Chapter 14

14

"Are you crazy?"

"Phew..."

Sure enough, the world is vast and there are many talented people. With a calm face, the third-year student watched as Kang Seok returned to his seat, swallowing his envy.

It was, without a doubt, the best self-introduction.

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The day after the OT (Orientation) where Kang Seok had crushed the pride of all the third-year students.

The human figure drawing publication project team gathered in the drawing room early in the morning again, ready to create serious human figure drawing materials as discussed during the OT.

"As I mentioned yesterday, starting today, we will hire a daily model for five days a week, excluding weekends, to create human figure drawing materials. We will draw two models a day, and each model will be given only four hours."

Kang Seok recalled the schedule that was distributed yesterday.

From 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, one model in the morning and one drawing session.

One hour for lunch.

From 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, one model in the afternoon and another drawing session.

Thirty minutes for evaluation.

Even with breaks for the models in between, the schedule required drawing from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM without a break.

'Quite tight... There were twenty-four models, right?'

Two per day, a total of 14 days, exactly two weeks.

Including weekends, 16 days of winter break would be invested in the human figure drawing project.

If you also consider preparing the sketches for Mr. Go Dohan's personal exhibition... it seemed he wouldn't have time for any special lectures or anything.

'Not that I planned to attend any special lectures anyway.'

It was the perfect excuse to give his parents. Fortunately, Kang Seok looked back at the front, pondering how to bring up the topic with his parents when he got home.

Just then, Go Dohan, who had finished his brief explanation, was looking at his watch.

"Since we'll be taking breaks as planned, everyone, start moving. We'll start the work in ten minutes."

As soon as Go Dohan finished speaking, Son Dong-wook and Lim Woo-hyun moved. Having worked together with Go Dohan for the longest time, they grabbed a desk attached to the wall without a word.

"One, two...!"

Son Dong-wook and Lim Woo-hyun placed the large desk in the center of the drawing room and let go.

Jang Yu-min placed a folding chair on the desk afterward.

They will seat the model on the folding chair on the desk. Understanding the intention, the third-year students moved in unison.

Human figure drawing is, as the name suggests, a task of drawing a person. Since there is an actual model, it requires a lot of observation.

The better the form and natural proportions, the better the human figure drawing. It's best to find a good spot to see the model clearly.

Around 4:00 to 5:00, where the model's face is slightly turned. That's about right.

Or the opposite side. The third-year students checked the empty spots and quickly moved their easels.

Kang Seok was also among them. Unconsciously moving towards where people were gathering, Kang Seok suddenly stopped.

He saw the easels and chairs uncomfortably close together.

Did he really need to squeeze into that gap? Kang Seok thought about it. It didn't seem necessary.

Kang Seok turned away without hesitation. As he did, the support for adjusting the angle of the easel hit the H-frame.

Clunk.

At the unexpected sound, the third-year students unconsciously turned their heads. They saw Kang Seok walking towards an empty spot.

The third-year students tilted their heads, looking at Kang Seok.

'Does he not know that composition is key?'

'Good composition leads to good drawings.'

'Is he confident enough to draw from a different spot?'

'But this is for a portfolio. The front or a slight side view would be better. Has he never done human figure drawing?'

Doubt appeared on the faces of the third-year students, but only for a moment.

They sighed, as if to say they didn't know, and focused on setting up their easels. The drawing boards were raised, and clips and masking tape were attached to secure the paper.

Some walked to the trash can with a cutter to sharpen their pencils.

The whole process was more about taking care of their own preparations than being aware of Kang Seok as a competitor.

'He'll do fine on his own.'

'I don't know. Honestly, with the skills he showed, it's like one less competitor. I'm already sweating.'

'Ugh. Hurry. I didn't even sharpen one pencil. I need to sharpen this quickly and cut the eraser...!'

Kang Seok, with a relaxed expression, was rolling a sharply sharpened pencil, in stark contrast to the others.

"That will make it hard to draw..."

The only third-year student watching Kang Seok, Yoo Miji, bit her lip. Should she tell him? Or would it be overstepping?

Watching Kang Seok fiddle with his eraser and pencil, Yoo Miji pondered for a while before standing up.

She wanted a fair competition.

'Seok. From where you are, you won't see the model's face clearly, making it hard to draw. It would be better to sit next to me... What do you think?'

She rehearsed the words in her mind and walked forward.

Just as she was about to reach Kang Seok, click! The door opened, and Go Dohan entered the drawing room with today's model.

"Everyone, take your seats."

"Stop what you're doing and take your seats!"

The part-time teachers started seating the students. Yoo Miji was no exception.

"Miji, what are you doing? You need to sit down too."

"Ah, teacher, but—!"

"Go to your seat. We don't have time."

"Ah!"

Yoo Miji was eventually led to her seat by Jang Yu-min, who grabbed her shoulder. She looked at Kang Seok, who was leaning his chin on his easel, with confused eyes.

While she was so concerned, Kang Seok was looking at the model with an indifferent face.

'I don't know...! I was going to tell him.'

Yoo Miji thought she had acted conscientiously and opened her bag. A large transparent plastic pencil case for college entrance exams appeared.

Click, click. Yoo Miji quickly took out a sharply sharpened pencil, a sharpener, an eraser, clips, a charcoal pencil, and a cutter from the pencil case.

She pulled her chair to attach the clips to the drawing board. As she did, she saw Kang Seok between the easels.

Kang Seok, who had been looking at the model, was now looking at his easel. His face was as expressionless as before, but Yoo Miji felt something different.

'Something's different...'

In fact, Kang Seok's expression hadn't changed. But something was different.

Perhaps it was because his slouch had straightened.

Somehow, Kang Seok looked like a devout worshipper about to offer a prayer, or a hermit about to undertake a sacred task.

"I'll start now."

Unlike Yoo Miji, who wanted to observe a bit more, the model sat on the folding chair and extended her hand.

With the time being quite tight, Yoo Miji had to quickly turn her head to her easel.

Forgetting that she had been staring at Kang Seok, she stretched out her arm to transfer the model's proportions to the paper.

The model sat on the folding chair, her hand extended as if shielding the sun.

'Most models just sit and look forward... Indeed, Mr. Go Dohan! You brought a proper model.'

Usually, figure models have to hold a static pose for 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute break, so they avoid difficult poses due to the strain.

Therefore, most figure models just sit and look forward.

But seeing a woman sitting still with her head raised and hand extended was refreshing.

'If we create a portfolio with various poses like this, it will definitely help art college entrance students.'

Yoo Miji, now engrossed, slightly pouted her lower lip and focused on tracing the form.

Squish, squish.

Before long, everyone was immersed in silence, moving their pencils.

Eventually, the sound of pencils scratching the paper filled the drawing room like white noise.

Since they were still tracing the form, the pencils moved very gently. They sketched lightly, so the eraser could easily remove any mistakes.

Sssssssss!

A pencil was moving quickly. It meant someone had finished sketching and was starting to add shading.

'Just started...?'

'Who is it?'

'Who can trace the form so quickly?'

The students, who had been focused, raised their heads like meerkats to find the source of the sound.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn't take long to identify the culprit.

Sssssss, the sound was coming from a very different direction.

The students turned their heads towards the sound, eyes wide with disbelief.

It was Kang Seok.

* * * *

"Would you believe that there are no two faces alike in Michelangelo Buonarroti's works? It's hard to believe, but it's true. Indeed, Michelangelo's memory for faces was superhuman."

Kang Seok didn't sit where he could see the model's face clearly for one reason: he didn't need to.

The model had slightly thick bags under her eyes. Kang Seok easily added light and shadow, capturing the form as if the model were right in front of him.

His movements were quick and decisive, yet without a single mistake.

His drawings were as realistic as a black-and-white printer, and the occasional thick line added emotion, like a drop of ink.

The reason he could draw the Venus plaster cast so well in the sketching midterm, which had puzzled the second-year students, was this: his extraordinary memory.

In his past life and now,

Once seen, it was hard to forget.

In a short moment, Kang Seok recalled and captured the model's features.

The side hair falling along the jawline, the earlobe slightly separated from the face, the dangling earring, the slightly short but thin neck, the shoulders dropping at a right angle, the sweater rising to the collarbone.

Kang Seok continuously captured the form of the drawing.

The pencil was like a thread pulled from Kang Seok's memory, weaving an image on the paper.

"Let's take a 10-minute break now."

The noise from the break and the model getting up to go to the bathroom didn't hinder Kang Seok's drawing.

Like a fish in water, Kang Seok continued to draw.

In the 15th century, growing up with a wet nurse whose husband was a stonemason, and with nothing much to play with in his early years,

For him, sketching was as close to a toy as sculpting, something he found fun to play with from a very young age.

Kang Seok's eyes sparkled. His hands were flying over the paper.

Someone once said,

A genius cannot beat a hard worker, and a hard worker cannot beat someone who enjoys it.

If that's true, who could beat Michelangelo, who was a genius, a hard worker, and a genuine lover of art?

The black ink didn't slowly stain the white paper. It was the purest of falls.

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How focused was he? When Kang Seok put down his pencil in satisfaction, only one word was heard.

"Wow...!"

15. Wow...!