"Whenever I come to the Great Golden Pagoda, I always feel a sense of awe: a pure gold pagoda, Buddha's relics, a peaceful and serene holy place. Yet, in the presence of the Buddha, not far from this place advocating compassion, the darkest and dirtiest things in the world are happening."
"Almighty Buddha, can you hear the cries of those who cannot go home? Will the world become better?"
—"Gu Weijing Talk Record"
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Great Golden Pagoda,
A national symbol of Myanmar, along with Indonesia's Borobudur Temple and Cambodia's Angkor Wat, is known as a treasure of Southeast Asian art and is renowned worldwide as a stupa.
This sacred site enshrining Buddha's own hair was founded in 585 BC, during the Spring and Autumn period in the Dongxia calendar.
It has a history of over 2500 years.
The devout offerings of believers over the ages have made the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon magnificent and splendid, with the gold leaf covering the main body of the pagoda weighing as much as seven thousand kilograms, roughly equal to the entire gold reserves of Myanmar's central bank.
Arount the pagoda are 7000 different gems and 15,000 gold and silver bells hanging.
When the wind blows, the bells chime clearly and melodically, and the sound travels far.
However, today the Yangon Pagoda temporarily suspended its opening to outside visitors, with the spacious plaza being sparsely populated with passersby and barefoot monks dressed in yellow robes.
Gu Weijing, with an official pass featuring the Myanmar emblem and the Great Golden Pagoda logo pinned to his chest, is sitting cross-legged at the east side entrance under the majestic stone lion, sketching on an iPad.
His grandfather Gu Tongxiang is not around.
The cultural relics restoration project is a large-scale international art collaboration.
The project covers numerous cities, including Yangon and Bagan.
A brief project opening ribbon-cutting ceremony is being held at the main entrance on the west side of the Great Golden Pagoda. It's nothing more than government officials and leaders giving speeches, promoting Myanmar's history, and embassy personnel from various countries expressing the long-standing friendship between their countries and Myanmar, finally taking turns shaking hands with Master Cao Xuan and taking group photos.
In such an official opening ceremony, Gu Weijing, being just a minor participant, was not qualified to attend.
Therefore, after registering with the project officials to receive a work ID.
He secluded himself in a quiet corner, alone, continuing to practice his painting skills on the iPad, enjoying this tranquil feeling.
[Sketch: Lv.3 Semi-Professional (877/1000)]
Compared to a week ago, Gu Weijing's basic sketch techniques have significantly improved.
Benefiting from daily 30-minute skill activation under Menzel's painting basics insights, Gu Weijing maintains at least three sketch drawings or outlines each day, which occupies most of his daytime. It must be due to his growing familiarity with Menzel's style that the proficiency increase from skill activation now is not as dramatic as initially.
However, even with four or five days of persistence, it still provides him with nearly 600 points of experience increase.
His sketching level is now far ahead of any other skill, soon to break through to lv.4.
The great mentor once said that all so-called geniuses are the results of stupidly diligent accumulation. Gu Weijing isn't willing to forgo any opportunity to improve himself.
Without paper or pen, he uses the iPad to draw.
"It's painted beautifully."
Gu Weijing smelled a fresh scent of apricot and strawberry mixed together.
He looked up.
At some unknown time, a young couple appeared beside him.
The girl holding the boy's hand stood next to him, tilting her head to look at the Great Golden Pagoda already taking shape on the iPad in his hand.
"Thank you."
Gu Weijing didn't like being disturbed by others, politely nodded, and lowered his head to continue drawing.
The couple might understand the self-enjoyment feeling in Gu Weijing's words.
The voice beside him continued.
"The structure is excellent, the spatial proportions are good and realistic, the texture lines on the building surface are dense and varied, and the architectural body and surrounding buildings are cut into two layers of space, displaying good extensibility both horizontally and vertically..."
After a moment.
Gu Weijing finally looked up seriously at the person speaking.
Usually, discerning whether a painting is good or not, beautiful or not, doesn't require high cultural sophistication.
A good painting can fully empathize with the audience, allowing people to feel its artistic appeal at first glance.
But how a painting is good, and where it is good... this isn't something ordinary people without enough artistic accumulation can directly articulate.
Many people go "Wow!" watching painters on video platforms paint curvy soft girls and "Wow!" admiring masterpieces in art galleries for this reason.
A comment as professional as just offered isn't something anyone can just express.
She's a very young girl, with short shoulder-length hair and distinctly shaped features.
Her skin is very fair, fine, and glowing, paired with almost inherently spirited confidence, making her appear both capable and innocent.
Gu Weijing noticed she also hung an identical pass on her chest.
"Dongxia People?"
She gazed at Gu Weijing with an art appreciator's look examining an oil painting, softly inquired. "Practicing from a young age?"
"It's kind of half true. From the time my wife's grandfather settled in Yangon, Myanmar, it's been more than a century. My family ancestors used to be painters. My grandfather could paint some Chinese paintings, and I learned from him when I was young."
"Are you Japanese?"
She was dressed conservatively, wearing a plaid shirt in a schoolgirl style and a gray long skirt that almost reached her ankles, revealing only a small patch of skin above the collar.
But she had a very good figure, and on the badge at her shirt collar was her name written in Katakana.
From the few Japanese words Gu Weijing knew, it should be — "Koizumi Katsuko."
"Sort of half. To be accurate, my nationality is Spanish. My father is from Nagoya and met my mother while studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Spain. So, it's exactly half and half."
Koizumi Katsuko revealed her teeth, showing none of the social anxiety or shyness common in Japanese women. She reached out her hand confidently and shook hands with Gu Weijing.
"This is my brother, Koizumi Gangchang."
She pointed to the young man with curly hair beside her.
"Mr. Gu, this is Gangchang. Gangchang, this is Mr. Gu."
She introduced them to each other.
"Drawing on an IPAD is quite convenient. Hmph, you call this art..."
The baby-faced Koizumi Gangchang said coldly, his tone reminiscent of a young man from the righteous path looking at a demoness who has strayed into evil ways.
Gu Weijing nodded indifferently.
Using a WACOM tablet and an iPad in the illustration or hand-drawing community is quite normal. You can quickly switch between different brushes without dirtying your fingers, and repeatedly modify sketches without crumpling the paper.
However, some old-school artists and their disciples don't really like this "shortcut."
Although electronic painting has developed rapidly, no matter how well it simulates, the sensation of different cross-sections of the brush rubbing against the paper and the absorption and richness of color by professional paper are things an electronic screen cannot replicate.
It's undeniable that paper and pen can often restore a more authentic brushstroke and color of light and shadow.
Koizumi Gangchang flicked his artistically styled lightly blue-dyed curly hair, dyed in an Akihabara salon, gazed up at a 45-degree angle to the sky, with his hands on his hips, posing like a lonely master.
Gu Weijing found it amusing.
He had no intention of arguing with this seemingly younger, naive guy.
Drawing on paper is also painting; drawing on an IPAD is also painting. He wasn't planning on publishing anything, and the skills he honed were not fake.
Besides, the other party looked at his work, failing to discern his brushwork or technique, only seeing convenience, which was evidently a sign of being a shallow, wannabe artist.
Koizumi Gangchang was unaware that in his mind, he'd already been categorized alongside a gang-member-like role, still pretending to be a cool master there.
Koizumi Katsuko seemed slightly embarrassed instead.
The young woman's face bore an apologetic smile.
She gestured toward Gu Weijing's drawing pad with her palm: "Sorry, Mr. Gu. May I take a closer look at your work?"
Having heard the insightful observations earlier, Gu Weijing was genuinely intrigued to see how this girl, who seemed more mature than the still-childish Koizumi Gangchang, would express herself.
Without much hesitation, he handed his IPAD to her.
Koizumi Katsuko took the tablet with both hands and sat cross-legged in the shadow beneath the stone lion.
She blew lightly on the screen, dispersing the overlapping pen marks and dust on it.
"Miss Sakai, what do you think?"
Gu Weijing asked.
"You can call me Katsuko. My first impression of this painting is that the proportions are excellent, not only harmonious but also realistic, almost identical to the space when we look at the Great Golden Pagoda from this angle. If... this can still be attributed to talent, what surprises me more is your brush technique."
Koizumi Katsuko observed very carefully, occasionally waving her stylus in the air above the screen as if replicating Gu Weijing's brushwork.
"The structure is meticulous with a sense of order. See how the contour lines flow from solid to void, then from void to solid again. The tower's stone material is expressed through rich transition lines, and where it intersects with more lustrous metal, the curves are precise. It seems like your strokes were continuous... You have a touch of a master already, which can't be achieved without personal guidance from a great teacher."
Koizumi Katsuko looked longingly as she returned the IPAD to Gu Weijing.
"I never expected Yangon to conceal a master like you."
She stood up and gave Gu Weijing a deep bow: "Mr. Gu, if possible, please introduce me to your teacher for a visit. I'm counting on you."
Gu Weijing was taken aback.
Some things are easy to talk about superficially; to speak in depth, you not only have to understand but also have to have practiced drawing this way yourself.
Just like before he got the Skill Panel, Gu Weijing once thought there was no basic knowledge left for him to master.
Only through practice could he deeply realize his own gaps.
This girl could not only articulate what was good about his brushwork but also see that he had received "master's guidance."
She certainly had her insights.
"I've heard someone say that since the Man Qing entered, the cultural roots of Dongxia have spread throughout Japan. Learning a bit of Chinese Painting at home, huh, how could a master exist in this poor and desolate place like Myanmar? Miss Sakai, you're young, don't be deceived."
Just as Gu Weijing was about to speak, a cold, Japanese-accented English voice suddenly came from not far behind.
The tone resembled a rotten fruit, carrying a fishy smell.