Chapter 132 - Unexpected Breakthrough (1/2)
A/N: Trigger warning! An allusion to child sexual abuse in this chapter. I DO NOT CONDONE THESE BEHAVIOURS!
____
Kano pulled out his tongue and bit it lightly while showing an apologetic frown.
”Actually, after thinking about it, I don't think I should present my analysis of Artist Lang's work just yet,” Kano admitted.
”Why? You don't have to worry, I won't get offended.”
”That's not it. With the other artists here, I had sufficient information about their pasts and history to extrapolate an analysis from their works. But with Artist Lang, I don't have any background research to work with. Anything I say will only be a theory,” Kano explained.
”That works too. If you want to know anything, just ask me,” Keegan offered with a sincere nod.
”Based on the work on display here, and those of Artist Lang's that are owned by the Rasmus Clan, I've noticed a common trend where fewer qualitative tonal variations of colours are used in the paintings. For example, w-w-when Artist Lang painted the vibrant grass field, rather than utilising the common two-tone combination of verdant and viridian green, Artist Lang opted for a flatter, natural green shade, and using layering and dilution with water or oil to obtain the darker and brighter tonal variations. A-A-Actually, it is the case for any instance where a wide wash of colour is required, such as the skies, deserts, oceans, or any sprawling natural landforms.”
Keegan pondered on the observation and affirmed with a surprised exclamation, ”Do I? I... never noticed that.”
”You do. From Artist Lang's earliest works, this d-d-detail remains consistent. I don't exactly know the reason why Artist Lang might revert to this, but I have a hypothesis,” Kano indicated while showing a conflicted expression. ”But I would like to hear Artist Lang's thoughts first.”
Keegan scratched his head in confusion and answered while shaking his head, ”To be honest, I didn't realise that I had such a quirk. To me, it all just felt right that way.” He then turned to the audience and asked, ”Didn't you guys notice this?”
The crowd shrunk back immediately. No one in their right minds would think of offending a 6-star artist by blabbing pointlessly. However, from the front, Artist Norris chimed in with an audible voice, ”I don't think we contemplated over it either. To us, it looked perfect. The colours just worked. And given how Artist Lang's works successfully achieve the fifth level, we assumed that the quality spoke for itself.”
”What's your theory then?” Keegan asked Kano.
”I thought about it for a while, and realised that back when I first started painting, a-a-and had a shortage of qualitative colour tones at hand, I used to do the same thing. I would layer and/or dilute my available natural paint shades to achieve varying tones exactly how Artist Lang does it. This got me thinking, does Artist Lang not have access to a lot of paint either?” Kano asked with an innocent inflexion in his voice.
The audience broke into uproarious laughter upon hearing this.
”The boy sure knows how to joke! Artist Lang is loaded! How would he have a shortage of colours?”
”Don't tease him, the boy did say that it was just a hypothesis...”
”Let's be real now. Hypotheses need to have some factual foundations.”
As the crowd descended into condescending conversations, Keegan entered deep rumination. Achieving a 6-star license was no easy feat. This was especially true for practitioners in crafting type fields because it was at this stage that the practitioner was deemed an expert capable of consistently outputting the best that could be achieved in said field. For Enchanters, it refers to Legendary grade weapons and armours, for Alchemists it refers to the most potent of potions capable of swaying people with a mere whiff, and for Artists, it corresponds to level five paintings.
Keegan's position as a 6-star artist indicated that he could continuously produce level five paintings, with a success rate of 80% given his most recent statistic. To achieve this, he had to go through gruelling periods of constantly creating works, undergoing brutal critiquing and defence sessions, implementing changes to improve his techniques, rinse and repeat. It reached a point where Keegan himself wondered why he had first set out on this path; was he a low-key masochist who gained pleasure from beating himself emotionally? Unlikely. In fact, Keegan knew deep down exactly why he was suffering through it all.
Money...