Adilsons Special Insight: Drawing Competition!

In the months of March and April, Adilsons hosted a one-of-a-kind contest which sent waves of excitement throughout the entire nation: our very first Drawing Competition! Fueled by their passion and with time on their side as the nation headed towards the an extended confinement, our challenge was well recieved and we were flooded with entries from anime and pop culture enthusiasts from every corner of the island! We're making this special article to serve as a means to immortalize the experiences of those who participated in this momentous challenge and to set the stage for what *could* be yet another iteration of this massively popular challenge in the times to come! This is Adilsons Special Insight: Drawing Competition, an Adilsons exclusive article dedicated to sharing the experiences of all those who took part in this momentous challenge!

For those who are new to Adilsons, we'll explain the basics first. In March, Adilsons officially engaged a nationwide Drawing Competition in which participants could submit one entry each (per category per person) on any of these main categories:
I: Any anime-related Drawing
II: Anime Duo / Best Friends
III: Best Anime Groups
IV: Pop-Cultire

The idea was simple (as all the best ones are!): participants were asked to submit a picture of their drawing on our online portal, following which these entries were all posted on our social media for fans to view and comment on. After this phase, a jury voted on the top 10 entires for each category and the shortlisted participants were asked to physically submit their drawings and claim their awesome prizes! Hundreds of responses poured in and the challenge was met with a tsunami of positive response from participants and casual followers alike!

In keeping with our policy to ensure the maximal satisfaction of our community, Adilsons interviewed each participant and compiled their responses and feelings regarding the event and during the process leading up to the final submissions. Ashfaq-sensei also held regular QnA sessions on Instagram on the days leading up to the deadline for submission and immediately after to share tips with the community on monetizing their drawing skills and gaining acclaim for their trade. In short, Adilsons was thoroughly invested and closely involved in gaining feedback with the community throughout the event! We're now using this opportunity to highlight and share some of the most moving and striking answers to some of our interview questions. This is an opportunity for us to grow as a community and transparency is a key facet in our approach to this goal! Let's read on what these people had to say on their experiences in the competition!


Q1: What kind of feeling does drawing procure to you and why do you like drawing?

"It gave me a feeling of freedom and happiness. I to draw because it was passion since my childhood." -Allas Leonardo

"I like drawing as it helps me to express myself and it also relaxes me a lot. Drawing brings peace to the mind and makes you travel to a different world." -Rhea Bissoondoyal

"Drawing helps me discover, reflect on, and express myself. It helps me learn about myself. It helps me feel more happy and confident, and has given me an extra sense of identity and purpose in life." -Cheemontoo Vishesh

"Well, to be honest I've never been very good at anything in particular and I dropped art at an early stage in school. At first I felt kind of jealous, having seen what practice can produce over time, so I started drawing again. However, over time it has become one of my favourite hobbies. For true balance in One's life, hobbies are needed, hence why people cosplay, watch anime and do sport...and so on. If it feels healthy, then carry on doing it. That's what I feel about drawing. Bob Ross often points out that One does not necessarily have to be "the best" at doing something in order for it to work, and I'm comfortable thinking just that. All this to say, drawing has become a comfort hobby for me when life begins to weigh in on me... or when I'm bored." -Imraan Dowlut


Q2: Why did you choose to work on this particular drawing for our competition?

"At first i tought that i would be doing only one category but then finally decided to work on all of them, thanks to this i gained experience using markers as i never actually used this type of media before, using markers for the first time was very interesting as it was really fun to use. i really liked that they allowed one person to work on multiple categories at a time, this enabled me to choose many different characters such as Todoroki, a very interesting character from My hero academia and Eren, Mikasa and Armin from aot which grew up together and also Beauty from beauty and the best a very feminine princess from the disney franchise." -Ameerah Beegoo

"In fact, the original plan wasn't to draw only the Elric brothers, I wanted to do a Fullmetal Alchemist drawing for the open anime category, with all the major characters of the series. But I screwed up by drawing Ed and Al too big for my initial idea, so I ended up submitting in the duo category instead." -Gregory Lutchmaya
(This one certainly made us chuckle, folks!)

"I was quite obsessed with kakegurui lately and I was already working on a hand painted shirt of kakegurui at that time which I'll post soon on my art account, so I wanted to try to draw like mangakas do for a change and it was such a fun experience for me." -Rachelle Antoine


Q3: What are your connections with the character you decided to draw and what do you feel about the character in general?

"I like izumi for breaking out of his shell while still maintaining his character but at the same time he did not create a fake image of himself but rather he improved himself. As for kyoko i love how she became
more honest with herself. As a result, it encouraged me to do so too like them so i think highly of them both." -Nedhool Desunville Jessie

"I like the friendship between kirito and Eugeo .. it's a fantastic duo with their swords when he launches their faculty, their 'release recollection' it's crazy. Amazing. I am always excited when they do that and even imitate them. Kirito is the best swordsman at 10 billion percent." -Luboo Shania Grace

"I drew the akatsuki members because at first you think that they are really bad people but when you learn about their backstories they become more lovable, like nagato, itachi and obito (who is my fav character in Naruto also) xD" -Khadeeja Jowaheer


Q4: Anything else you would like to express about art?

"Art has the capacity to stimulate an individual’s emotions. It is a therapy." -Aurélie Sungeeleemootoo

"Art demands practice but we should be able to have fun with it and learn as we progress. It would be a shame to miss out on all this if we give up too soon." -Isha Gookool

"What is art for me? Art is something really essential since the beginning of everything I would say... art has always been present absolutely everywhere... for instance we are art ourselves and we can even be
the creators of various arts in our very own unique and original way! We can do everything, we simply have to believe in ourselves and get rid of the fear of not being able to achieve something related to art." -Kaysen Myguele


Q5: What do you think about Adilsons?

"As a kid I’d dream of having an anime shop where i could go to get my favourite anime merch and right now adilsons is really out there creating this big community for mauritian anime fans and they are really spoiling us. It is not an easy task to take on such a big responsibility and you gotta admire them for doing that." -Artha Auleear
(We're touched, Artha! We'll keep your dream alive!)

"Adilsons is doing a great job unifying and advocating the weeb community in Mauritius not only via
anime merch but also by organizing contests." -Jihans Anmol

"Love Adilsons. I'm a regular there and, more often than not, I'm a connoisseur of their food. It's accessible, it's doing insane work to satisfy us weebs and the customer service is brilliant. I really appreciate the effort the owners out in getting to know their product as well as their clients. In fact, nowadays I just walk in and barely need to speak... Everyone knows what I'll order. It's quite cool, like a badass cowboy just walking into a bar and simply saying "The usual"... hehe" -Imraan Dowlut


And there you have it, folks! Thank you for sharing your experiences and opinions; we have read every single interview form individually and made careful note of what you had to say. Whether it's a hobby, a form of expression, a therapy or just a casual pursuit to you, drawing has managed to unify weebs across the nation and fan their competitive spirit. As the hosts of this competition, Adilsons is humbled and greatful for having such a supportive and active community; we take this opportunity to thank everyone for their participation, interviewees and otherwise! We have even more exciting events in store!

This was Adilsons Special Insight: Drawing Competition! You can watch the interview here with the toppers: