Art
This is how it feels to be a Red Bull Doodle Art winner
From putting pen to paper at her local Red Bull Doodle Art competition to winning the World Final, here’s the inspiring story of Japan’s Ayaka Toyomasu.
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Ayaka Toyomasu has been doodling since she was in kindergarten and she can’t imagine her life without it. “I just love drawing," she says. "It's what keeps me going to this day."
Back in 2017, when Toyomasu was in her second year of college, studying graphic design and figure sculpture basics in Fukuoka, a professor encouraged her to enter the Red Bull Doodle Art competition. What she created with pen and paper was so exceptional that it landed her the national title – stamping her ticket to the World Final.
“It was totally a big surprise for me,” she remembers. “I was very glad to be able to have an opportunity to challenge the world with my doodle, and it was one of the happiest moments in my life seeing my family and friends so happy with me being a national winner.”
The next stop for Toyomasu was San Francisco, USA, where she would be one of 40 doodle artists from around the globe taking part in the World Final. To this day she still gets excited thinking about it.
She says: “I had never really imagined myself being overseas, so I kept pinching myself, like, ‘am I really going to San Francisco?’ It was so inspirational to meet young artists like myself and I still think it's unbelievably amazing for people from different countries and cultures to gather in one place and enjoy doodling together.”
It was so inspirational to meet young artists like myself
Toyomasu recalls that she wasn’t nervous, just “super excited to experience everything". Part of that experience would be taking her doodling to a new dimension. The World Finals typically offer participants the chance to expand their artistic horizons through technology, and in San Francisco, they brought their artwork to life in a virtual reality gallery. It was a completely new format for the Japanese artist, but with mentoring provided at the event, she dove right in.
“The VR experience was such a dreamy one for me and I really enjoyed being in my doodle world,” she describes. “From this, I actually got the inspiration for my graduation project, which expressed the playfulness and infinite possibilities of art through 3D illustration work.”
Toyomasu’s VR doodle created at the 2017 World Final
© Nicholas Bruno / Red Bull Content Pool
The expert judges were blown away by Toyomasu’s artwork and she was overwhelmed to be named the global winner.
“That winning moment felt as if I was in a movie, it was so surreal. The judges said ‘your art style is so special, so original, something only you can create', and those words have remained in my heart since then,” she says.
That winning moment felt as if I was in a movie, it was so surreal
Now finished with her schooling and living in Japan’s Saga prefecture, Toyomasu is a human welfare service worker, drawing and sewing with the users of a local facility on a daily basis. She comments: “I am thankful that I do what I love to help others in need.”
In her free time, Toyomasu continues to immerse herself in creativity through drawing, sewing and working on miniature sculptures. Looking back, she identifies her 2017 experience as the “turning point” in her artistic career.
“Red Bull Doodle Art changed me to think that living a life full of passion and energy – getting out into the world – can be really fun,” she shares, explaining that previously she had imagined living a more "quiet" life.
She adds: “San Francisco was the best time of my life, with every day full of art and enjoying the experience with all the young artists made me realise how much I love drawing and how big the world is. Before it was like me and drawing, but now it is more like me equals drawing.’ Drawing became my identity rather than just something I'm good at.”
For the latest group of national winners, who will be heading to Amsterdam in the Netherlands for the 2023 World Final, Toyomasu offers this advice: “Make friends with everybody.
"With all the fun experiences and creative people, I can assure you that the Red Bull Doodle Art World Final will be something unexpected and unforgettable. This year will be amazing.”
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