chapter 9 - god-like painting

Xie Ning’s Weibo username is “XN_zxcvbnm”, which is very hard to remember.

Someone once wondered what the letters at the end stood for, and found out that Xie Ning just randomly pressed the last row of letters on the keyboard.

Xie Ning is always low-key. He doesn’t have many Weibo followers, and most of them came after seeing the Christmas poster last time.

Even in the industry, only a few original artists that were close to him knew who he actually was.

Commercial manuscripts cannot be posted in advance without permission. His Weibo only had works he copied from earlier years, and when posting, he explicitly said that they were copied works and not for commercial use. By logic, there shouldn’t have been any problems.

But the problem this time was exactly these copied works.

Someone compared his copied work and the original work, and found that they completely overlapped!

Later on, others questioned if the works weren’t copied, but traced.

To an artist, tracing is like plagiarism, and is a serious accusation.

Xie Ning’s eyes widened. “Traced?”

“Yes.” Yan Xi’s voice shook with anger. “I know you don’t go on Weibo, so I didn’t pay much attention to it, but this time, someone has already made a post to defame you.”

Xie Ning wasn’t as angry as Yan Xi was. “Oh.”

Yan Xi was clear what Xie Ning’s temper was like, and helplessly said, “What do you mean, oh? This time, it’s definitely something that affects you. Can you be a little heartbroken, at least?”

Xie Ning said calmly, “I don’t really go on Weibo, anyways. They can say whatever they want.”

Yan Xi couldn’t understand how he could still be so unbothered by this. “So you’re just going to let them pour dirty water all over you?”

The Weibo post about him had already been shared by tens of thousands of people, which actually quite surprised Xie Ning.

He wasn’t an internet celebrity artist, so logically, even if he was slandered online, there shouldn’t be too much of an impact on him.

The number one sharer was an artist, V (verified), who had hundreds of thousands of followers.

QianFan GuoJin V: This...even though it’s a copy work, it’s still impossible for it to overlap completely.

This single post of hers was shared thousands of times on the platform.

Looking at the comments below, there were many artists who expressed the same opinion as V did.

--Even if they’re a master, there will still be differences between a copied work and a traced one. For them to overlap completely when stacked, emmmmmm

--Isn’t the original artist group just a tracing group?

--100% matching, if not traced, then what could it be?

Xie Ning didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Have they really learned art before? How come they have so many followers?”

Yan Xi asked, “‘What?”

“These copied works of mine were just casual practice. At the time, I didn’t draw them very seriously, so the detail is incomparable to the original. Only the outline can be laid on top of the original and have it be the same.” Xie Ning explained, “This isn’t difficult for an artist with solid basic skills.”

Yan Xi said, “If that’s the case, then explain it to them like that.”

Xie Ning shook his head. “It’s no use. Drawing is something that’s based on skills, so for some artists who can’t do something, they think it’s the same for everyone else. What’s more, most people in the public don’t understand art and its process.”

“If you explain it to them, they won’t listen, and will just think that you’re arguing.” Xie Ning smiled bitterly. “So explaining it is just a waste of energy.”

Yan Xi coldly hmphed. “So you’re just going to ignore them?”

Xie Ning squeezed his phone and softly said, “Original artists work with the client. Online reviews or comments aren’t important, and the number of followers doesn’t matter.”

Normally, large companies have their own team of artists, and sometimes hand projects to outsourced companies. When looking for original designers or artists, they first look at their skills and style, and then their experience with other projects.

To them, the anti-fans online are irrelevant.

Yan Xi didn’t make a sound.

Xie Ning was silent for a little, and said, “And it’s really nothing huge. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s just a copied work I posted a few years ago. Anyone with a good eye can tell that the evidence in the post is not solid.”

“That’s true.” Yan Xi said, “There’s people defending you too.”

“Really?” Xie Ning honestly replied, “I haven’t seen any.”

Yan Xi said, “There’s not many, so they were probably drowned out by the people slandering you.”

Xie Ning scrolled a little more in the comments, and really did see a comment defending him. Of course, the responses to that comment were all saying he was brain-dead.

Zhuang Yan was sitting beside Xie Ning the whole time, and heard a bit of the conversation between Xie Ning and Yan Xi. He came closer to look at Xie Ning’s phone.

“So you’re an original artist?”

Xie Ning nodded. “Mmn. I’ve done some concept design and art for a couple of game companies.”

Zhuang Yan asked, “What game?”

Xie Ning told him the projects he’d worked on in the past.

Zhuang Yan searched them up on the Internet, and surprised, he said, “How come you have so little Weibo followers when you’re so skilled? There aren’t even many followers supporting you.”

Xie Ning responded, indifferent, “I have no use for followers.”

Zhuang Yan scrolled a bit through Weibo, and suddenly said, “If you want to clarify this matter, it’s easy.”

Xie Ning lifted his head towards him. “What?”

“Their so-called evidence is just the very similar outlines, so you can use facts to tell them that their evidence doesn’t stand.”

Zhuang Yan lifted the corners of his lips, and said, “Draw another copied work and record it to prove to them that you’re able to do what they can’t!”

This method is simple and effective, and it’s not like Xie Ning didn’t think of it.

He just...thought it was a hassle.

“There’s not really a need to clarify,” Xie Ning said. “After a couple of days, the heat will have dissipated, and nobody will care anymore.”

Zhuang Yan raised his eyebrows and looked at him. “You should clarify it when the heat is still at its peak, otherwise it’s useless even if you do post a video. By that time, the crime of tracing artwork will have been stamped onto your forehead.”

Xie Ning shook his head. “I don’t mind.”

Zhuang Yan replied, “But someone does mind.”

Xie Ning was perplexed. “Huh?”

Zhuang Yan glanced at him and said seriously, “I’ll mind.”

Seeing how Zhuang Yan looked at him, Xie Ning’s heart skipped a beat, and he stared at the phone in a daze. “......”

“It’s not your pot, so why should you carry it?” Zhuang Yan couldn’t help himself, and extended his hand to ruffle Xie Ning’s hair. His voice softened, and he said, “Other than me, your followers will also mind.”

He scrolled down Weibo, and, pointing at a comment, said, “Even though there aren’t many, there are still people who believe in you, protect you, and are confident in their opinion, even though they’re being attacked to no end.”

Xie Ning didn’t recognize the commenter’s ID, and they’d never spoken or interacted before.

No matter how up and down the Internet is, it would never affect Xie Ning’s real, personal life.

With his personality, he would have refused to do something as troublesome as making a recording.

Seeing how serious Zhuang Yan was, he readied himself to say no, but for some reason, when the words came out of his mouth, it’d turned into an “Okay”.

Zhuang Yan curled the corners of his lips, and revealed a smile. “Also, don’t you think that proving yourself innocent and giving them a huge slap in the face is majorly refreshing?”

Xie Ning: “...”

……

Half an hour later, the account “XN_zxcvbnm” suddenly published a Weibo post.

It was right when the tracing accusations were at their peak, and many people who came to check out Xie Ning’s account before saw his post and its contents.

It was a livestream announcement.

By clicking on the link, they’d find that the streamer is drawing live.

The original picture is on the left, scaled down, and a white canvas was on the right side, larger in size.

Xie Ning started to directly draw on the white canvas.

He thought of livestreaming his copying process a little later, mainly because he was afraid that only posting a video would bring in people who argued that he had fiddled with the video post-production. He’d rather turn on a livestream to end it once and for all.

In the beginning, there weren’t many people watching, but as time went on, others came in, one after another.

Xie Ning didn’t really care or mind, and focused all his attention on drawing.

He actually hadn’t drawn a copy work in years. Painting is a process that requires continuous learning and improvement, and only copying encourages stagnation. It might even lead to a loss of originality and innovation.

Xie Ning held his pen, feeling nervous.

After such a long time, drawing had become an instinct. He almost never had to correct any strokes, and the outlines that were in his mind were directly transferred onto the canvas.

When the drawing on the canvas was mainly completed, there was suddenly a bullet comment that appeared on screen.

--??? The streamer is drawing it upside down?

Yep.

Xie Ning curled the corner of his lip and let out a confident smile.

The original picture on the left and the draft on the right were inverted.

Not only did he want to livestream copying, but also livestream copying a work upside down!

--Holy shit! What kind of god-like drawing is this?

--The speed at which he drafted this outline is way too fast. I even closed the livestream and had to confirm that it was a livestream and not accelerated!

--I’m also an art student, but I’ve thrown my pen away.

Since he only did this to clear his name, Xie Ning wasn’t being too detailed and only slightly filled in the background.

After half an hour, a lifelike copy of the picture had appeared.

At this time, the number of livestream viewers had just exceeded 1,000.

Some came from randomly seeing his Weibo post, some were called over by their friends in WeChat groups, and some came to watch a master paint.

The number of bullet comments had also increased; most of them wanted to see if the outline of the two works could be put on top of each other and overlap exactly when he was finished.

Zhuang Yan watched him drag the copied work closer to the original drawing, and asked, “Are you nervous?”

Xie Ning smiled a little. “I’m not nervous.”

Zhuang Yan lifted his eyebrow and looked at him. “You’re that confident?”

“Before I started, I was still a little unsure,” Xie Ning said. “But right now, I’m very confident in myself.”

He adjusted the size of the drawings to be the same, and lowered the opacity of his copied work to 50%.

At this point, the images were still inverted, and everyone watching held their breath, waiting.

Click to flip vertically.

--!!!

--Holy shit! The outlines completely match!

--God-like painting!!! Inverted outlines can even overlap!

--Tell me! Who the hell said that copying a work can’t have matching outlines? Slap!

--This boss said, not only can I make outlines overlap! I can also make them overlap when drawing it upside down!

--The streamer didn’t even use reference lines! Someone like me, who can’t even promise an overlap when I use reference lines, bow before you!

Xie Ning didn’t pay attention to these bullet comments, opened a TXT file, and typed:

[This is a clarification for the Weibo post that tried to slander me. Overlapping pictures doesn’t say much.

Don’t use your own level of skill to guess at the skill of others.

Some things that you think are impossible to do, might just be because you’re not skilled enough.

I hope everyone can draw seriously, and be good people.]

After writing these words, he turned to ask Zhuang Yan, “Is this refreshing enough?”

Zhuang Yan looked at him with a faint smile. “Not yet.”

Xie Ning furrowed his brow. “Um…”

He was thinking of what else he should add, when a full-screen notification of a large gift swept across the screen.

Mr. Blue Whale gifted the streamer XN_zxcvbnm with a deep-sea torpedo. The message attached was:

--All. Of. You. Apologize. To. Him!

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Author’s Note: It’s possible to draw a copy work inverted and have the outlines match. A few years ago I saw an artist’s video online; they were copying a photograph.

Translator's Notes:

QianFan GuoJin V - this is their username/screen name on weibo, and roughly translates to "someone who has experienced many things"; the V means that they are verified on weibo!

emmmmmm - this was originally in english!

inverted - i wasnt sure if i got this across correctly in my translation, but the original picture is right side up, and xie ning is drawing it upside down--a skilled bunny :')