NOVPUBOn either side stood two seven-meter-tall sphinxes locked in ruthless combat, none other than the epic statues "Lion of Battle" and "Lion of Victory."
Ascending the stone staircase, the majestic Corridor of Rationality and Prosperity Corridor unfolded before your eyes.
And in the left wing of Parriet Square, a fountain with a statue of gods of will and love stood at the center, its surface glistening with droplets like countless precious gems.
Every open space was filled with examinees sitting quietly, surrounded by flat-head, round-head, and flat brushes, engaged in completing their paintings.
This round’s examination question took the form of ancient text that appeared on the walls of the gallery, seen everywhere.
[Theme: Self-Portrait]
[Each examinee may freely use mirrors in the Artificial Shadow World]
[Once completed, you may submit your work to the head examiner.] 𝔫𝖔𝔳𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝔠𝔬𝖒
[The site and prism itself are not the themes and need not be processed]
[...]
Everything you saw was accompanied by stark outlines that sprang vividly before your eyes.
Many Gold-level Card Makers furrowed their brows.
Outside the Artificial Shadow World.
"Isn’t ’self-portrait’ the easiest of topics?"
Christina asked Kyle from the audience seats.
Her brother Kyle at least knew a thing or two about art, having been a dropout from Parriet Art University, and Rocky the butler was even more impressive, probably a past enrollee.
"A self-portrait is both pure and difficult because it involves both a technical challenge and in-depth self-exploration," Kyle said, watching the changing works of the Gold-level Card Makers on the giant screen, he turned and explained to Christina,
"First is the most basic technical challenge."
On a technical level, a self-portrait requires an artist to accurately capture and reproduce their facial features, which not only calls for excellent drawing skills but also a profound understanding of light, proportions, and composition.
Unlike drawing someone else, when an artist is creating a self-portrait, they observe their own face, and the viewpoint often changes during drawing, which significantly increases the difficulty of the task.
"Then there’s emotional honesty and self-reflection, the choices in self-representation, the tension between public and private aspects, and so on. To be strict, a self-portrait could be even harder than painting others."
Kyle explained to Christina why many of the seasoned Gold-level Card Makers in the Artificial Shadow World were deep in thought.
Since ancient times, many painters have created self-portraits, some depicting the authority of the painter, others by craftsmen who couldn’t afford models and decided to paint themselves.
In any case, many timeless pieces were born.
They could also be said to reflect the painter’s self at that moment of creation.
Before long.
A buzz of conversation arose from the Skycrown Hall.
It seemed a Gold-level Card Maker had gone to the examiner’s chamber to submit their work.
In the picture.
In the conference room where the two examiners and the assistant from the Cardmaker’s Association resided, a young Magic Artisan with a tall, strong build, resolute features, hair tied in a ponytail, arrived with painting in hand.
Escar, a rising star Magic Artisan from a small country, clad in straightforward black artisan clothes with a tool belt around his waist, stood before the long table, his right arm a smart prosthetic of his own invention, waiting.
The chief examiner, wearing a silver mask, rested his chin in his hand as he admired the piece from the main seat.
Countess Rosalinda, the deputy examiner, also observed quietly.
Although she was painting herself, she could stop at any time as she seemed quite at ease.
The Escar’s self-portrait was made up of various irregular geometric shapes with bright colors and strong contrasts.
Within the collaged geometries, some parts resembled mechanical components, as if depicting a mechanized character.
The whole gave the reviewers a visual impact of bursting strength and vibrant energy, conveying the Magic Artisan’s passion for technology and innovation.
[Portrait · Fractured Contours]
[Type: Art piece]
[Grade: Sacred (Damaged)]
[Rank: 1]
[Beings who appreciate this painting have a chance of losing a small amount of stamina and receive mechanical attribute enhancements for 12 hours.]
"He adopted Cubism and Futurism painting techniques, not bad," commented the enigmatic chief examiner, inputting various scores for him.
In the first round of examination, he was sweating buckets as the deputy examiner, but now in the third round, as the chief examiner, he appeared extremely composed.
This time, the exam tested technical ability, creativity and originality, expressiveness and theme conformity, overall completion of the work, Divine Era attributes, and magical foundation—six dimensions in total to calculate the score.
The benchmark was the self-portrait of Lockins given by the question-setting group from the Magician Card Association Headquarters in the western hub district.
They set his painting at 95 points as a reference, scoring the other examinees’ paintings against it.
Countess Rosalinda glanced at Lanci’s scoring.
The average came to 82 in the end.
Her eyelids twitched twice.
Rosalinda, having watched all along, felt that Lanci tended to score on the higher side.
In Rosalinda’s view, she dared to give at most 70.
Although the passing line for the students would ultimately be determined by the score that Lanci assigned to her, Countess Rosalinda’s work, passing if it exceeded this deputy examiner’s score.
But every student receiving higher scores signified that Lanci was showing no regard for Lockins’s face.
Because relative to the benchmark of Lockins’s work, the better the work, the higher the score would be.
Conversely, it also suggested that Lockins’s painting was not really up to par.
Rosalinda felt that Lockins did indeed seem a little like a rich second generation who likes to show off their works and demands praise from others, but normally, no one would really offend Lockins.
