Van Gogh Reborn!

Chapter 162: Summer Waves (8)

Chapter 162 Summer Waves (8)

There was no place to order delivery food, so we ate braised flatfish at a nearby restaurant.

It was a dish of whole flatfish seasoned and steamed, and the pot was full of it.

Neither I nor Cha Si-hyun were good at removing fish bones, so we ate the flatfish that Grandpa had cleaned for us.

Be careful. Watch out for the bones.

Okay.

It was delicious.

The spiciness that was not too hot and the saltiness that barely crossed the line of being too salty matched well.

But contrary to its name, the star of this braised flatfish was the radish.

Ah.

The radish soaked in the sauce was so good that I blew on it and ate it with warm white rice. I wondered if there could be a better side dish than this.

I didnt forget to add the vegetables and flatfish meat that came with it.

The flaky white fish meat, the spicy sauce, the warm rice, and the appetizing vegetable side dishes were interesting no matter how I combined them.

It was great to eat the flatfish and rice together, the vegetables and flatfish, the vegetables and rice, the radish and flatfish.

It was also great to scoop some sauce on the rice and mix it.

I had a splendid dinner today.

I went back home, washed up, and lay down on the bed. I checked the comments on the teaser video of <Giamseong> one more time and looked into the illusion phenomenon more.

It was not easy to understand, but the more I learned, the more interesting it was.

I nodded at the fact that perspective, which draws reality on a plane and makes it look three-dimensional, was also a kind of illusion.

If I had enough time, I would like to study it in detail, but I dont have that luxury right now.

I need to find a way to make the picture look like its wavering.

I found a good example.1)

If I fix my eyes on the center point and move my face closer and farther repeatedly, the circle looks like its rotating.

This is called motion illusion, and its a brains mistake that occurs from color contrast and location perception.

I looked for some papers, but I didnt understand what they were saying, and no one mentioned how to draw it.

I had no choice but to observe the pictures that caused motion illusion myself and found out a few facts.

The picture doesnt move when I fix my eyes. It moved when I moved my eyes or changed the distance.

Maybe I feel confused because I have an afterimage of what I saw before when I adjust the focus.

Also, the moving pictures had a certain shape arranged continuously, and each object had a very simple shading.

Is this possible only with such a simple form?

I couldnt find any cases of painting-like pictures moving as I looked at various pictures.

How about this?

Cha Si-hyun showed me an article that explained the principle of illusion easily.

It didnt introduce how to draw a moving picture, but it was an interesting story, so I read it.

Simultaneous contrast, a phenomenon where the color looks different depending on the surrounding color.

When I looked at the comparison photos, I could see that the brightness and saturation were clearly different, which I knew from experience.

Another one was adaptation.

The writer explained it as color adaptation.

He said that if you stare at something, you get used to the color reflected by the object and the light, and even if the color changes due to the light, you perceive it as the original color you were aware of.

Why?

I wanted to draw, but I didnt know I had to study this kind of thing.

Right. Its too hard.

To do art, you need to accumulate a lot of complex and diverse knowledge.

You have to fill your heart and mind with literature, music, theater, and other fields.

And I always feel that I have to learn more.

I felt a bit of doubt as I studied the illusion phenomenon.

Ill leave this theory to biologists and neuroscientists and focus on drawing the wavy sea.

I drew it with the clue that I felt the phenomenon of moving when I arranged a certain pattern regularly.

It doesnt move at all.

Its not easy.

***

I stayed in Samcheok for a week.

I got a little sense of the pattern that caused the illusion, but I didnt make any progress in drawing it like a wave.

I was stuck at home drawing pictures, so Grandpa suggested fishing to cheer me up.

Cha Si-hyun, who had to go up to Seoul tomorrow, was a bit bored and accepted Grandpas offer.

Hurry up! Hurry up!

He urged me to hurry.

Fishing on the cliff was dangerous, so we took a spot on the breakwater where the railing was installed.

Here. Take one each.

I took the fishing rod that Grandpa had assembled for me. He said it was 190mm for children, but it didnt seem like that.

It was hard to hold.

You need bait.

Its cute.

Grandpa showed me the conch he would use as bait.

Cha Si-hyun crouched down and observed the conch. It was too cute to give as food even to me.

Here, you just have to put it through the shell from the head like this.

The needle?

Cha Si-hyun asked in surprise.

Thats how the fish get caught on the hook when they eat it.

It hurts.

He felt sorry for the conch that would be pierced by the sharp needle.

He insisted that he couldnt use it as bait even if he had to catch a delicious fish.

Hes a kind guy.

Then how about this one?

Grandpa showed him a worm instead of a conch.

It was a small pink worm called a red sea worm.

I dont want to fish.

He brought a chair and sat next to me. He took out his tablet and looked like he was going to spend time drawing.

Try it.

Its pitiful.

You can catch something delicious.

Isnt it better to buy it?

Isnt it pitiful to buy it?

He tilted his head.

He looked confused when I asked him if eating fish wasnt taking life.

Grandpa scattered some bait on the water.

After a while, the calm surface began to ripple. There were so many fish that Cha Si-hyun leaned on the railing and peeked his face out.

Be careful. It hurts a lot if you get caught on the hook.

Okay.

I followed Grandpa and cast the float and watched the sea slowly.

The sea seemed to show everything, but it was hard to figure out what was inside.

It was overwhelming to express it completely, let alone add the motion illusion effect.

I learned a little bit how to create a similar effect with a certain pattern, but I couldnt find a way to simplify the waves.

Should I give up?

Maybe I could find a way someday if I didnt enter the contest and took some time to think.

What I cant do today might be possible tomorrow, a month later, or a few years later.

Hmm.

Grandpas fishing line tightened.

He pulled and reeled the line, and soon a fish bigger than Grandpas palm appeared on the surface.

It looked about 35~40cm.

Wow.

Cha Si-hyun exclaimed.

What is this?

"Its a rockfish."

It was blackish brown with a slightly white belly.

Its tail was straight, but it was flapping vigorously, showing its personality.

It looked delicious.

Is it tasty?

It is. The flesh is flaky. It would be good to make a spicy soup with it.

I was worried that Grandpa might make it himself.

Ill take it to a nearby restaurant and theyll cook it for us.

Thats a relief.

Grandpa put the fish he caught in a bucket and threw the bait again.

He caught another one soon.

It was no wonder, as the fish formed a swarm and poked their faces out of the water. It was half water and half fish.

They splashed around to eat the bait, and they seemed very hungry.

Ah.

I suddenly had a good idea.

Can you hold this for a while?

Huh? I dont know how to do it.

Me neither.

I handed the fishing rod to Cha Si-hyun and took out my tablet.

It was easy to draw fish simply.

I thought I could draw a fish-shaped pattern and make it look like the waves were swaying.

I drew with a pen, but I was so frustrated that I put it back.

Grandpa, Im going back.

Huh? Now?

I had a good idea.

Wait a minute. How can you go alone?

Its okay. Im in a hurry.

I left Grandpa and Cha Si-hyun behind and ran up to the villa.

My body got younger and my stamina got better, but I was out of breath when I climbed up the hill in one breath.

I barely caught my breath and sketched with a pencil.

I made the shape as simple as possible.

I gave a shadow to the belly part and drew the fish slightly bending their waist as if they were swimming.

As I filled the paper with gaps between the fish as if there were other fish, it looked plausible.

There were still some parts to touch up.

But I felt my heart pounding as I thought I had found the direction.

***

When Go Hoon was racking his brain for a work to submit to the Arnuvo contest, Henri Matisse was also struggling.

The problem he faced was that he had to give up self-portraits.

Henri Matisse, who had drawn nearly 800 self-portraits, including his most recent work <Shadow>, had to find a new subject as he participated anonymously.

He had no time to worry about cleaning up the trash.

He stopped his hand as he was about to sketch the idea that came to his mind.

He didnt like this idea either.

Henri Matisse had two goals for this work.

One was to draw the most memorable work among the 1,700 pieces.

The other was to find and draw a beautiful symbol instead of drawing himself.

Many people challenged and the result was decided by voting, so he had to be engraved in the memory of the audience first.

If they didnt remember him when they were about to vote after glancing at hundreds of works, it was useless.

To do that, he had to give a strong image in a very short time.

But this was also a problem to worry about after solving the second condition.

Henri Matisse couldnt find anything as beautiful and perfect as himself.

The most beautiful scenery, jewels, and flowers in the world were not as beautiful as his eyes.

Sigh.

He sighed as the days of worry continued.

It had been going on since he learned that <Bullet> was not a work of genius and coincidence.

He couldnt admit that he was captivated by the inferiority complex toward the young painter.

He couldnt tolerate his perfect self harboring such a lowly mind.

So he decided to compete confidently, but he became more anxious as he worried more.

The anxiety ate away at his daily life and he became more sensitive and his sleep time decreased and his irritation increased.

He couldnt forget the genius in his head.

So.

He couldnt put down his brush.

***

1)Revolving circles, Fibonacci, 2007, Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

2)The fish that Go Hoon caught is a rockfish. It is also called dol-samchi in Gangwon-do and gerchi in Gyeongnam.