With just one thumb, man draws for a living  

男子仅剩1根大拇指 苦练七年靠画画养家

Zhang Qihui is painting on the street with only one thumb. (Photo source: Chongqing Evening News)

Zhang Qihui is showing his flower paintings. (Photo source: Chongqing Evening News)

(ECNS) -- In Chongqing, a disabled man who has only one finger has been making a living for years by drawing, Chongqing Evening News reported on Wednesday.

Zhang Qihui went to Shanghai for work after finishing junior high school in his hometown of Chongqing. He found a job as a printer in February 1996.

Zhang recalled that he was making 4,000 yuan ($659) a month before an accident, drawing envy from his hometown friends.

Unfortunately, an industrial accident in 1997 cost him an arm and four fingers, leaving him with just one right thumb.

After the accident, Zhang's wife left him and their daughter.

Having lost his source of income, he decided to set up a grocery stall on the street to raise his daughter.

But he knew that business was not a long-term solution to supporting his family, so Zhang decided to acquire a skill.

Zhang liked drawing when he was younger, and he decided to take up painting to make a living.

Zhang started practicing his painting in 2004. He said he went out to sell daily use products in the daytime and practiced drawing at night.

He went back to Chongqing in 2009, and married a local woman in 2011.

He had spent seven years practicing painting before his first picture was sold in 2011.

Zhang and his wife started selling his original paintings on the street for 50 yuan each.

With no desk, Zhang paints on paper laid on the ground by lying on his stomach.

"My first client was a middle-aged man who bought four pictures from me," Zhang said. "I was very excited to know that my paintings can finally be sold for money."

Zhang still sells each painting, including frame, for 50 yuan.

For the Chinese Year of the Horse, he started painting pictures with a horse theme two months before Spring Festival. His works were well-received, and 200 paintings were sold during the holiday period.

Zhang said he is now saving money to have his own gallery in the future.