Man Cat As Art: Chairman Meao

[This is part of a continuing series:Man Cat As Art. For more like this, see Van Gogh, Matisse,  Da Vinci, Darger (and a couple others) and Tommy Wiseau.]

I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I cannot draw a cat. Well, I can't draw their faces. Not realistically, anyway, so be kind and imagine that this looks vaguely reminiscent of a cat. One day, I will be able to do this much, much better. That's a day I look forward to.

I don't know a lot about Andy Warhol. He lived before my time, and I was never much into art history. Much of art has passed me by in a whirlwind, and I am just now beginning to look at it, and ask questions. I'm a bit more familiar with Andy Warhol, though, because he just happens to be Krissy's favorite.

From what I have seen and read, he was eccentric, but what artist isn't. He didn't create pop art, but he is one of the driving forces behind its popularity, and what it is today. There are only a handful of artists I can recognize as inspiring other pictures or art, and when it comes to pop art, I can think of just two: Warhol and Lichtenstein.

I think I'm improving, but I think I'm going to have to take a look at cats, cat drawings, paintings, and the like, because trying to improvise kitty features is kind of hard, especially when you are trying to put them where they do not belong-- like on Chairman Mao.

In some ways, it's kind of fitting to have Mao as a Man Cat. Cats can be ferocious little beasts, and any freedoms one once had before getting a cat are soon swept out the window. In a way, all cats are little Meaos. But they do all generally have their moments where they're all curled up and cute like. That's why no cats, Man Cat included, are truly Meao Cats.

Maybe one day I can come back to this, and redo it so it looks more realistic, though. Not realism realistic; just better. I'm not entirely happy with it, especially in some parts. But overall, considering my abilities, I think I did an okay job. I don't know why I ever decided to make a project involving drawing a cat. Fur is hard (for me at least), and cats have differently shaped faces to humans too. I'm getting used to human faces, but cats are something else entirely. Maybe in doing this, I will improve on that, though. After all, if I can master drawing a cat, or at least a cat face, then that opens up a wide swath of new animals, since so many animals have that cat-shaped head, or a small variation of it.

Also, still getting used to my tablet, and using a new program, which made this take forever. I think I could have been a tad more expedient had I been using Illustrator, but it's okay. Corel Paint is kind of fun.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. This is my drawing of Man Cat as Art: Chairman Meao, inspired by Andy Warhol. And some of my randomly random thoughts as they came to me concerning it. I hope you enjoyed them.

Introducing Wiseau Fridays!

A classic scene from a classic movie

"You're tearing me apart, Lisa" audio from The Room (Click to play)


Every once in a while a movie comes along, different, unorthodox, unappreciated, but a masterpiece; The Room is one such movie. Bear with me here, I understand you're probably wondering to yourself how you've never heard of this movie. Or maybe you've seen it and disagree. Watch it again. Sure, The Room may not be as polished as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It may lack the convoluted forethought that was Star Wars. But it was filmed with two cameras! Film and digital! 


The Room was released in 2003, with a budget of seven million dollars (from what I've read). It was written, directed, produced, and distributed by Tommy Wiseau; consider that for a moment. Imagine funding, writing, acting, directing, producing, and distributing a movie and you'll understand the many hats of Tommy Wiseau. The man is made of steel. Weird, grotesquely bumpy steel, but steel nonetheless. Tommy is an American, and refers to himself as such but is a worldly man. He has lived in France and many other European countries throughout his life. I think the many places he's lived have all contributed slight variances to the dialect that is Tommy Wiseau. Listening to him speak, you'd never know where he was from. He looks kind of Italian, sounds sort of like Jean-Claude Van Damme, and that is uniquely American.

I'm not going to give a synopsis of The Room, just know that you should see it. But don't watch it alone. The Room is a dish best served to a group. It's kind of an experience to see the movie with a group of people. Having achieved cult status, The Room garners midnight premieres on a regular, recurring basis in Los Angeles and I believe that to be the gold standard ideal way to see it. Think Star Wars or Harry Potter on opening night at midnight, and that's the kind of devoted fan base The Room has garnered. That said, buy the movie, it's really a movie everyone should own. I rented it once and have had a definite longing for it since. After a recent gathering of people to screen The Room (sorry we didn't ask permission, Tommy), we remembered just how much we like the movie and will be getting it.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll scream in empathetic anger, and you might even get a little turned on.

Lisa, Lisa, Lisa; you dirty tramp.

Buy the Room from Amazon (it's the cheapest there) using the link below and a small percentage of the sale will go to me =)

Everything Is Always A Work In Progress

Another round of my Man Cat as art project is in store today. Today's drawings are not done yet, in fact, they've hardly been started. I decided to draw Man Cat inspired by Henry Darger. In case you don't know Henry Darger, he would draw cute, young, girls with penises instead of vaginas. I believe he got crap for that since it's kind of controversial, I guess, but I think it's cute and funny, and something I like to do anyway so once I saw In The Realm of the Unreal I knew I'd have to create a Man Cat drawing inspired by Darger. It's in the very beginning stages. Really, I just jotted an idea down in a couple minutes so I wouldn't forget. I hope to finish it sometime in the future, and make it colorful. And cuter.

Man Cat Inspired by Henry Darger (Click to Enlarge)

As for this drawing, the bottom is going to be Man Cat as chairman Mao, inspired by Andy Warhol's print of the infamous dictator. I think that suits Man Cat well. The top stamp-sized sketch is Man Cat inspired by Shepard Fairey's OBEY print of Andre the Giant.

Man Cat inspired by Warhol and Fairey (Click to Enlarge)

More to come on these drawings when they are finished.

Thanks for reading.

The Vitruvian Man Cat

Leonardo da Vinci—Meet Man Cat

The Vitruvian Man Cat
Photo by:Dennis

I drew this awhile ago, at the end of August. For some reason I never took a picture of it, so I never uploaded it. I finally got around to taking said photo the other day, so I thought I'd post it here.

I'd have to assume that anyone reading this would recognize the source of this image, but in the event that you don't I based this drawing on Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. My version by no means is perfectly proportioned as da Vinci's is, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I spent some time trying to get limbs lined up and various body parts more or less proportional. If I am unhappy with anything in this drawing it is most definitely the hands; I feel like they look weird. In a way, they are kind of cat-like, which, I suppose, is a good thing in this case (except that cats don't exactly have opposable thumbs). The feet are slightly wonky, too, but all-in-all they are not all that bad.

I admire da Vinci; he was most definitely a Renaissance Man. Da Vinci is a world-renowned artist, inventor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, writer, and so much more. Basically, anything da Vinci dabbled in, he mastered, and da Vinci dabbled in everything. He was also a notorious procrastinator and experimented in everything. I can respect that. I'm sure that his experimentation is largely a result of his being a driving force of the Renaissance. It's pretty amazing that for a period of time the world was so productive with ideas. It would be nice if we could one day return to that era of thinkery; alas, I feel that it will never happen. Not that there aren't great people doing great things, but the world is, unfortunately, a different place now. Who can spend time just thinking now? Thinking doesn't pay the mortgage. I've got to imagine that holds true even when you get a degree in it (except, obviously, a Doctorate of Philosophy, which is to say an advanced degree unrelated to philosophy).  I think the world should take a twenty year break encouraging people to think and do things that they might otherwise do if they didn't all have to worry about bills. Think of the mass enjoyment people would have following something they actually enjoy doing, studying what interests them. Think of the innovation companies could conduct. Of course this would never work, because money makes the world go round—now more than ever.

The Dance

The Dance
Photo by:Dennis

This is my second foray into Man Cat As Art. This drawing is based upon Danse by Henri Matisse.

I chose this as my second attempt because, honestly, it seemed simple enough. However, I think that with more complicated drawings there's a bit more room for error, so this was actually harder to replicate than I thought. Also, my drawing is much smaller than Matisse's painting, since his is a mural the size of a wall on (I believe) three panels. He also painted one for The Barnes Foundation. I highly recommend The Art of the Steal, a documentary about The Barnes Foundation and how his enemies usurped his (40!) billion dollar art collection.

Man Cat As Art: The Post Man Cat

The Post Man Cat
Photo by:Dennis

This is the first entry into the Man Cat as art project I began awhile back; as you can see it is dated August 26, 2010. I decided it would be fun to merge Man Cat with real art- that is art that has already been deemed art by people who claim to be able to tell actual art from smut. This project is sort of my way of navigating the ancient world that is art by picking and choosing paintings, sculptures, and drawings that I appreciate. In other cases, I may simply decide to Man Catify a piece of art for its (potentially non-existent) comedic appeal. Regardless, this is my foray into Man Cat as art, a way to meander my way across a sheet of paper, hopefully, ending at something approaching...art.

This drawing is titled The Post Man Cat based upon Vincent van Gogh's painting The Postman.