Most of the children who come to Teacher Wu's house to take the exam have studied painting with a teacher at the Children's Palace for one or two years.
When the teacher called "start," most of the children glanced at the apple, grabbed their paintbrushes, and began to paint quickly, their backs ramrod straight, looking exceptionally focused.
Before long, the outlines of apples began to appear on the drawing board.
However, there are exceptions.
Among the dozen or so children, two little ones hadn't shown any signs of life yet.
One was Yu Yang, a chubby boy sitting in the middle, and the other was Chen Duzhou standing behind him.
The fact that the two of them didn't move immediately drew murmurs from the parents.
Someone craned their neck to look, "Why hasn't it been drawn yet?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the chubby boy in the middle, Yu Yang, suddenly stood up and opened his toolbox.
Then, with a "click," the pencil case was opened again, revealing six sharpened Zhonghua pencils inside.
He carefully selected a suitable one, then squinted his left eye and measured the length and width of the apple with a pencil in a serious manner.
The parents thought he was finally going to start drawing, so they all peeked over to look, only to see him first draw a large, square on the drawing board, and then add a few auxiliary lines.
Then, he took out colored pencils and scribbled a few crooked blocks of color on the side.
"What are you doing?"
"That's right, I can't understand it..."
The parents whispered among themselves, but Yu Yang's mother seemed quite pleased with herself.
"Don't understand? This is called sketching and color mixing—the foundation of painting! It's taught by teachers at the Capital Academy of Fine Arts!"
As they were talking, Yu Yang was seen holding a pen and making corrections in the square, eventually drawing a perfectly round circle.
Upon seeing this, the parents exclaimed in surprise.
"Wow, that's amazing! This circle looks like it was drawn with a compass!"
"Yes, that's because they were taught by professional teachers!"
Parents were astonished; their children were too young to be learning anything beyond simple composition in the children's palace's extracurricular classes.
I've never seen such elaborate steps before!
Not to mention drawing such a perfect circle all at once.
Yu Yang's mother straightened her back even more, her mouth stretched wide, and her eyes and brows couldn't hide her pride.
"That inquisitive parent just now remarked."
"So there are so many intricacies to painting! No wonder people aren't in a hurry to paint..."
As he spoke, he craned his neck to look, and what he saw was the empty drawing board behind Yu Yang and in front of Chen Duzhou.
"Hey, why isn't that little girl behind him writing anything? Is she a professional too?"
Upon hearing this, all the parents turned to look at Chen Duzhou, even Yu Yang's mother frowned and peered over there.
At that moment, the sunken ferry boat began to move.
She grabbed a bright red pencil, and instead of drawing any lines, she forcefully smeared a large area of rich, bright red.
The red outline was crooked and the edges were rough, like a dog had chewed it, but the little girl simply put down her pen and, without even looking at it, went to get a yellow pencil to layer the color on top.
Upon seeing this, Yu Yang's mother rolled her eyes and curled her lips into a long, smirking expression.
"I thought he was so amazing, but he can't even draw a perfect circle. What kind of rubbish is this?!"
Lele's mother, who loves to ask questions, chimed in from the side.
"Yeah, I thought they could compete with Yu Yang, but it seems they have no foundation at all, not even as good as my Lele. What were the parents thinking? Aren't they just embarrassing their child?"
"That's right, it's a waste of Teacher Wu's time."
The parents chimed in, each offering their own opinions. Although they didn't know anything about drawing, they could tell whether their children had a foundation after studying for a year or two.
This little girl's pen-holding posture is wrong; she's gripping the pencil like she's holding chopsticks. She's obviously a novice.
With Yu Yang around, most parents felt that their children had no hope and could only find some comfort by belittling other children.
Only one parent with short hair said something quietly.
"I actually think it's quite cute; you can tell at a glance that the apple is plump."
Yu Yang's mother immediately raised her voice, her voice so shrill it sounded like she was being strangled.
"Cute? This is an art exam, not playing in the mud!"
Sitting in the back row, Zhou Qiqi kept her eyes on Zhouzhou, not wanting to get involved in this gossip at all.
Hearing this commotion, she rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Shh—quiet down! The exam isn't over yet, what if you disturb the child?"
The teaching assistant in front also spoke up to remind them.
"Everyone, please be quiet! Don't disturb the children's performance!"
The studio fell silent, with only the soft scratching of paintbrushes on the paper.
Before long, the children finished their drawings.
Yu Yang was the slowest. He bent over and applied different shades of color to the round apple, outlining the light and shadow and contours, even carefully drawing the highlights with the tip of his pen.
It's perfect, big and round, and bright red.
Parents gathered around, staring in astonishment, and even the teaching assistants on patrol couldn't help but nod with their hands behind their backs.
Looking at the apples from the sunken boat, they were worlds apart.
Without perspective, the proportions are off, and the colors are a mess, so you can barely make out that it's an apple.
Unfortunately, her drawing board was right next to Yu Yang's, making her drawing appear even more sloppy in comparison.
Yu Yang's mother covered her mouth and chuckled, occasionally covering her mouth with a handkerchief and casting a few pitiful glances at Zhou Qiqi.
Zhou Qiqi didn't even lift her eyelids. She simply moved the stool around with a creak, turning it so that her back was to the child. She also turned Zhouzhou's drawing board to the left so that the child could sit with her back to the window, so that she wouldn't be pointed at and gossiped about.
The exams are still ongoing in the small art studio.
After the apple was finished, the teaching assistant waved towards the door and called in a young woman.
She was in her early twenties, with big, bright eyes, fair skin with a rosy tint, wearing a white polyester shirt and black cotton trousers.
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