Episode 3: The Appearance of a Hidden Master
Kang Lim set up his aluminum easel in an appropriate spot and placed a drawing board on it. The board was cluttered with motivational messages scribbled by students, wishing for success in their entrance exams, much like notes left by travelers.
“The sorrow of Korean exam-takers is palpable here…”
He secured a white drawing paper on the board.
At that moment, a loud commotion could be heard from outside, and the front door suddenly opened.
“Get in here early, you guys!”
The academy director, a man with a long philtrum like a monkey, smacked the kids on their backs, herding them into the classroom like sheep.
“We did check in! It’s hard to get attendance recognized these days.”
“Do you think you’ll get into college like that? You need to make a firm resolution!”
The students in uniforms clustered together, laughing and chatting. In this country, students often skipped school without permission to prepare for entrance exams.
Most of them were girls, but one boy stood out.
Kang Lim chuckled at the sight of him.
Lee Hyun-sung.
“That guy died while we were housewarming in a previous life. Oh well… No, I should be grateful.”
In their past life, Kang Lim and Lee Hyun-sung had prepared for art school entrance exams together at this academy throughout their senior year. They had stayed in touch ever since, having endured the grueling 12-hour days of drawing three sheets of 3-ply paper while also preparing for the college entrance exam. Despite Lee Hyun-sung’s mediocre art skills and average grades…
“Wow, what are you doing here? Are you the new student?”
As the saying goes, speak of the tiger and he appears. Lee Hyun-sung set up his easel next to Kang Lim.
“No, I’m just here for the joint exam.”
“Oh, really? Are you applying to Hongik University too?”
“No, I’m aiming for Korea National University of Arts.”
“Wow, only geniuses go there… I heard the exam questions are crazy.”
“But you’re applying there too, right?”
“What? How did you know?”
“Just a hunch.”
“Wow, great intuition. But I’m just applying for the heck of it. I don’t actually think I’ll get in. How do you prepare for something so unpredictable?”
“You’re gutsy, just applying like that.”
Kang Lim looked at Lee Hyun-sung with a mix of disbelief and amusement.
This guy, applying to Korea National University of Arts and Hongik University as a joke, and yet he got accepted.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand how this guy got in.
He said he crumpled up his paper and turned it in, and still got accepted. What kind of test did they have this year?
All he remembered was Lee Hyun-sung wandering around the academy, saying it was unbelievable and doing all sorts of celebratory acts.
Even though he complained about how hard it was to graduate, Kang Lim had been envious.
“You guys know that students with low scores in last year’s joint exam didn’t get into any college, right? Do your best. The time will be strictly from 9:30 AM for 4 hours.”
“Oh, come on! Only 5 minutes left! Director, you’re too harsh.”
“Quiet! Sit down quickly.”
As the kids grumbled while sharpening their pencils, the director walked briskly to the still-life setup with plaster casts.
Hige, Karakara, Elias…
There were many interesting plaster casts, but the director chose Agrippa, Venus, and Julian—the three most common casts in college entrance exams.
The director placed Agrippa on the lowest tier of the three-tiered stand, Julian in the middle, and Venus at the top, then addressed the students. The intention was blatant since the middle was the easiest to focus on.
“For this joint exam, the plaster drawing problem is obvious, right? But there’s a twist: you can choose one of the three. Of course, as you know, drawing Julian is the best because it’s the most complex and difficult, so it has the highest base score. Choose wisely based on your strengths and weaknesses!”
“Ah, is that advice to choose or not to choose?”
“I hate Julian’s broccoli head.”
“It’s 9 o’clock. Start now!”
At the director’s clap, the grumbling girls rushed with their easels like buffaloes, trying to secure a spot where the plaster cast’s half-profile was visible. The half-profile made it easier to create a sense of space, making it a high-scoring position.
“Hey, isn’t this scary? People envy us for being in a female-dominated field when we say we’re doing art, but there’s nothing to envy.”
As Lee Hyun-sung frowned and spoke, Kang Lim quietly nodded. He remembered his college classmates, who had stayed up all night working on assignments, their hair greasy and matted.
“Hey, you don’t even need to draw here since you’re good at it. Go somewhere else. When I draw from there, Julian looks like a giraffe. His neck looks ridiculously long.”
“Right. If you have any conscience, give up your spot?”
“Hehe, I’m drawing Agrippa, so I can sit anywhere.”
“If you draw Agrippa, your score will look like Agrippa.”
The students, after some rough jostling, reasonable persuasion, and compromise, sat in a fan shape around the plaster cast, except for the back side.
“Whew…”
Lee Hyun-sung took a deep breath and calmly looked at the plaster cast.
He measured the proportions with a long pencil clasped between his fingers, squinting one eye.
The reason for all this measuring and sketching was simple.
The human eye has a short memory for shapes.
Lee Hyun-sung carefully measured the horizontal and vertical proportions, marking the horizontal and vertical positions of the eyes, nose, and mouth.
He had to check each angle and transfer it accurately to the paper to draw Julian.
“Sigh… The hair is so complicated, it’s always difficult to draw.”
Lee Hyun-sung suddenly wondered how well the new guy could draw.
As he stood up and glanced to the side…
“…!”
Kang Lim was transferring the outline directly without any preliminary sketch lines.
It was as if he had already memorized the form, and it was being traced through transparent paper.
“Wow, what is this? This guy is insane… I knew it when he said he was applying to Korea National University of Arts.”
Despite the commotion, Kang Lim remained perfectly still. How could anyone concentrate so well? Lee Hyun-sung glanced at Kang Lim and felt a chill run down his spine. He thought, no wonder college entrance exams are so tough with hidden masters like this popping up.
“This isn’t right. I can’t do it like this.”
But despite his perfect sketch, Kang Lim seemed unsatisfied, putting down his pencil and stopping. He felt that if he followed the usual steps of shading and detailing, he wouldn’t get into the university he was aiming for. Korea National University of Arts would likely want a different approach, even if the subject was a plaster cast.
“Isn’t there some way to express it differently?”
Kang Lim recalled the countless books he had read and reviewed the characteristics of each plaster cast.
In retrospect, these plaster casts weren’t made for entrance exams.
They were ‘works’ created by actual artists.
“All of them are parts taken from masterpieces of Greco-Roman antiquity or the Italian Renaissance.”
The reason why most plaster casts were cut off at the collarbone was that they were replicas of parts from original works. Venus, for example, was originally a full-body statue standing 8 heads tall.
“The Julian I’m drawing now was sculpted by Michelangelo, a Renaissance master. Michelangelo’s sculptures are known for…”
As Kang Lim gazed at the sculpture, he realized something important.
Michelangelo’s works were marked by their characteristic ‘dynamic movement!’
Unlike Agrippa and Venus, which looked like stiff, symmetrical ID photos, Julian’s head was uniquely extended and turned.
As if someone had called him, and he turned his head to look.
“Even though it’s just a bust cut off at the neck, the dynamic tension and relaxation in the delicate neck muscles make it seem alive. To highlight this…”
Snap.
Kang Lim broke his pencil, took out a thick lead, and began rubbing it on the paper.
.
.
.
How much time had passed?
Whispers from the surroundings started to reach his ears, faintly and indistinctly.
“Alright! External students, please bring your work now.”
Kang Lim was startled by the director’s loud voice.
The four hours of intense concentration had flown by, and when he looked around, the other students were already sitting in two rows, waiting for their work to be evaluated.
“You’re finished, right? You can set it up at the end.”
“Oh! Yes.”
With his right hand blackened, Kang Lim set up his drawing board, and the students began to murmur.
“What the… That’s insane. It’s really well-drawn.”
“Wow, it looks even better next to mine. Perfect.”
“Ugh, I’m dead.”
Despite the giggling of the kids, the director stared at Kang Lim with a stone-cold expression.
“How on earth did you draw this? Did you really use a pencil?”
