Chapter 56
Gu Fang sat in front of the easel, holding a paintbrush, with his feet on a high stool, and remained silent for a long time.
The incandescent light of the large studio flickered down, and in front and behind were classmates who were also holding brushes. In the middle sat a senior student who volunteered to be a model. Gu Fang observed her shoulder blades deeply, and fell into a state of meditation.
Do the lines frame the colors, or do the colors frame the lines?
He pondered this question, his eyes lowered as he glanced at the frame, shaving stroke by stroke with his scraper onto the girl's back. After a moment, he frowned, paused, and returned his gaze to the model before him.
He suddenly felt dizzy.
Gu Fang closed his eyes, forcing himself to regain focus and continue drawing. Then, Teacher Lin clapped his hands and said, "Class, this class is over. This drawing will be your homework. Submit it before class next week."
After a quick cleanup, the classmates went off to have dinner. Gu Fang put down his pen, briefly wiped it clean with oil, rubbed his brows, and untied the knot on his apron at the back.
Pulling out his phone again, he made an appointment with Lu Si to see him perform at a live house near the city center that evening. The place was owned by a friend of Wan Liang's boss, and since it was their anniversary celebration, boss Liang had recommended Lu Si to help run the place. Lu Si couldn't refuse, so he accepted the invitation.
In fact, Lu Si hasn't performed publicly for quite some time.
This time, he didn't perform with a band; instead, he performed his own original folk-rock track. The live house even found a female singer for him, whose singing style was said to be perfect for this song.
-My get out of class is over. I'll come to you right away.
-Don't be nervous, I'm cheering for you from the audience!
Gu Fang lowered his head and curled his lips to send the message. When he looked up, he was almost startled. There was a figure standing beside him unknowingly - Teacher Lin from the front of the studio walked over at some point and had been observing the unfinished painting beside him.
"Teacher Lin?" Gu Fang asked tentatively.
Teacher Lin smiled kindly and asked, "Xiao Gu, is the content of our class too simple for you?"
Gu Fang hurriedly shook his head. How could he possibly agree with the teacher on such a dangerous question? "No, no, I feel like I've gained a lot."
Teacher Lin smiled and nodded. "It's a good thing you learned something. I was just worried that you might find the exercises too easy and become lazy."
Gu Fang took off his apron and stood up quickly: "Teacher, what's the matter with you?"
"It's like this, Xiao Gu," Teacher Lin said without further ado, "The Artists Association is organizing a national youth painting exhibition in December. We'd like to recommend you to participate. Would you be willing?"
Gu Fang was stunned for a moment. Seeing that Teacher Lin's expression was not joking, he couldn't believe it and felt a deep sense of insecurity. "But... Teacher Lin, I'm only a freshman."
Teacher Lin sighed softly, patted his shoulder, and reassured him, "We've recommended freshmen to participate before. There's nothing to lose by participating. The college has also recommended students from other grades. Don't worry too much, Xiao Gu."
Gu Fang felt relieved. It seemed like he couldn't refuse this offer, so he nodded reluctantly, "Then I'll choose a work and give it to you before December."
"Don't worry, don't worry," Teacher Lin said with a smile, "Take your time to draw and choose. Just pick the one you think is the best."
Because of this incident, Gu looked listless even while eating dinner in the cafeteria. Returning to his studio, he looked around and found that none of the paintings satisfied him, and he sighed even more deeply.
As the performance was approaching in the evening, he adjusted his mood in time, returned to the dormitory, changed into clean clothes that were not stained with paint smell, went to the parking lot to pick up the car and rushed to the performance venue.
Lu Si was waiting for him at the back door. He had prepared a mask for him to wear. He also fixed his hair and put his hat back on. Then he took his hand and said, "Come this way."
This live house is much larger than Wanliang, and the performance venue is also larger and more formal. There are private rooms in the front row on the second floor, with a wide view, comfortable seats, and complimentary snacks and fruits.
Gu Fang glanced around the room, then turned his head with his eyes curved. "Is this the VIP seat?"
Lu Si raised an eyebrow and replied, "No, this is a family seat."
Gu Fang grabbed his waist, turned him around, and pressed him against the wall. He pinched the waistline that felt so good, and rubbed his chin against Lu Si's shoulder.
"Brother, I miss you so much..."
Lu Si was also itching to take off his mask when someone on the stage called him with a microphone: "Brother Lu! Calling Brother Lu! Do you think this equipment is set up like this? How about we rehearse it again?"
Seeing the doubt in Gu Fang's eyes, Lu Si lowered his voice, put his ear close to his, and explained: "There are a few more programs that I helped them arrange the music for. I have already rehearsed the program, but I'm still busy. Fang Fang, can you wait for me for a while?"
Gu Fang sighed: "Don't worry about me, just stay backstage when you're done. I'll just wait here for you to finish your performance."
"Okay." Lu Si responded, raised his hand to take off the mask, lowered his deep eyebrows in concentration, and tilted his head to press a kiss to the corner of his lips.
The touch was very brief. Gu Fang's eyelashes trembled, and when he opened his eyes again, Lu Si had already moved away.
After Lu Si left, Gu sat down on the sofa, dipped his hand in some tea, and drew on the table.
He recalled the body outline of the model in class. Just a few water marks outlined the complete figure, and then he dipped the model in tea of different shades to apply blocks of color.
After a while, he frowned, took out a tissue and wiped the stick drawing clean.
No. Still no.
The lines of the characters are different from the still lifes he is good at. They are dead in the painting, but the viewer can tell at a glance that they are alive.
Fresh, agile, and should even move in the next second.
Gu Fang had hit a bottleneck. He wasn't good at drawing something "alive." He'd been able to get by with technique in the past, but he knew it was just technique. He hadn't grasped the essence of bringing something "alive." In other words, his characters lacked soul.
Even the colors, which he was best at, were confined by rigid lines and lost their vividness.
The performance was already halfway through and it was Lu Si's turn to perform.
The light from the stage lights was as fine as raindrops, and the entire stage seemed to be shrouded in a hazy mist of light, like a ball of paint that had accidentally dripped and seeped into the fibers of paper.
Because Gu Fang was thinking about something, it was easy for him to replace the picture on paper.
Just as I was lost in thought, the sound of a leisurely guitar rang out from behind the cloud of light, followed by the sound of a dull organ, and then a female voice with a slightly smoky voice began to murmur like reciting a poem.
It was like an evening breeze suddenly blew from the stage in all directions.
It makes one's heart tremble and one can't help but get goose bumps.
The light mist slowly dissipated, and the two silhouettes on the stage became clearer.
The tall boy lowered his eyes, his jaw slightly set, his fingers clenching his guitar. As the female singer hoarsely began singing at the microphone, the high-pitched saxophone and drums blended into the music, transforming the style from folk to rock, instantly reaching a climax.
The excited crowd turned their eyes to the singer.
Gu Fang looked straight at the guitarist.
The lights were dim, and for the first time, Gu Fang observed Lu Si, who was concentrating on the performance on the stage, from a silhouette perspective.
From the shoulder and neck lines, to the narrow waist, and then to the two smooth and beautiful long legs.
Gu Fang seemed to see those living lines jumping out of the curtain of darkness and leaping onto his paper. Every stroke and every line was automatically generated, surpassing his limit of understanding of beauty.
In other words, it was these lines that enlightened his perception of the aesthetics of the human body.
It is these lines that constitute the upper limit of his aesthetics.
Gu Fang's breathing quickened slightly due to this discovery. He quickly lowered his head, dipped his finger in tea, and sketched on the table.
He had forgotten all his techniques, or perhaps because those techniques did not teach him how to depict the person in front of him, they had lost their effectiveness at this moment.
He simply described the scene before him.
With every stroke, he vaguely felt that these hands no longer belonged to him - it seemed that they had merged into the painting. Everything he thought in his heart and everything he saw before his eyes could be sketched out through these hands.
In the past, techniques were used as a bridge between reality and the drawing paper, but now it is no longer necessary.
After finishing the painting, he stared at the table for a long time, until the tea dried up, and then he woke up from that mysterious state of meditation.
He looked up with his eyelids trembling, and found that the performance had already ended, and he didn't know which part it was.
Wait...why hasn't Brother Lu Si come back yet?
After Lu Si finished his performance, he was about to return to the private room, but was stopped by a man who claimed to be Boss Liang’s friend.
"What do you mean?" He frowned and looked at the man suspiciously. "Let me sign a contract and help me make an album?"
Are scams so blatant these days?
It's not that he is suspicious, it's just that this man is very suspicious. He opened his arms and excitedly shouted "You are a genius" as soon as he came up, and then he started to brag nonsense, blowing the music he composed to the sky.
Only at last did he remember to hand him his business card and introduced himself as a music publishing company specializing in discovering original music composing talents.
Seeing Lu Si still looking doubtful, he finally remembered to introduce himself as Lao Liang's friend. Lao Liang had specifically introduced him to the show.
It turned out that Boss Liang had recommended a video of Lu Si performing at Wan Liang to him. After watching it, he was shocked to learn that all the songs were written by the same person, and hurriedly asked Lao Liang to help. So Boss Liang asked a friend who owned a live house in the capital to invite Lu Si to perform.
This allowed the music manager to successfully meet Lu Si.
Seeing that Lu Si was still vigilant, he had to ask the owner of the live house to come and testify for him, and asked Lao Liang to send a WeChat message to Lu Si to prove that he was not a liar.
Lu Si finally believed his identity, but still hesitated: "I don't have any plans in this regard before graduation."
The manager, surnamed Huo, quickly said, "We'd like you to compose music. After signing, you can continue studying while writing music. It's like a part-time job. Aside from a fixed annual output limit, everything else is optional. It's very flexible."
Manager Huo began to talk about how generous the salary was. In addition to the annual base salary after signing the contract, he could also share the additional album sales and online platform copyright fees.
The specific profit sharing ratio can be negotiated.
Lu Si was silent for a moment, and finally accepted the business card and said, "Please let me think about it again."
The author has something to say:
Push the career line, and then it will be almost finished.
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