MEET MR.
ORANGE PEEL:
THE ARTIST
Never without his sketchpad, Maxwell shows us his
favorite work – History
and Future. It is captioned,
“My first attempt at pastel.
It turned out quite well.”
The piece shows two contrasting ships, the Titanic
representing the Industrial Revolution, and a giant
spaceship hovering above,
indicating the future. At
just age 15, Maxwell’s flair
for the classical brushwork combined with sophisticated techniques is
truly admirable.
that have stood the test of
time,” Ziqi said. You can
see this in his work as well.
Inspired by comic works,
history books or films, his
self-published book Drawing Pad consists of four series: a series based on his
favorite film Wall-E; the
New World comic series
based on works of master
filmmaker George Méliès;
the Shizhen collection of
his favorite steam locomotives, ships and comic
portraits; and his earlier
comic series A Day in the
Life of a Garbage Van, a
work focusing on environmental protection.
His works are filled
with creativity and imagination. However, to
Maxwell, there is more
than creativity to his art,
“Although art is based on
imagination, it is still anchored on facts in its own
way. So I read plenty of
history books, and delve
deep into the meaning
behind the facts.” He says
that this is his approach
to learning most subjects:
“ In s tead o f t r y i ng to
memorize facts, I try to
understand the topic first.
There are assignments
that require observation
and description, two valuable skills in painting. So
when I write, I would first
visualize the scenario, and
then turn it into words. I
find this technique very
helpful.”
In a short conversation
with The Keystone Magazine he tell us of his art
journey that began with
the encouragement of his
parents, and art teachers.
He started to learn from,
and copy, the works from
books on cartooning and
illustration techniques. He
then continued to study
paint ing f rom a local
artist in Inner Mongolia.
“Compared with the passing fad of the moment, I His skills of observation
appreciate the real classics and description have also
accompanied him on
many a travel. Instead of a
camera, he travels with his
sketchpad and documents
any moment that moves
him. Sometimes, he would
recreate the scene based
on the original sketch after
the trip. As Maxwell flips
through his Drawing Pad,
we notice that the last
third is empty. We look
forward to seeing more of
his work, and his growth
at Keystone.
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