The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 137 - 98: Detective Cat and Mr. Tree Sloth’s First Commission (Part 3)

And the rating for the Painting Knife Painting Method on the system panel is even higher.

The problem is, pure painting knife painting isn’t like sketch, which is a universally applicable illustration skill—the audience is really too niche.

It’s hard to find suitable commission tasks online.

He thought of asking Mr. Tree Sloth for help.

Such commission tasks must be rare; as long as the commission cut is within a reasonable range, Gu Weijing can accept it.

"Of course, I’d be honored. It’s great you finally want to paint more professional subjects."

Mr. Tree Sloth didn’t even mention the commission cut.

The uncle seemed pleased that he was no longer obsessed with only drawing simple anime illustrations online.

"What type of illustrations do you want to take on? Movie posters, book publications, or...?"

Mr. Tree Sloth asked.

"I’d like to try the oil painting category," Gu Weijing typed.

"Oil painting category, of course." Anna was pleasantly surprised to see Detective Cat’s reply.

Online illustrations are like pop songs; traditional oil paintings are like symphonies.

With such good sketching skills, Detective Cat drawing anime illustrations all day is like a piano master being obsessed with playing music for square dances.

Anna always felt the other person was not doing serious work.

Seeing the other person willing to try oil painting subjects now, she was happy regardless of whether they’d succeed.

"What painting style do you prefer: Classicism? Impressionism? Hyperrealism? Why not try participating in art exhibitions? There are several art exhibitions in Paris, France, London, Singapore, and Hamburg this year."

Anna typed quickly.

"Uh, painting knife painting... is it okay?"

"Painting knife painting?"

Seeing Detective Cat’s reply, Anna paused for two seconds, her brows slightly furrowing.

"If you want to learn about oil painting, I can recommend very good teachers to you. But... painting knife painting, forgive me for being blunt, are you sure you haven’t been scammed?"

There’s great controversy over painting knife painting in the art world.

Whether Dongxia’s Zhihu, Japan’s 2ch forums, or Quora in Europe and America, and any art-related forums,

people can easily find similar questions—"Why is painting knife painting so disliked/criticized?"

In mainstream art criticism circles, when professional painters hear someone excels in painting knife painting, they immediately show a deep smile and then exchange a knowing glance.

It’s basically like university math professors encountering a high school dropout claiming they’ve proven Goldbach’s Conjecture.

It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with painting knife painting; it’s just that there are too many scammers in this field.

Painting knife painting belongs to the oil painting category, but unlike traditional oil painting, it doesn’t require mastery of any artistic fundamentals.

Learning traditional oil painting requires time to start from the basics; even just beginning sketching to reach an advanced level can take years.

But painting knife painting does not.

Theoretically, you could find a random shovel, mess around in some paint, and smear it on a canvas—that’s painting knife painting.

This opens up space for plenty of scams.

This path is easy to learn but hard to master.

Professional painting knife painting learning is a long process.

It requires not only a teacher to guide you but also long-term practice to train familiarity with the much harder-to-control painting knife compared to a brush.

Internationally, any painter who has made a name for themselves in painting knife painting has certainly spent no less effort on this than those painting traditional oil paintings.

Yet, online you can often see slogans like "Zero foundation entry, one month to learn, two months to master, three months to earn big money."

This is clearly nonsense.

The key is, there are quite a few people who believe they can make big money through an unconventional path.

Paying the tuition for self-improvement is fine, but three months later, with little progress, feeling like somewhat an artist is something many people do.

This is really annoying.