Courtyard House: Drunk and tipsy, the whole courtyard exposed at the start.

Zhang Dabiao didn't go to school. He had already told Teacher Zhou that as long as it didn't interfere with the exam, it didn't matter whether he came to the regular classes or not, but he had to show up every now and then.

To be fair, the "Commercial Art" teachers at the Beijing Arts and Crafts School couldn't teach Zhang Dabiao anything. In order not to be outdone by the students during class and feel too embarrassed, they all agreed that Zhang Dabiao could go wherever he wanted.

If you were a teacher of Chinese oil painting and woodblock printing, you would teach Zhang Dabiao—Zhang Dabiao wouldn't have time to learn that stuff.

Zhang Dabiao rode his motorcycle to art supply stores on Wangfujing Street and Liulichang Cultural Street in Beijing, as well as the Donghuamen Commune Cultural and Educational Supplies Factory in Beijing. As the saying goes, "If you want to do something well, you must first have the right tools."

The dip pen nibs come in Lighthouse 426, 101, and 126 models, with wooden or chemical-plastic barrels. Each nib costs one or two cents, and Zhang Dabiao bought them by the box without hesitation—100 nibs per box, enough to last forever!

In particular, lighthouses 426 and 126 have a special water-storage iron plate structure, making them very convenient to use.

Go back and lightly heat the nib with fire, then polish it slightly with a whetstone or sandpaper. The feel of it is just as good as imported round pens or G-pens.

There were also fountain pens with various nibs. Zhang Dabiao bought several directly. He needed to use them himself to see how they felt, and he also needed to sharpen the nibs. For drawing, especially fountain pen drawing, the feel was the most important thing. Whether the pen was expensive or not was really not that important.

Purchase large quantities of consumables such as sketching paper and wood pulp paper at the Shazikou Stationery Wholesale Market;

Liulichang Cultural Street is a "holy land" for the Four Treasures of the Study. There are time-honored brands such as Moyuange, which specializes in calligraphy and paintings, and Qingyuntang, which specializes in rubbings and inkstones. You can buy Rongbaozhai brushes, Yidege high-grade ink, and various kinds of high-quality Xuan paper.

Around the Central Academy of Fine Arts, you can find rare items such as imported pen nibs and professional drawing inks.

Zhang Dabiao himself is an anime and game artist. He did buy some comic pen tips when he was in college, some imported and some domestic, but he stopped using those things a long time ago. He started using a graphics tablet to draw directly from the second semester of his freshman year. All those tools, paints, pencils and the like are just lying around in the toolbox, so he simply bought some new ones.

If you buy a lot online, and mix these things together, even if you take out some professional painting tools from your "little nest," it won't be so conspicuous.

There are also professional engineering "drawing boards," also known as "precision drawing boards," such as round rulers, oval rulers, cloud rulers, snake rulers, square rulers, and so on—Zhang Dabiao buys whatever new gadgets he sees first.

I even went to Teacher Zhou's place and borrowed a lot of the school's tools and art supplies. In the end, I even made a special art supply box to store all these things.

They did a better job than the teachers!

Whether we draw or not is another matter, but if we're going to draw, then our tools must be professional!

You need to have style!

Once the painting is finished, whether it's good or bad, whether he'll paint again, or whether the tools and materials will be wasted—Zhang Dabiao doesn't consider any of these things!

First, you have to have style!

Do struggling students have a lot of stationery?

Then they also got some waterproof cloth and asked He Yushui to help them make it into the kind of professional painting bag that we see in later generations using a sewing machine!

There were also those rollable pencil cases made of leather, and I went to the Hongxing Daily Necessities Factory to ask the craftsmen to make some preparations, such as folding stools, folding buckets, multi-functional three-layer toolboxes, paint boxes...

then.

Zhang Dabiao's "Artist" (college entrance exam) suit was requisitioned by the factory...

And then, by sheer accident, they created a "professional" design.

Eighty percent of the things inside are available in this era, but no one thought that these things could be combined to make it so professional, like a complete set of products.

Then a small workshop was added to the factory to experiment with these things. In just a day or two, Zhang Dabiao produced a batch and even made some light boxes (light boxes). And you know what? Wearing this "set" on your body, regardless of whether you can draw or not, you look very impressive, like an artist!

If you were to add a fishing alias from later times and a director's hat to it, that would be absolutely amazing!

After the experiment was successful, Huang Yan, one of the three assistants, who was affiliated with the Ministry of Light Industry, reported it to the leaders of the Ministry of Light Industry. The Ministry of Light Industry then sent the designs to a specialized art supplies manufacturing plant, and Zhang Dabiao's reward was 50 yuan...

Zhang Dabiao stared blankly at the money in his hand for a long time. "I haven't even started drawing comic books yet, and I'm already making money?"

Never mind all that. He took three sets of "Artist's Suit" directly from the factory and took them back to school to "pay his respects" to Teacher Zhou.

In the afternoon, Zhang Dabiao finally arrived at school, looking rather unsteady.

Most of the students in the Decoration Class 1 were taking academic classes in the classroom.

Zhang Dabiao greeted the teacher and handed over the three sets of "Artist's Kits," letting Teacher Zhou distribute them as she saw fit. Teacher Zhou then wrote a note directing Dabiao to the large studio, explaining that it had a spacious layout and large tables, where he could paint when given assignments, but he needed a note from the teacher. Especially for traditional Chinese paintings and commercial posters, the paper was particularly large and couldn't fit on a regular table.

Several senior students were engrossed in painting in the art studio.

Art education these days is deeply influenced by the Suzhou school and traditional Chinese painting.

When drawing comic strips, everyone uses a brush.

The techniques emphasized are "plain drawing", "iron wire drawing", and "floating silk drawing".

Each stroke must be smooth and continuous, without any breaks or smears.

This requires a great deal of basic skills, but it is also extremely time-consuming.

Zhang Dabiao found a large table by the window and sat down, taking out the drawing paper he had prepared from his painting bag.

That painting bag contained a drawing board, a pencil case, various tools, paint boxes, a small water bucket, and a folding stool—it was like a treasure trove.

Then—everyone gathered around.

"Hey, what class are you in? What's your name? We've never seen you before!"

"Where did you buy all these art supplies?"

"..."

A group of students gathered around.

Zhang Dabiao doesn't come to school often, and this is his first time in the large art studio, so it's all too new and exciting for them.

"I am Zhang Dabiao from Class 1, Interior Design, Grade 1."

"Teacher Zhou gave me a note to come here and paint."

A table two meters long and one meter wide is big enough to sleep on. The studio environment here is indeed professional. Zhang Dabiao's small courtyard stable is indeed this big, but it is piled with all kinds of grains, and there are also cured fish and cured meat on top. Moreover, the lighting is really just average.

Painting at a professional art studio definitely makes a big difference.

"Oh, Zhang Dabiao from Class 1, Interior Design, the one from Nanluoguxiang?"

"The one on the motorcycle! I know, I know!"

"I was there when they got into that fight at Shichahai. Da Biao, you're awesome! Even the kids from the compound can't get away with this!"

"..."

"It's Zhang the Great Philanthropist! My family received remittance certificates donated by him!"

"What? Castrated? Who was castrated? Where?"

Zhang Dabiao flew into a rage—"You're the castrated one! Your whole family are castrated!"