Samuel Andres Mendoza looks at a picture of a Pokemon on his computer before drawing it, at his home in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. The 14-year-old has been selling his drawings on his Twitter account to help the family get by.
Samuel Andres Mendoza draws at his home, with the intention of selling it online in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. In a country where workers earn an average of $2 per month, the teen’s drawings can make a big difference for a strained family budget.
Samuel Andres Mendoza checks his Twitter account, where he sells his drawings, with his mother Magdalena Rodriguez at their home in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Rodriguez finds it difficult to afford the relatively expensive high-protein foods that doctors say her teen needs to deal with a form of malnutrition.
Samuel Andres Mendoza, 14, places his snacks in a rundown fridge at his home in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. In a crisis-wracked country where workers earn an average of $2 per month, the sales of Mendoza’s drawings can make a big difference for a family budget strained by his need for high-protein foods to deal with a form of malnutrition.
Samuel Andres Mendoza sits in his room with a laptop, gifted to him by his social media followers, at his home in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. After the 14-year-old tweeted to sell his drawings to buy food, an artist gave him a scholarship to study drawing, and social media followers sent him a set of artists’ pencils and food.
BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela (AP) — Samuel Andrés Mendoza carefully chooses from dozens of colored pencils spread out on his kitchen table, humming a reggaeton song as he deftly applies contrast to the Dragon Ball anime character taking shape on his sketch pad.
It is not just a pastime anymore for the 14-year-old. Without his mother’s knowledge, he began selling his drawings on his Twitter page to help the family get by and to pay for a special diet doctors say he needs in Venezuela’s troubled economy.
“Hi. I’m Samuel, I’m selling my drawings for $1 to help my mom with my diet, buy her a house and a shop so she won’t work on the street and get sick with COVID-19 and buy peanut butter for me. Thank you, sir and madam,” he tweeted along with photos of four drawings.
It caught the eye of many and he now has more than 15,000 followers, selling dozens of drawings he has worked up at a table between a worn-out couch and a rusting refrigerator in the small family home in Barquisimeto, about five hours west of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
“The truth is I did not know that I was going to draw like that, but time has passed, and I have managed to paint for real,” Samuel said this month, showing his finished drawing of Dragon Ball’s Goku. “And here it is.”
In a crisis-wracked country where workers earn an average of $2 per month, his sales can make a big difference for a family budget strained by his need for high-protein foods to deal with a form of malnutrition.