Chapter 185 - Sand Art Skills (2/2)

There was a kitchen on the third floor with some take out. After eating, they went back downstairs where Wen Wan began to teach him. As for Ding, he maintained his strong sense of curiosity and followed them into the studio, helping out where he was needed.

“I won’t go on about the basics, you just need to practice. Just a reminder, since you came from a manga background, then you should keep your manga style; there’s no need to avoid it.

Wen Wan lit some sandalwood out of habit, although it had nothing to do with sand painting. But every time she taught or performed, she would light some sandalwood no matter where she was. This was her signature.

“Next, I’ll teach you some skills, composite techniques, combination techniques, and color balance techniques. Afterward, we’ll study composition, overlaying, and white space. Then lastly, we will go over telling a story through the sand.”

“Let’s begin with compound techniques and combination techniques. The two are very similar. The former is an advanced form of a single technique, while the latter is a combination of multiple techniques.”

“The premise of the compound technique is to loosen your fingers. Each finger, in addition to your palms, knuckles, and even the wrist and elbow, is a tool for sand painting. You must remember, you can rely on the most flexible of these, whether it’s a finger or any part of your body. But never rely on it completely, as it will constrain you and limit your abilities. You should know this from the start.”

Wen Wan’s method of teaching was very simple. Hand to hand demonstration in addition to a vocal lesson. It was not only in-depth, but brief, and allowed information to be grasped in an easy format. She would show it to a person, then explain the reasoning behind it.

Her method of teaching was very flexible and was constantly adjusting to cater to Meng Fan’s understanding and progress. Some she only had to show once, while others were more difficult and had to be repeated.

Her demonstration was also quite dazzling. Her fingers were very beautiful and flexible as well. There were very beautiful transitional movements, regardless of what she was drawing. The beauty brought out by her fingers alone could be considered a gift from god.

“Color-balance technique, also called visual technique, is the biggest difference between sand painting and manga and other painting types. Other forms of art will use it but not often, unlike sand painting which uses it frequently. The most simple example is if you were to draw a cabbage, other art forms would just paint a cabbage, but in sand painting, you can choose to do this…”

Wen Wan waved her hand across the sand table, undulating slightly. After covering the surface with sand, she cleared out a blank space, which formed the outline of a cabbage.

This method of painting was basically painting the areas that didn’t need to be painted, and what was left became her subject.

But doing so in sand painting was obviously because spreading the sand would make it easier, and one could ‘erase’ the parts one didn’t want very quickly.

She flipped the painting.

This was Meng Fan’s biggest joy.

After trying it, it felt so right and was quite fun as well.

“Human faces are like this too….”

Wen Wan demonstrated this to Meng Fan then began to explain the techniques behind it…

“Next… Let’s talk about composition.”

Wen Wan realized that she had gone over all the skills and paused for a moment. This progress was a bit fast. She felt as if she had been ranting on about the technique to herself while Meng Fan was in the background keeping up with her ramblings. It wasn’t just that he understood her words either, but his movements were able to keep up as well. If he wasn’t already so adept at the skill, she wouldn’t have advanced so smoothly.

“There’s not much to say about composition. Your original foundations are enough. Let’s skip forward to overlapping compositions. Sand painting happens very fast. The process requires a lot of coverage in the beginning, so it’s very important to know how you use some elements from the previous painting in the next painting. Otherwise, there’s not much performance in painting one piece and wiping it away.”

“The narrative telling method is the same as above. In the end, it all comes to conception, which requires skill. But most importantly, it depends on the artist’s own cultivation, and their understanding of the world…”

At four-thirty, Wen Wan stopped her teaching, realizing there wasn’t anything left to talk about.

It wasn’t that she had gone over everything, but that Meng Fan’s current performance showed that she did not need to go over the rest.