Doodle

100 days of drawing very quirky serendipitous faces

Atamayka-100dayofdrawingquirkyfaces-100dayproject-03 I‘m taking part in the “100 Day Project”, an initiative started online, in Instagram by Elle Luna, four years ago. It’s supposed to be a short creative activity that people decide to do everyday for 100 days. To be held accountable, you are to publish every one of those daily “works” on Instagram and use the hashtag of the project and of your own personal project. It’s easy to achieve if the project at hand is something you love to do and it only takes from five to ten minutes of your time. For example, a very creative guy painted his left hand 100 days in a row.

I’ve been making a daily drawing of very quirky faces independently since August 2016, I start with random lines made with my eyes closed and let serendipity take over, until I find something, mostly “someone”.

After my daughter Mathilda was born I decided to draw a quirky face every day for a year, so my hands wouldn’t “rust” from inactivity. And they are really easy for me to do, just a pencil and one color. I do them when she’s busy playing or sleeping. The more elaborate drawings, in full color or on the Procreate App (digital), I make when someone’s taking care of her and I have at least an hour of undisturbed bliss.

Atamayka-100dayofdrawingquirkyfaces-100dayproject-01I have to admit that, what had always been a fun game to me, is not so fun anymore. Every day doing the same thing is boring. My hands are itching for action, that is “art in action”. I want to use collage, acrylic painting, watercolors, pencil, crayons, pastel, etc. to put back excitement in what has turned into an almost mechanical work.

I’m really looking forward to April the 4th, I can hardly wait for my #100daysofdrawingveryquirkyserendipitousfaces to take off! I will start each work with random materials, colors and shapes, maybe even a picture, and I’m eager to see who I find and how it will turn out.

I find this will be a fun way of celebrating one complete year of daily tales of serendipity!

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One sentence stories:
„… and so finally, he took the fish.“

Atamayka Daily Drawings - He took the fish / Y por fin, tomó el pescado / und so, hat er sich für den Fisch entschiedenMy cousin will move from Turin-Italy to China at the beginning of 2017. It has gotten me thinking about the early stage in which you move to a new country.

My home country is Venezuela, but i‘ve had to adapt to the U.S.A., Spain and Austria. You have to not only understand a new language, but you also have to learn how to interpret a whole new set of body language signs.

Like when some cultures nod, in what we western people would understand a yes, to mean no.

Our intimate moments, deep within our heads, translate into mimics. These gestures are conditioned by cultural and social learning. And they are also read according to our cultural and social backgrounds.

For example, how many interpretations of the face above would we find?

  • Tiredness of living
  • Sadness (maybe because my cousin is leaving Europe 😉  )
  • Dissapointment
  • Trying to listen to what someone is saying in the background
  • Making a decision

I wonder what this face would suggest in Asia or Africa…
Are our cultures so different that we might interpret something totally different?

In my case, I was looking at this when I was drawing him…
Atamayka-Paxos-Greece

 

So, this is my one sentence story:
„and so, he took the fish“

 

 

Atamayka Daily Drawings - He took the fish / Y por fin, tomó el pescado / und so, hat er sich für den Fisch entschieden

 

+ (Note: For inquiries, please contact me at art@atamayka.com) +

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Photo-Doodle:
What can you find in these tree branches?

Photo-Doodle by Atamayka

Here in Austria there’s a game kids play when they have no toys at hand:
“Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst (was ihr nicht seht) und das ist..”
Which means:” I see, I see, what you can’t see, and that is…”
Right then, one of the kids complete the sentence with a color of an object near them that the other players don’t know about. They all start naming objects until one of them guesses, and then it’s the winner’s time to make others guess.

I want to play a game with you, but instead of saying a color, I will give you a picture. Let’s see what we all come up with.

I took the picture above on an autumn night two days ago. You can see the moon coming out at the bottom left of the tree trunk (click on it for a bigger image).

Photo-Doodle by AtamaykaPhoto-Doodle by AtamaykaPhoto-Doodle by Atamayka

Stories behind the 100 Urban Faces:
This doodle turned into a portrait of Alfred

100UrbanFaces Group Photo by Atamayka100UrbanFaces_theProcess_Atamayka_1100UrbanFaces_Atamayka_2100UrbanFaces by AtamaykaSerendipity: I decided a couple of years ago that all of my drawings were to be of fortuitous origin.
And as doodles they all start. This one I call funny Opa, Opa is the Austrian-German word for grandfather. Casually he turned out to look like a portrait of Alfred, a very kind gentleman I happen to know, he lives here in town and has the most beautiful snow white hair I’ve ever seen.

I’ve loved the word Serendipity (sponsored link) since I saw Kate Beckingsale and John Cusack in that film (yes, I’m a girlie girl, you can roll your eyes at me) and doodling is trendy now, but I’ve been playing the game of finding out what hides behind random lines since I was a child. Can you guys remember Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood? (I know, I just gave my age away).

Find out more about serendipity and the ceramic wall sculpture series “100 Urban Faces”

+ (Note: The 100 Urban Faces series of wall sculptures are available. For details, please contact me at art@atamayka.com) +

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