Chairman Mao Wishing He Had Thumbs
So I got this family cat back home in New Jersey, my family calls him Mow, I call him Chairman Mao (for branding purpose of course haha!) Now please understand this: Chairman Mao is a bully/chicken/chaos disguised in the shape of a cute fur ball that is constantly on the look out for food, and it has sort of became a family holiday tradition for Mao making an attempt at the shrimp cocktail during the pre dinner snack time (He managed 2 this Christmas). So I caught him eyeing a bag of unopened cat food sitting on the kitchen counter, trying to open it with his paws and decided to do a sketch of that moment...I looking forward to another round of hanging out with Chairman Mao in the coming months.
I came up with the idea by watching my family cat Chairman Mao being Chairman Mao. As for style and colors, I tend to go with the realistic route and testing out sets of colors using Micron Pens. It was a bit of a challenge since Mao, like all cats, rarely stay in one spot, unless they are napping, and Mao wasn't napping when he is hungry.
Micron pens, and my sketchbooks (Strathmore Tone Tan 112 page sketchbook) I kind of just tried to capture Mao's movement, followed by the outline of him, then the counter, the cat food, finally filling in the color lines. I think the key is to stay loose and just capture the moment, if you can do that, then you have already won half of the battle.
People love cats, and Mao really does have a cult following, so they loved it! I got more likes and questions about my family cat than my art works...people are suggesting me making t-shirt of him, I swear he will get a cut...in shrimps...
you can see more of my works at
https://raywangart.wordpress.com
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