Drawing inspiration

There is a saying that "the cat is the perfect companion for the solitary, sedentary artist". And as if to prove this, his well-decorated studio near his alma mater in Beijing's Haidian district is home to four cats, with a fish-shaped pillow, automatic pet feeders, automatic pet water fountains and a wooden shelf for the cats' entertainment.

Though he doesn't often talk to people face-to-face, he says he is closely linked to society through the internet.

Sometimes, other cats' owners will come to visit and sometimes he travels to dine with friends.

Meng also draws inspiration from such gatherings.

"There, I observe the light, the surrounding environment and the faces of passers-by. People of different ages and from different occupations display different temperaments," he says. "Even friends look a bit different if we don't meet for a year. The mix of familiarity and strangeness gives me inspiration for my drawing."

Meng is good at memorizing people's faces. "My eyes do a quick scan, and their eyebrows, features and the thickness of their lips are all in my mind-it's a kind of occupational disease," he says.

Though he first became interested in drawing when he was 5 years old, he was persuaded to study industrial design instead of arts. After graduation, Meng worked as a real estate advertisement designer for about a year.

There, inspired by colored-pencil masters from overseas, he learned to create his realistic drawings and posted them online in his spare time.

This gradually brought him fame and followers.

Later, a publishing company invited him to write a textbook for art courses, which took him a whole year.

Then, he decided to go on "the right path" to seek his dream-creating artwork with colored pencils.

He says he plans to continue to study art. He is busying learning Italian to join the University of Florence, a top university for art education in Italy.

Meng's online courses are each made up of 30 sessions. And about 70 to 80 percent of his students are women ages 20 to 35. In the summer and winter vacations, he finds that the number of learners can increase to about 400, as students have more time to spend on things that interest them. The price of the course is about 1,700 yuan ($253).