DRAWINGS



Agility2023, 50x35cm
Pencil on paper

Referencing a traditional Chinese poem, I folded a number of orgami rabbits and then rendered them in pencil. The characters in the background portray the contents of the poem, which describes the musings of the three rabbits throughout the seasons.





Cat Woodcut Print2022, 40x55cm
Pencil, watercolor

Inspired by my love of cinema and in particular American comics-based action movies, I arranged my desk items and a few hobby items from childhood into a still life and rendered outlines in pencil, then filled in the forms with watercolor paints.





Skateboarders2022, 42x30cm total
Needle pen, marker
There is a popular recreation area at Xujiahui Riverside Park in Shanghai where you can find many skaterboarders. I decided to sketch them during their practice, capturing their diverse and dynamic poses.





Portrait of MbappéAugust 2025
Ink on paper

I greatly admire Kylian Mbappé,  one of the greatest forwards of this era and the future of the French national team. Drawing him allowed me to combine technical study with paying my respects.

I focused on establishing clear proportions before building the  light and shadows. I refined the facial expression through gradual layering, especially around the eyes and mouth, to capture his dynamic presence. 





Portrait of JotaJuly 2025
Pencil on paper

Portuguese forward Diogo Jota passed away young, but he ramains one of the most inspiring players to me: someone I saw as a natural successor to Cristiano Ronaldo.

Inspired by his legacy, I drew Jota’s features with a simple structural and then developed the forms through controlled shading and subtle value shifts. I emphasized his expression with cross hatching textures.





Zhujiajiao Ancient TownSeptember 2019
Ink on paper

A historical and popular tourist destination in Shanghai, Zhujiajio is a place my family often visits on weekends. It provides beautiful scenery and intricate traditional architecture, which I enjoyed producing intricately with linework in ink.





Yu Yuan Road, Shanghai2019, 40x60cm
Pencil on paper

Apprecaiting the feeling of looking out my window and seeing the city of Shanghai, I recorded the scenery in front of me in pencil. In my drawing I was interested to reflect the state of the city where chaos and order coexist, contrasting the simple and clean walls with the dense and messy networks of laundry and bamboo drying lines.




All projects



2025 Tyler Tianwei Cao
ttwcao.com
twcao15@gmail.com
+1 201 788 8891