Chapter 384 - What Should I Draw? (1/2)

After hanging up, Pei Qian located Ruan Guangjian’s cell phone number.

However, before he dialed it, Pei Qian searched for the phrase ‘shared phone booth’ on Qiandu, just because he felt like it.

Soon, several results came up. Most of them were stickies, forums, and Weibo posts created by locals of Jingzhou. “Today, I came across a brilliant, creative idea that a genius came up with-a shared phone booth! Once you scan the QR code, you can enter right away to make your call!”

“Are you crazy? The QR code scanner is located on a cell phone… can’t you just make the call using your cell phone?”

“I nearly died laughing. I took a picture with it because it feels like performance art. [Image]”

“This rotten phone booth looks quite big, but why does it look handmade? Was it really manufactured by a proper factory? They were really negligent with the details.”

“This is… a pay-to-enter jail cell. People can even see through the glass walls?”

Pei Qian scanned the comments and visibly relaxed.

Look, the audience’s eyes are so sharp!

Since everyone thinks that the shared phone booth is a bad idea and that it won’t generate revenue, I should ask Ruan Guangjian to do more paintings. That’ll turn the shared phone booth into a big, cultural symbol that serves as a pure public good. Yes, that’s a great idea!

At that thought, Pei Qian dialed Ruan Guangjian’s number.

January 10th, Monday…

Ruan Guangjian had just finished his work at Shang Yang Games. He had given the art and art outsourcing teams at Shang Yang Games the necessary suggestions for improvement; gone to the nearby art and tools shop to buy some brushes, paint, and other necessary materials; and then rushed towards Huanyu Tianjie.

Since it was a Monday, traffic in the shopping mall was low.

Still, even then, a good number of people were taking photos around the shared phone booth. Perhaps many people were visiting today because news of the lame project had spread yesterday.

Just as Ruan Guangjian stepped off the escalator, he saw a burly, well-sculpted, muscle man with long hair walking towards him.

“Master! Hello, hello! Master, you’re so young! You look very different from how I imagined.”

Zhang Wang had arrived early to receive Ruan Guangjian. When he saw the latter carrying bags of tools and art materials, he immediately confirmed that that was the artist whom Boss Pei had hired. However, on the outside, Ruan Guangjian looked nothing like the artist whom Zhang Wang had in mind. He did not have long hair or a beard, and he did not have earrings, piercings, or tattoos. Instead, he looked prim and proper, no different from ordinary students.

On the other hand, Zhang Wang had long, flowy hair. Passers-by might think that he looked more like an artist than Ruan Guangjian.

Ruan Guangjian studied the shared phone booth. It looked no different from the pictures, except that it looked slightly bigger now that he was standing before it.

Once Ruan Guangjian was finished with surveying the shared phone booth, Zhang Wang expectantly asked, “Master, how long would it take you to do a painting like that?” After some thought, Ruan Guangjian replied, “There’s no hard and fast rule. “Painting involves creativity. The time that it takes to paint could differ greatly from painting to painting. For a simple oil painting with sketches and concepts prepared could take about ten or so hours if the artist is experienced and adept enough.

“However, an oil painting of high standards done by a highly-skilled artist could take one, three, five, or even more years.

“That includes the time needed to find materials, come up with the design, and make edits. There’s no limit to the time required.”

Zhang Wang quickly asked, “Three to five years? There’s no need for that. Just paint anything. Master, if you paint too well, people might end up stealing your work. “After all, this phone booth can be torn down and taken away.

“Still, the likelihood of that happening is low because the shopping mall’s security guards would keep an eye on it for us, hahaha.”

Ruan Guangjian did not find Zhang Wang’s lame joke amusing. However, at least one thing was clear: he did not need to create such an exquisite painting for the shared phone booth. Thus, he did not need to look at it as a premium work of art.

However, he could not just randomly put something together either. After all, Boss Pei was paying a huge sum. Moreover, they were good friends. Of course, Ruan Guangjian could not take advantage of him.

After some thought, Ruan Guangjian said, “I heard that this is only the first of a total of twenty phone booths that I’ll be painting?”

Zhang Wang nodded. “That’s right, and this is only the initial stage.”

Ruan Guangjian took the measurements of the area on the phone booth that he was allowed to work on. Then, he asked, “Do you have any thoughts on what I should paint?”

Zhang Wang shook his head profusely, expressing his lack of opinion. “No! It all depends on what you want to paint, Master!”

Ruan Guangjian thought about it carefully and said, “Hmm… I have to paint twenty of these, and each one is going to be a huge project.

“After all, the painting is going to be two meters tall. That’s three or four times more work than an ordinary oil painting.

“Even if I can use my own style and I can pay less attention to the details, it would take three to four days for me to finish the painting

“Moreover, this is on the assumption that I’ll be extremely, extremely familiar with the work I’ll be doing.

“The phone booth is a project that Boss Pei is investing in. Whatever I paint has to be somewhat related to Boss Pei’s companies, right?

“Since that’s the case… there aren’t many things I could possibly paint…

“Aha!”

Ruan Guangjian’s eyes suddenly lit up. He had thought of a great idea. He could paint the heroes of GOG!

That’ll be just right. GOG had twenty-odd heroes in this first batch, and the concept art and animations for them were already done.

Ruan Guangjian was the one who had completed the concept art’s appearance and design. The sketches went through multiple modifications, and he drew them all over again in the end. He was extremely familiar with the heroes.

Moreover, the art belonged to Tengda’s new game. The phone booth was also a project that Boss Pei was investing in. Both of those projects were closely related.

The concept art for the heroes would feel closer and more interesting to the young customers in the shopping mall compared to traditional oil paintings.

The idea started sounding better and better to Ruan Guangjian.

The only thing that had to be modified was the actual expression of the concept art.

GOG’s original animation and concept art were extremely detailed and tangible. That was because the game’s models would be built based on these concept art drawings. If any part of the drawings was blurry, the model master would have to fill it in with his own imagination.

However, the paintings that Ruan Guangjian would do on the shared phone booths could be concept art or illustrations for advertisements. They could look more artistic.

Ruan Guangjian thought about using his own style-thick-stroke painting. On one hand, he could blur out the details and save time On the other hand, the paintings would look more artistic and eye-catching.

At that thought, Ruan Guangjian prepared to get to work.

As for which hero he should paint first…