I moved from Brampton to Toronto for the Oasis Skateboard Factory. My grades, as well as my life, were not looking too great in Brampton; since moving here things have seriously turned around. My marks are no longer the same as room temperature. My work has been complemented. And not buffed off of walls. My favourite part of my day is walking into my classroom, not walking out of it.
The graphic on my board is of an angry squid, bursting through the tides of the daily grind. Squids are my calling card. The squid obsession is the result of an inside joke with my friends: “Life sucks, but at least you’re not a squid.”
The board is a pintail with a slight kick pressed from 7 layers of Canadian maple. After a lot of sanding and a lot of shaping, I started to lay down my graphic. I used contrasting colours of orange and blue to make the image pop off the board. I got to practice my spray paint skills with the orange gradient shading. As a final touch I filled in the black lines and added stippling with paint marker, a technique I picked up from street artist Slurg.
“Angry skwid” is a sampler for my new brand, Kid Skwid. Overall it was a good learning experience, but I’m looking forward to furthering my skills as an artist. I’ve picked up a few skills this year such as my method of splatter fading I’m hoping to make a common thing in my brand.
This is just the first of many from “KID SKWID”!
