Chapter 30 – Someone Bought Them For Me (3)
“Watercolor is a type of painting that uses a mixture of water and translucent paints….” said Zhao Xian, talking like a real teacher.
“Let me first demonstrate by drawing a lotus, so I can go over the different type of techniques with you.”
Liu Li, the store manager, and the other experienced employees all nodded in approval.
Zhao Xian’s explanation was concise and clear, and the way she drew was also very skilled. She was able to complete her drawing of Lotus in The Summer Time in less than 10 minutes.
Four to five bingdi lotuses, pink in color contrasted by their bright green leaves. It was, indeed, a simple foundation drawing and very suitable for someone with no background.
Picture: Bingdi lotuses (like Siamese twins of lotus 😊)
Source: wikipedia
“Thank you, everyone,” said Zhao Xian as she walked away from the board and cast a glance over at Gu Shishi in an instigating way. “Would you like to go next, Shishi? There’s still a lot of white space left on my piece of drawing paper, you can just use the same one.”
Going up immediately after her, and on the same piece of paper, how better to show that her skills were several leagues higher than that of Gu Shishi!
Even back in the art school, Gu Shishi was garbage, nothing like a good student like herself!
A comparison could do even more damage!
If they must eliminate even one employee, then it must be Gu Shishi!
Zhou Xian handed the brush over to Gu Shishi without allowing her the opportunity to object. Now all she needed to do was to kick back and wait for her to embarrass herself.
“Oh, alright,” said Gu Shishi as she casually took the paint brush from her.
Watercolor was fairly similar to Chinese ink painting. She had experience with watercolor in the past, plus she just watched Zhao Xian demonstrated it once. She was not intimidated.
Plus, with her 20 years of painting experience, she could immediately tell that Zhao Xian’s skills were still far from perfection.
As much as the petals on her flowers looked complete, her style was simple and lacked spirit. The curvature of the lotus leaves, the texture of the petals and stem were all off and lacked a lively feel.
She stood up nonchalantly after she had accepted the paintbrush.
“Go, Shishi!” said Ling Xiaomei as she looked at Gu Shishi, worried.
Gu Shishi gave her a “don’t-worry” look.
She examined the tip of the paint brush for a little bit before she dabbed it casually on the blotting paper sitting on top of the table a couple of times and got rid of most of the pink color that was left on it.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She had come back to life for just a few days, but it felt like it had been an entire life’s time.
But as soon as she held the paintbrush in her hand, the familiar feeling returned immediately!
Zhao Xian looked at Gu Shishi watchfully the entire time. The way Gu Shishi had her eyes closed made her feel even more sure that she had already won the battle.
“Oh, Shishi, are you nervous? Relaaa….”
But the rest of the word “relax” was stuck in her throat.
She stood the closest and could immediately saw what Gu Shishi was doing.
She saw Gu Shishi picked up the brush in one smooth act, lightly tapped it in the water before she, again, lightly dab in the fuchsia color.
Her action had a gracefulness that Zhao Xian had never seen before, and it was almost pleasing to the audience.