Grape.
Xie Ning bit the tip of the pen and racked his brains to think hard.
Before this, he had never known that the taste of starlight was cold and hard, like a piece of ice that would never melt, or a piece of slightly soft jade.
Grapes, how can I draw this
Countless chaotic images flashed through his mind in an instant, from Xu Wei's "Occasionally I dip the grapes in ink" to the red vineyards painted by Van Gogh in Arles; Qi Baishi's grapes were dotted with lively and noisy bees and dragonflies, while Chardin's grapes were so quiet that they seemed to be divine, and the raised canvas seemed to be dripping with frost and light.
Colors, lines, shades, light and dark... Xie Ning has painted a lot of grapes. Besides apples, grapes are the most common fruit models for still life practice. But how can he compete with a god
He thought again of the painting by Apollo. Although the picture was empty and the content was poor, the natural and magical technique was something he had never seen in his life. Even if he wanted to imitate it, he didn't know how to start reproducing it.
He drew a stroke lightly, dipping the tip of the brush in rich purple, and drew a half solidified circle.
Compared with painters who have been famous for a long time, Xie Ning's advantage is that he has not yet developed his own style. No matter which famous artist he learns from, he can stick to him. But his disadvantage also lies in this - after his birthday this year, he will be just a 22-year-old student. He has not even reached the peak of humanity, so how can he compete with the best among the gods.
Relax, he said to himself, you have no hope of winning this round, why not just draw something less challenging
Xie Ning's hands trembled unconsciously, and the wet pen tip slightly left the paper, hovering at a height that was just around the corner.
… No, he refuted himself at the same time. He couldn't bow his head. How could he just walk into the dark night resigned to his fate? To create laxly in a duel was to indirectly acknowledge the power of the opponent and be dominated by him.
I am still so young and so full of energy… Even though I know that I am inferior to others in many ways, I have never acknowledged the strength of others. This is my stubbornness, and it is also my delusion that I will never admit defeat or give up. Without it, what else can support my back
Xie Ning trembled, curled her lips, and made a heavy stroke, carving a large and heavy fork on the paper, and then threw away the waste paper.
He started to draft. Because grapes were too specific and too abstract, Xie Ning tried to choose expressions that enriched the plot. He had already drawn many things full of imagery in the first round, so in the second round, he decided to draw some down-to-earth, "vulgar" things.
Xie Ning painted the wine estate. With his memory strengthened a hundred times, he clearly reproduced the grape vines on the trellises, the brown-red soil, and the hard workers picking grapes with their sleeves rolled up. He also drew on Chardin's mellow style, making the bunches of grapes that turned from green to red so full that they were about to burst, hanging on the branches like a bunch of unbearable dreams.
Compared to the first painting, which was done without eating, drinking or sleeping, Xie Ning painted many people in the second painting, with completely different expressions and postures. He stopped and started, and spent even longer time polishing it, spending four months. Feeling that there was nothing more that could be improved, he took the painting and went to the Pantheon again.