Neymar scores at Rotunda exhibit

With a name like Neymar Nicholas, one would think the six-year-old Curepe Fatima RC student would be heavily into football. He plays some, but if you ask him, his true love is art and he sees it as a possible career.

He was named Neymar because his father, Newsday Sports editor Stephon Nicholas, likes Brazilian football and, at the time, the footballer was "the next big star on the rise."

Neymar is the youngest artist showcasing his work at the current Rotunda Gallery's Comic, Cartoon, Digital Art and Animae exhibition. His two pieces, Tribute to Sonic and AC Fox were created using pencils, colour pencil and crayons. Tribute to Sonic is also featured on the exhibit's brochure.

“I love to draw. I used to draw characters from YouTube, but now I draw my own characters,” Neymar told Newsday Kids.

He said he would sit for long periods drawing the characters Catnap and Dogday from the Smiling Critters videos he watches on YouTube. His drawings of Catnap, he said, eventually evolved into his own creation – AC Fox.

“Catnap breathes out sleeping gas, but AC Fox breathes out AC and makes the room cool. I changed it to AC because these days the place is so hot.”

Tribute to Sonic was inspired by the Sonic the Hedgehog character.

But his drawings are not limited to paper. His dad said he drew one of his characters and a logo on a T-shirt that he wears all the time at home.

“He wanted to wear it to visit the Rotunda Gallery to view the exhibit and I had to tell him ‘no,’” his dad said with a chuckle.

Neymar is also into videography.

"I make my own videos and short cartoons using the Flipper Clip app. But I don’t like the (pop-up) ads,” he said, because they interfere with the flow of whatever he is creating

The second-year student recently won an award from the Catholic News for his creation of Reuser Bot, a school project that was aimed at sending an anti-littering message.

“Reuser Bot is made of recycling. His head is a TV and his body is a water bottle. One arm is a spoon and the other is a fork. Reuser Bot tells people not to litter.”

He said when he went to collect his trophy, he was amazed that he was able to “eat some sweets in a church.”

Neymar said he likes talking to his parents about his projects because they are always willing to support him when he wants to pursue the things that interest him. And although they encourage him to read, he said he enjoys math more because “it is easy.”

When Neymar is not working on his art creations, he can be found looking at videos on YouTube.

“I look at a lot of videos. My favourite video is Sonny and Melon.”