The Versatile Master Artist-Chapter 61 - 53: Rei Louise’s Ambition

At this moment, it was the afternoon in London.

Kingston District, Gore Street, home of the Royal British Academy of Arts.

"Professor Louise, you’ve been featured on Mr. Hibernian’s video!"

"Wow! Professor! Can you ask Mr. Hibernian for an autograph for me? I absolutely love him."

"Where do you think your work ranks? Can you outdo one of the two great artists?"

People kept approaching a petite middle-aged woman wearing a beige scarf.

...

Rei Louise wore an enigmatic smile, refusing to engage with at least five students who approached her to inquire about the superstar web influencer, Mr. Hibernian.

Under the envious gazes of her colleagues, she walked into her office and locked the door.

Unlike Gu Weijing, who had no idea of the real identities involved, Thomas had to avoid unnecessary troubles and risks when preparing to produce the video.

The legal team for the "Mr. Hibernian" channel suggested that when Thomas was commissioning work from artists who earned more than ten thousand dollars, he should first explain the video content and that their works would be compared with other artists.

So Rei had known for several weeks that her work would be featured in Mr. Hibernian’s new video.

But due to a confidentiality agreement, Rei couldn’t reveal any details until Thomas officially announced the video’s release on Twitter.

While Mr. Hibernian’s videos tended to be... extravagant, he wasn’t simply a wealth-flaunting influencer; the overall tone of his videos was quite positive.

Therefore, in Europe and America, among the highly-educated demographic, he had a substantial fan base and was widely popular across all age groups.

Now,

when the news broke that Professor Louise would be featured in Mr. Hibernian’s new video,

it caused a stir among students, and even the visual arts department’s painting professors, who usually looked down on illustration as a second-rate art form, viewed Louise with newfound respect.

This is illustration.

Illustration is always connected to popular culture.

You browse the Fox Art Celebrities List, and you see the paintings of those great artists selling for tens of millions of US dollars, yet you may have never heard of their names or their works.

They may have only five or six masterpieces in their lifetime, circulating among private collectors.

Being unknown to the public does not diminish their artistic value.

But illustration, where the era is the theme, and traffic is money, it is forever a popular art form.

The moment Rei Louise received Thomas’s invitation, she knew her chance to rise to fame had finally come.

She was a single mother, 36 years old, at the peak age for an illustrator.

Her inspiration hadn’t run dry, her skills were at their peak, and her heart brimmed with ambition.

She was certainly in the high-income bracket.

Whether it was the teaching position at the Royal Academy, or her regular illustration work for film studios or theaters, or publishers, were all high-income jobs.

Last year her post-tax net income was about 170,000 pounds, more than five times the average income in London, bringing her on the verge of the true upper class.

But Rei had hit a career plateau; her income level was difficult to increase further.

First-rate illustrators like her are rare, but there are also thirty to forty of them in the United Kingdom.

The gap between them and the top masters was not just in painting skills, but more importantly in reputation.

An illustrator needs not just skill but also opportunity to truly leap across the chasm in their career.

Shepherd grasped children’s books, Norman Rockwell seized World War II, Jean Arnou caught the Cold War, and De Van Doorn capitalized on environmentalism and fashion.

She wanted to seize this emerging video media to give herself a chance to compete on the same stage as the masters.

Rei knew.

Not every illustrator as talented as her could encounter such an opportunity.

Such a chance to surpass established artists might come only once in her lifetime.

This opportunity was too good.

Lose?

What did she have to lose?

In terms of fame and status, Rei was the lowest-ranked among the three artists, so even if she produced the worst work, it wouldn’t affect her at all.

As for those three freelance illustrators on Nutshell,

Heaven help them, don’t be ridiculous.

Online part-time illustrators simply don’t compare to a young professor like her; they’re worlds apart.

An emperor among beggars is still a beggar; a genius among hobbyists remains a hobbyist.

It’s like sending the war god from an amateur football field to compete with a professional team? Even an under-14 youth team could easily score 50 goals against you in half a game; just looking at the score might make people think it’s a basketball game.

To be safe, she even clicked on the link to Bruno’s studio to take a look.

The shop’s homepage showcased past commissioned work.

Honestly, for an amateur artist, it was passable and quite presentable.

But in Rei’s eyes, it was full of errors, inconsistencies, and deformations, obvious on first glance.

No real competition for her.

As for the other two lower-charge Nutshell freelancers, Rei wasn’t even interested in giving them a glance.

Rei set down her phone and opened her Macbook on the desk, waiting for the official release of the video.

Osaka Xiaosong Art Gallery’s heir, Koshiba Taichiro, had just contacted her, and he wouldn’t be the first or last.

Almost immediately after Mr. Hibernian’s tweet was posted, agents from five or six galleries began adding her as a contact and sending her messages.

Mr. Hibernian’s videos average several million views, even if only one percent remembered Rei, she could gain tens of thousands more followers.

This would significantly boost the market price of her illustrations.

But Rei, not only did she refuse to lose, she wanted to win.

She knew that if she could beat any one of the two veteran illustrators, even with nearly equivalent art, it would be an unparalleled opportunity for exposure.

It would result in a significant leap in her own valuation.

Every era has its own illustrative artists.

Illustrations are closely intertwined with the voice of the era, and an illustrator needs to seize their moment.

Why shouldn’t she become the next era’s Jean Arnou?

Because of this, Rei didn’t choose to paint with her usual colored markers or watercolors, instead opting for a more strategic realistic colored pencil drawing.

Colored pencils are the bridge between sketches and colored drawings.

They’re controllable, not as imprecise as soft brushes and can showcase her outstanding drawing skills and understanding of muscles.

Especially when drawing simple figures, colored pencils emphasize the details.

She knew she couldn’t compete with those great artists in the realm of aesthetic concepts, which was their forte.

Realism,

this was Rei’s trump card to defeat the masters.

During her studies, she was the top student in the elective Human Anatomy course, and George Burriman’s "Human Anatomy" illustration book.

She was the only one who drew every picture from start to finish without missing a single one.

All her efforts would pay off today.

Especially to non-professional audiences watching the videos.

The artistic conception, emotions, and ideas expressed in paintings may not be easily understood by them.

But the ones that look the most realistic often are perceived as the best.

"10, 9, 8, 7..."

The second hand moved closer to 9:30 AM New York Time.

"Louise, you’re number one, always will be."

Rei clasped her hands together, silently praying.

At the exact moment when the minute and hour hand aligned with the Arabic numeral six at the bottom of the clock.

She pressed refresh on the webpage.

The page reloaded, and a new video appeared at the top of Mr. Hibernian’s homepage.