapes with water droplets and a shiny stainless steel wine glass. The style of his works is very different from most of his works, but the technique is indeed impeccable. "In other words, what is the difference between hyperrealism and a photograph?"

Where are their boundaries?

Li Yan really wanted to say that working hard to restore every drop of water on the grapes and every imperceptible color in this world is its meaning in itself.

The sweat that goes into hyperrealism and the admiration that the audience gets for the craftsmanship are the meaning of its existence.

But Li Yan couldn't confirm her point of view based on the content of the painting. You tried your best to make it look like the photo, so why shouldn't I take a photo?
Painting originally originated from the need to “take photos,” didn’t it?

"Master, you omitted all painting styles other than hyperrealism... Are you trying to tell me that those are the meaning of painting?"

Yang Chengzhang shook his head repeatedly, "Of course not. Paintings have something that photos cannot do. They are expressed through techniques, but they come from the heart of the painter."

Li Yan frowned and watched Yang Chengzhang pick up a piece of dark wood.

“Painting is not about dotting pixels. Just look at this piece of wood, it is just a piece of wood. If you take a photo of it, it is still a piece of wood.” Yang Chengzhang handed the wood to Li Yan. “When you are painting, if you dot pixels one by one until it looks exactly like the photo, then it will still be just a piece of wood.”

Could this thing be anything other than a piece of wood?
Li Yan reached out to take it, his expression changed. The wood was very heavy.

"Sunken wood, I found this piece. It may have been sleeping in the mud at the bottom of the river for more than a thousand years... or even longer."

Li Yan suddenly recalled some memories, which were words from his art teacher in college.

During the final exam, everyone else worked in groups to draw small pieces of wood, but Li Yan was asked to draw a large piece of wood by himself - this was of course the teacher's confidence and expectation in him.

The art teacher asked him to touch the wood and "feel the loneliness and sadness of it sleeping on the seabed for 10,000 years."

The whole class laughed, and Li Yan ignored the teacher's words because she was very embarrassed to touch wood under everyone's gaze.

But he now has a new understanding of this sentence.

"Hyperrealism is definitely different from photos. If you paint them the same, it will be meaningless." Yang Chengzhang is very patient. "Even sketches are the same. Photos are dead, but paintings are alive. You can't see the dynamics of a vase made of thick steel wire in a photo, but a painting can have trends and dynamics through your ideas, techniques, and expressions. When we look at a real steel wire vase, you can't actually tell its material from the faint reflection of the black paint. You need to touch it and hold it with your hands. You feel the hardness of the steel wire and the heaviness of the vase, but you can draw these. You can draw the hardness of the vase, the heaviness of the vase, and the beautiful curves of the vase."

“Like drawing the weight of this dark wood?”

"No, time to draw it."

Ding!
[Painting +2, Level 53 skill, total ]

A new perception is integrating Li Yan’s inner understanding of “skills” and “content”.

(End of this chapter)