The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 123

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 123.
Ye Ji agreed that it was quite an interesting attempt.
You could tell from the artwork—each artist sees their work differently.
Which made putting it into words another matter entirely.
Especially for contemporary artists, it was becoming an increasingly necessary skill.
The days of succeeding by simply drawing well had long since passed.
Now, you could succeed even with mediocre technical skill if you spoke eloquently and imparted meaning effectively.
Speaking well was definitely a talent in itself.
So she understood the point of this lesson, but….
‘Why insist on this….’
Ye Ji shot another resentful glance at Goyo before awkwardly sitting back-to-back with So Min.
Two people with different materials in hand and different thoughts and temperaments.
Their bodies didn’t quite touch, but the subtle distance—where she could feel the other’s warmth and presence—felt uncomfortably awkward.
“Teacher! Don’t you think we should have a theme?”
As they were about to begin, unable to find his opening words, Woo Jin made the suggestion.
“Hmm? What should we do then….”
Goyo spoke off the cuff in response.
“How about the sun? Let’s go with the sun.”
A subject both concrete and vague.
Then Ji Ho offered an opinion as well.
“That’s not a theme, though…. That’s a subject, isn’t it?”
“Ah? Well. It’s basically the same thing.”
Goyo waved her hand dismissively, as if to gloss over it.
She’d seemed teacher-like for a moment there.
But this careless behavior was still pure Goyo, which made Ye Ji chuckle as she picked up her palette.
So Min was obviously aware of herself, and worse—was someone she actively disliked, now sitting back-to-back with her.
It wasn’t pleasant, but from an artistic standpoint, Ye Ji didn’t hate So Min’s work.
It was more like she just didn’t favor it.
“…….”
“I’ll go first.”
Since So Min showed no signs of speaking up, Ye Ji began first.
“Let’s put the sun on the right.”
It was the element Goyo had suggested, so starting with that position made sense.
At Ye Ji’s words, she heard the sound of something being drawn behind her.
The whisper of an Eastern Painting brush stroking Hanji—barely audible from over her shoulder.
After focusing on that sound for a moment, Ye Ji picked up her brush.
After all, light was an element expressed through Chiaroscuro rather than defined form.
And since the sun was the strongest light of all, she simply drew a circle in the upper right to establish position.
“Then….”
So Min paused for a moment before continuing.
“Draw the sea rippling beneath it.”
The sea.
Water was a familiar subject for Ye Ji, so she sketched the broad flow of waves.
Drawing aimlessly, without meaning or purpose, her usually bold brushwork faltered slightly.
It felt uncharacteristic, which was oddly refreshing.
Would the waves beneath this sun crash powerfully, or would they flow gently and calm?
After pausing to consider, Ye Ji added a single detail to her turn.
“Next, let’s draw land. A cliff at the left edge.”
That way she could add foam crashing against something to the otherwise plain composition.
When there’s resistance—something to push against—nature’s intensity is only emphasized further.
Ye Ji’s usual working method was to conceptualize the entire piece first.
Drawing in reverse this time felt strange and unfamiliar, like rewinding a tape backward.
After working with her brush for a while, So Min spoke again.
“I think a peach tree at the edge of that cliff would work well.”
A peach tree? Out of nowhere?
As Ye Ji puzzled over this unexpected subject, something came to mind.
Ye Ji lived and breathed art, but she still maintained her place as the top student in the entire school.
Her refusal to lose interest in her studies came from an obvious truth: the more you know, the more you see.
She suddenly remembered what she’d learned in art history.
“Are you going for the Moon and Sun with the Five Peaks? Wait a moment.”
At Ye Ji’s words, So Min neither confirmed nor denied.
The Moon and Sun with the Five Peaks.
That referred to paintings used on folding screens in Korean palaces.
While the Moon and Sun with the Five Peaks was more widely known, similar works had been used in the royal court with comparable meanings.
Paintings depicting the sun, moon, peaches, and rocky mountains—said to express wishes for the nation and the king’s well-being.
‘She’s steering this toward Eastern Painting as the theme….’
So Min’s subtle redirection into her own specialty was exasperating.
Peaches were a deceptively difficult subject in Western Painting.
That pale pink fruit could easily tip toward cuteness if rendered incorrectly, creating an awkward impression.
Realistic rendering looked odd. Simplified rendering looked odd too….
For a moment Ye Ji sketched loosely, just capturing the form, before speaking.
“Then draw the peach tree’s branches stretching more toward the sea.”
Ye Ji sketched the branches of the peach tree rooted at the cliff’s edge, reaching toward the center of the canvas.
Leaves filled in first on the peach tree stretching its branches toward the sea.
Through harmony with the blue sea, she added a blue tint to the green foliage.
Against the mysterious blue-green contrast, the pink peaches blended naturally.
Simplified forms—pale white-pink peeking shyly between the leaves.
Once they matched their tones appropriately, there was no jarring discord.
“Next….”
After deliberating for a moment longer, So Min continued with her next contribution.
***
For quite some time, the special class filled with the back-and-forth of voices.
Ye Ji and So Min were relatively subdued and straightforward, exchanging only what was necessary.
The others, meanwhile….
“……Is that right? Are you serious?”
“What? Of course it’s right. That’s how the balance works.”
“That’s balanced?”
Ji Ho and Woo Jin kept asking each other if they had it right dozens of times over.
“Wait, teacher…. You are being serious, right?”
“Me? Have you ever seen me be serious?”
“My grade depends on this!”
“That’s your problem, isn’t it?”
“Ugh! You’re impossible! ……Wait, whose turn is it next?”
Goyo and Ha Eun’s side chattered away—it was hard to tell if they were painting or doing comedy.
This might be the first time she’d had such difficulty concentrating on painting.
With a strange feeling, she finished the details in the painting.
Time passed quickly until the lesson was over.
“Alright! Stop! Now let’s lay out the canvases side by side?”
Just before class ended.
Everyone set down their brushes at Goyo’s words.
The first to present their work were Goyo and Ha Eun.
Goyo’s painting was simple and striking.
Like the viewpoint of someone looking up at the sun—a bright blue sky with nothing but the sun floating in it.
But there was something peculiar about the sun positioned in the lower left with an oddly unstable feel.
Just off-center, but positioned at a subtle 4:3 ratio aligned with the Golden Ratio.
And various forms of light scattered like Lens Flare, beads of light adorning the painting lavishly.
As if looking up at the sun from a desert.
A painting that evoked subtle thirst and heat.
Ha Eun’s work, by comparison….
“No. Even if I said to place it in the lower left, I didn’t mean that far down, did I?”
The object that should have been the sun was skewed heavily toward the lower left.
Goyo pointed this out, finding it funny.
Then Ha Eun protested, sounding aggrieved.
“No, but it’s right! Left end!”
“The end and the bottom are still different. You’re going to have to study Korean with me too.”
Seeming amused by Ha Eun’s whining, Goyo teased her playfully.
Ha Eun was irritated by his behavior, but she herself seemed embarrassed by her inadequate painting.
She’d clumsily tried to imitate the flare effect, but everything looked awkward.
A painting conceived through imagination rather than observation always revealed its shortcomings.
Light refraction was quite scientific and followed subtle rules.
“This sort of thing stays in your head only if you observe it a lot.”
When you look at light through a lens.
How light from a certain angle, seen from a certain perspective in a certain way, creates these halos.
As a painter, one needed to observe the many things visible in your sight and commit them to memory.
“Nowadays, with the world being so convenient, everyone just pulls up photos and traces them. But seeing it directly is definitely different.”
Copying what you see versus drawing from memory and understanding were worlds apart.
After Goyo and Ha Eun’s works, they also viewed Ji Ho and Woo Jin’s paintings.
To be honest, their paintings were somewhat disappointing.
They weren’t below average for their age, but—
‘Still….’
Ye Ji had to admit that her own eye had become too discerning.
It was true that she could no longer be greatly impressed by ordinary work from her peers.
Finally, Ye Ji and So Min’s painting were laid out side by side.
So Min’s work, painted in typical Eastern Painting technique.
Ye Ji’s work, rendered in Western Painting technique with an Eastern composition.
Though painted in different styles, the two works had a subtly similar feeling.
“So Min, didn’t you explain it mostly from your perspective?”
Goyo asked with a playful, teasing tone.
So Min answered without any particular embarrassment.
“You didn’t say I shouldn’t.”
That was true.
Ye Ji silently agreed with So Min’s point.
She could easily match So Min’s direction—it didn’t matter to her.
‘……If I said otherwise, she’d probably take offense.’
She’d keep that to herself.
The two paintings both had a miraculous sky where the moon and sun rose simultaneously on opposite sides, exactly as described.
Yet where So Min’s work—using Eastern Stone Pigment with omitted Chiaroscuro—was flat, Ye Ji’s composition distinctly showed depth.
The dark blue-purple sky beneath the moon and the bright blue sky beneath the sun.
The space between them blurred gently through Gradation, existing in subtle coexistence.
Even the white fruit hanging from the tree above the sea—the entire composition was ethereal and mysterious, strongly dreamlike.
“How did you even paint this in three hours…?”
By Ye Ji’s standards, the details fell short and there were more points that needed rendering.
But Ha Eun murmured her admiration almost to herself.
So Min’s painting left the sky empty, making use of the Hanji’s white space.
So Min’s work, with its strong contrast between waves and peach tree controlled by appropriate emphasis, was precisely—
Reminiscent of the dignity that would suit an ancient palace, radiating gravitas and rigidity.
“In my opinion, I think both your works came out most similar to how you described them.”
Despite being two people with the most radically different styles, Goyo spoke thus.
Ye Ji understood why Goyo said that.
Though their styles and viewpoints were opposites, the placement of each element overlapped in subtle ways.
“The positions and arrangements that look best to the human eye are already defined.”
With just a single description, rendering it most appropriately.
That too was the result of countless practice, experience, and knowledge.
Goyo’s painting gave visual comfort through the Golden Ratio and realistic Lens Flare representation, and from that one could feel the heat and thirst—much like how.
Ye Ji and So Min’s painting likewise had no visually jarring elements, allowing one to feel certain emotions and impressions from them.
No matter how different, the essence remains unchanged.
“…….”
Goyo’s lesson ended there, and everyone prepared to head home.
That you could express the same directional intent in very different ways.
Learning this not merely intellectually but through direct experience felt like her mind was opening up in many directions.
Time had grown late. Should she go to the Studio? Or home?
As Ye Ji was mulling this over, So Min suddenly stopped in front of her.
Thinking it might be a misunderstanding, she tried to step around, but So Min blocked her path again.
Wondering what she wanted, Ye Ji stared at So Min.
“…Is it true? That you’re joining Blank’s rookie project?”
To Ye Ji’s surprise, So Min had brought up something unexpected.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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