Xiaoxiao sat alone in Shanlai Pavilion for a while and enjoyed the bamboo. Today's banquet was too lively. Xiaoxiao, as a guest at the banquet, felt overwhelmed. At this moment, he finally had to take a rest for half a day of leisure, so he naturally had to take a good rest.

I stood up and looked into the distance. The snail bun hit the string of copper wind chimes, and there was a tinging sound.

At the bend of the Qing brick road, there was a young painter painting. The painting table was set under the bamboo. Because the wind was causing trouble from time to time, many pieces of paperweight were pressed on the drawing paper.

Xiaoxiao was curious, walked over to see what he drew.

The painter only focused on painting and did not notice that someone was approaching.

The picture is background with bamboo color, with Shanxiang Pavilion as the main body, and the two people in the pavilion are vividly painted with low bamboo eaves and ancient wind chimes. The man is wearing a gardenia dyed robe, holding a green bamboo leaf in his hands, and playing the song seriously. The girl sits leisurely beside her, looking up at the blue sky, her clothes are very shallow white, with green filaments hanging from the joints, and small sachets are hung. The hem of the skirt is spread on the edge of the pavilion, and her feet are hanging leisurely.

The color of the skirt was still blank, but the painter first drew out the stone-blue shoes.

Xiaoxiao couldn't help but whisper: "Use the color of the yellow dragon teeth, paired with moon white, and add a little light green."

When the painter heard someone's advice, he hurriedly did it, but did not look up to see who the person was.

Xiaoxiao continued to remind: "If the color is too heavy, you can add water to it. Do not add powder, otherwise it will weaken the transparency of the color."

The painter tried several times and finally brought up the fresh blue-green green. Just as he was about to look up to thank him, he saw the blue-green skirt he was wearing. He felt nervous: "Miss, please forgive me for being abrupt."

“You’ve drawn it very well.”

Hearing the sound became more and more familiar, he looked up and said, "Miss Yingyuan?"

Xiaoxiao couldn't recognize every painter at all. He only knew that the person in front of him was one of the many banquet painters invited by Aunt Four for her: "Are you good at drawing characters?"

"Compared with landscapes, flowers and birds, I am more willing to paint people." The painter said seriously.

"How many paintings have you painted today?"

The painter always presents his paintings today: "Because the girl asks to paint as quickly as possible, some places are inevitably sloppy."

Xiaoxiao was surprised. The painter painted more than a dozen paintings today, and most of them had characters: people sitting on the side of the road to rest, pedestrians chatting and laughing, and even people who took the initiative to let them draw portraits.

"Did these two girls volunteer to draw them by the gentleman?" Xiaoxiao looked at the frontal images of the two young women on the drawing, with a restrained and shy face, and each of them was holding a handful of roses in their hands.

"They saw that the painting was interesting, so they asked to draw them down. If they were not easy to refuse, they agreed to go back and polish the picture, and then gave the painting to them." The painter was a little panicked. After all, the girl in front of him was his boss. She arranged it for her to paint at the rose banquet this time, but she privately agreed to draw for others. The method was really... "Miss Yingyuan, I didn't charge them money, just..."

"It's rare that you can draw their shy expressions so naturally," Xiaoxiao's eyes were still staring at the paintings. "Don't worry, these paintings will eventually return to their hands, not to give them, but to sell them, and you can also get the corresponding commission from them."

"I dare not." The painter is still young, only seventeen or eighteen years old, and is afraid that he will lose his job because of it.

"Would you like to continue to draw portraits of people like this in the future?"

When the painter heard the girl Yingyuan asked him this, although he was worried, he still told the truth: "I can't ask for it."

"Which drawing class are you?"

"I have no talent in my heart and do not belong to any painting association. I just love painting since I was a child and have a very fast painting speed. This time I was recommended by Mr. Qin Gong."

The girl Yingyuan looked at the paintings carefully again and suddenly said, "You painted the characters' movements and behaviors very naturally, and their expressions are also vivid. However, I don't know these characters, so I dare not judge whether they are similar or not." She looked at the one in the painting, "This character is a bit far away and its face is not very clear. So, I'll sit here, you can draw it now."

The painter never expected that the girl Yingyuan would take the initiative to ask her to paint on the spot. As he was hesitating, the other party had already instructed the girl to bring in an embroidery pier and choose a place with beautiful bamboo branches to sit down: "The light here is very good, and with bamboos, neither of them will be dazzling."

The painter was nervous for a moment. After laying the paper, he started to choose the paint. However, he saw the girl beside the girl Yingyuan came over and grinding ink for herself. He smiled and said, "Sir, don't be nervous. The girl said that she could just use ink to paint."

"well."

The girl Yingyuan still slapped her fan in her hand: "Is it enough to give you an incense stick of time?"

"It's enough, half a stick of incense is enough!" The painter chose the right brush, dipped it in ink, and prepared to finish the brush and paint.

When the girl Yingyuan saw that she started painting, she quickly posed for a fan to enjoy the scenery. She looked at Shanlei Pavilion not far away, and looked at the smile.

The painter has also painted portraits for people in the market. The person being painted either has unnatural movements or has been moving constantly. He quickly poses graceful poses like the girl Yingyuan, and can still move like a stone statue, but he has never seen them before.

It is a rare opportunity to have such a beauty who is willing to cooperate with her paintings. The painter put away his chaotic thinking, concentrated his energy, and began to paint seriously.

Amid the dense sound of cicadas, half a stick of incense passed quickly.

The painter blew the ink traces that had not dried and handed the painting to the girl Yingyuan with both nervous hands.

The other party looked at it for a long time, and the words in his mouth were both judged and said to himself: "If you don't consider the light and shadow and just use lines to express it, it is very rare. The eyes are not bright enough, and the luster of the hair can be found to be expressed. The curve of the lips and chin is difficult to highlight with simple lines."

The painter listened in a vague way, but hesitated, but suddenly heard the girl say, "It's still a while since you are leaving You, and the sir also gives me half a stick of incense. How about I put the portrait of the sir?"

"I dare not!"

"Why are both painters, sir, so pedantic?" the girl smiled.

"The surname is Cao, and his courtesy name is Menghu. The girl's name is Jai Menghu. I really dare not call her a gentleman in vain!" The painter was humble and was more surprised and unbelievable in his heart. The girl also wanted to paint? Or did she paint for a man she met for the first time?!

"Then, it's better to obey your orders than to be respectful."

Cao Menghu has painted thousands of people, but this is the first time in his life that he has been painted by someone. He sits there stiffly without even moving.

Xiaoxiao took out the paper sketchbook he carried with him and the rolled carbon pen, quickly analyzed the model's body proportions and facial features, and started to write.

"Swishy", Cao Menghu only felt that the girl was very powerful in painting, and the brushstrokes made a nice sound on the paper. Occasionally, the girl would remind herself: raise her head a little more, and continue to look straight in her eyes...

When the girl handed the painting in her hands, Cao Menghu almost shouted in surprise. How could she look so similar? The one on the paper is clearly the same self! How did this be drawn? How did it be done? The characters on the paper are not as if they were drawn flat on the paper, but as if they were raised on the paper, and they were simply alive!

"If you have time to dye the color, it's probably better." The girl said, "This is to use light and shadow to make the picture rich in light and dark changes, so that it can be more realistic. This effect can actually be achieved with a brush, but it took too long, so I used a carbon pen first."

"Aunt, can I give this painting to you?"

"Take it."

Cao Menghu opened his mouth and said, "Thank you! Also, can the girl... teach me, let me teach you..."

"If you have any painting problems in the future, you can ask me for advice at any time." Xiaoxiao smiled, "If you want, I can introduce you to the Sicun Painting Club, or directly enter my future photo studio."

"Photo court?" Cao Menghu had never heard of such a place.

The girl nodded vigorously: "Yes, the photo studio is a painting studio that specializes in painting portraits for guests."

Who would visit such a painting gallery? Cao Menghu only knew that some successful people would invite painters to come to their homes to paint portraits for themselves, and some older ladies would also invite painters to paint portraits so that they could be placed in the ancestral hall in the future.

Who would go to the painting gallery to paint a portrait of himself when he was fine?

"Are there two girls who take the initiative to let the husband portray them today?" The girl seemed to see through her thoughts, "Everyone has a love for beauty. Who doesn't want to keep her momentary beauty forever in her youth!"

Cao Menghu didn't say anything for a while. He had painted portraits for so many years, but never thought of running a photo studio in the past! The more he thought about it, the more excited he felt: "Thanks to the girl Yingyuan, I, Cao Menghu, are willing to use her poor painting skills to help her girls."

"At the time of You, the Wen family will show the plaque of the empress dowager to the guests. Are you sent to draw it quickly?" the girl asked.

"I have arranged ten painters to go there, so it's my turn." Cao Menghu smiled silly.

"You have painted all the scenery of Zhushan, so you might as well go there to practice your painting skills!" The girl ordered, "I have sent ten people, so it's okay to have one more."

Cao Menghu knew that this was a rare good job, so he hurriedly thanked the girl and began to clean up his paintings.

Then the close maid said to the girl: "Miss Xizi is still waiting for her to make up for her, so let's go there early."
Chapter completed!