Starting from Robinson Crusoe

The greatest wealth that modern life brings to people is not the various kinds of knowledge, but the way of thinking established by the educational system.

Scientific and rigorous, focusing on experience, exploring causes, improving methods...

As long as one possesses this kind of thinking, together with certain knowledge and outstanding hands-on ability, and perhaps a bit of talent, mastering the principles of a relatively non-complex handicraft is not difficult.

Of course, all of this must be based on the premise of practical practice. If one only engages in idle theorizing, no matter how good the mind is, there will be no progress.

After all, many problems must be solved through practice and answers found through trials.

...

For Chen Zhou, forging is something that gradually progresses through practice and experience.

Throughout the rainy season, he hardly ever left the cave, spending all day in the Forging Room, wielding the hammer, striking metal.

On March 25th, he successfully forged his first hammerhead.

The hammerhead’s design is simple yet classic, with one end square and the other round, with a square hole chiseled out in the center for mounting a wooden handle, weighing about three pounds.

...

Since his first success, Chen Zhou seemed to have gotten the hang of it, becoming more adept at forging metal utensils.

Saturday, responsible for adding coal, and Sunday, for the bellows, were gradually adapting to the work, especially Sunday.

He had now assumingly become a professional "Blacksmith Apprentice," able to intentionally control the size and pace of the wind when operating the bellows, thus indirectly controlling the fire’s temperature.

This was of great help to Chen Zhou’s forging work.

Seeing Sunday’s interest in blacksmithing, Chen Zhou stopped holding back and taught him the experiences he had summarized in the forging process little by little.

For example, how to judge the temperature by flame color, how to determine if the metal was adequately heated, how to strike to better control the metal’s shape...

The new knowledge further enhanced Sunday’s bellows skills, and the mentor and apprentice duo worked increasingly harmoniously together.

...

As for Saturday, he lacked interest in blacksmithing from the beginning but was very fond of Chen Zhou’s paintings.

The painting "A Face Full of Pain Eating Chili" by Chen Zhou hung directly above where Saturday slept, and every day he would take the painting down, wipe the frame meticulously with a cloth, and then hang it back.

Sometimes, when there was no work to do, he would sneak in a tray of sand, watching the painting, and bit by bit mimic the line sketching.

But Chen Zhou possessed a certain foundation in painting and had talent.

As a native, Saturday had neither practiced sketching nor studied human anatomy, nor drew even a straight line well. Even if he spent much time mimicking, he could not learn a tenth of Chen Zhou’s skill.

What’s more, he couldn’t spare much time to study.

...

After finishing forging each day, the happiest moment for Saturday was to have meals in Chen Zhou’s bedroom.

The deliciousness of the food was not important; he just wanted to see the decorative paintings hung in the bedroom, particularly those sketches of island scenery by Chen Zhou. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

After the meal, he always found various excuses to linger around, like helping Chen Zhou wash dishes or mopping the floor, wiping the ceiling, just to look at those paintings a few more times.

...

The little thoughts of the native boy were always hard to conceal.

After noticing the boy’s fondness for painting, Chen Zhou did not hold back, giving him some white clay boards, some charcoal pencils, encouraging him to start practicing from the basics—lines.

Lines are the foundation of a picture; Chen Zhou demonstrated how to arrange lines, draw neat lines.

He taught him what is called a center stroke, what is a side stroke, what is a flat stroke, how to draw thick lines, thin lines, how to control the density and length of lines.

Including more advanced content—erasing after arranging lines to control the relationship between black, white, and gray, mastering the tones of the picture.

Sketch lines need to be clean and crisp, not smudged or linked, even if overlapping into entire tone blocks, they should convey texture.

If arranging lines forms intersections, it should be clearer to make the picture cohesive.

Building from the ground up, learning sketching requires solid basic skills.

...

Chen Zhou thought although he had some talent in painting, due to family reasons during his student days, he missed the opportunity to become an artist.

If not for drawing numerous architectural diagrams during college, indirectly honing control over lines and proportions, his painting talent might have long gone to waste.

Despite picking up painting again later, his basic skills could not match those kids who practiced painting from an early age; his sketches could at best be passable, having a considerable gap even with art college students, let alone those well-known artists with established reputations.

Teaching Saturday was in a way redeeming Chen Zhou’s own regrets, so he withheld nothing while at the same time remained stricter than ever.

As long as Saturday made minor mistakes, it would bring about Chen Zhou’s criticism.

...

They say interest is the best teacher.

In Saturday’s mind, Chen Zhou had long been at a position higher than his father, Leader, and Priest.

Towards this seemingly omnipotent "God," he always listened obediently.

Now that Chen Zhou was willing to impart precious painting skills to him, he became more humble, even submissive, than any student.

Getting scolded was common, but no matter how harsh the criticism was, it would not deter Saturday’s desire to learn painting.

The saying goes, diligence makes up for deficiencies; one part hard work equals one part talent.

While Chen Zhou improved his forging skills with his sweat and wisdom, Saturday, the zero-foundation boy, was also gradually improving himself.