1) Who are you and tell us about what you do ?
My name is Muhd Nur Huda Firdaus bin Jamil from SketchOne Studio. I am also known as “Sketch 01” as my artist/graffiti name and I have been painting graffiti since 2011. I do all sorts of creative work from murals, painting, graffiti, graphic design, 2D & 3D Animation, game development,videography, photography, music production and anything in between. I am more focused on character when doing graffiti/digital artwork.
My partner, Kymia and I started a graffiti studio called SketchOne Studio in 2013 where we professionally exercise our skills in providing services that we can offer and most local cafes, restaurants, gyms hired us to paint murals for their premises other than providing digital work services such as creating their logo, brand identity animation and art illustration. I have also designed merchandise for clients i.e. clothing design, brochures etc.
2) Tell us about your creative process and how do you choose your spots to paint?
As for personal graffiti work I'm always interested in drawing and painting characters. The weirder the character, it will for me personally have a better outcome. I always do my sketches creating concepts and mockups first and at the same time doing research on other artists' work for inspiration. These include the colors, style and flow of the artwork. It's always hard to pick a good color scheme to work with because some colors don't match well with each other and I want to avoid using the same color as my previous graffiti work. Once my concept is set then my team and I will find good spots to paint. Either at an abandoned building, shops or factory, a big drain, under the bridge or skatepark. I think the best spot fo graffiti now is in the Batu Satu area. I have been painting there lately. The walls of the buildings are beautifully positioned and the best part is it can be accessed by the public to see and enjoy the artwork. Skatepark at the stadium also has a good wall to paint but sadly the walls ove there are shorter in height now after the renovation.
3) Do you have any favorite moments or spots where you have painted and why? Where would you want to paint at next?
Other than Brunei, we have been painting a few spots around Malaysia; Labuan, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and earlier this year we painted at Sinchon Graffiti Tunnel, South Kore and one of Cafes in Busan, South Korea called ‘Southian’. It was an amazing experience to paint overseas leaving our mark there and especially painting in cold weather as we traveled in February this year. So it is probably one of my favorite moments and spots to paint there. I always look forward to meeting and hanging out with other international graffiti artists that ww have visited to gain more knowledge on how they run their business and also doing graffiti production (painting together as a collaboration) side by side.
I would love to go to Indonesia to paint next. They have a very cool graffiti community and graffiti events that they host every year.
4) What is your go-to medium and what do you love about it?
For graffiti work, I would go for bucket paint (for walls) and spray cans. If I want more control for colors and clean design I would go for bucket paints which we mostly use when we are doing commission work for clients, especially painting detailed designs like logos, signage and typography.
Using spray cans is always faster and fun but it's quite challenging as you have to have a certain technique and know how to handle the spray cans well and that is probably why I love doing large mural/graffiti artwork with spray cans. Any spray cans would do as long as it has a good paint coverage and produces vibrant colors as I wanted.
5) Who or what are your influences that inspired you as a graffiti artist?
My brother is the one who made me start doing graffiti. I always loved drawing and sketching before I knew about graffiti. He introduced me to his graffiti crews/ friends and their work and I find it interesting. I got hooked immediately. The graffiti community in Brunei is small and we knew each other. We learned and got inspired from each other. That's how we grew and got our style from. I also always look up to other international artists and local artists that are doing illustrations, character designs and artwork to get my inspiration from.
6) Are you ever afraid or concerned about how your creativity is perceived by others?
Maybe I am a little bit concerned if I'm painting on public walls. I always want to do my best and at the same time aim for good artwork/murals/graffiti for the public to see. As long as the artwork is not a sensitive subject then we are all good. We just wanted to put up artwork for the public to enjoy. Think of it as a free entrance gallery viewing with big awesome artwork. As we produce more quality murals/graffiti, I believe the public will definitely support the local artist's work and the government is also slowly giving us opportunities to paint on formal events and platforms.
7) As an artist, If you could have done anything differently, what would it be?
I wish I could start studying early on graffiti style lettering and technique, its culture and lifestyle and also the business part of it because when I first started I was more focused on characters.I just started to do graffiti lettering last year and I found it very challenging to get the letters to form a good balance, flow and unique elements. I also wish I could learn more drawing on anatomy at school as I'm lacking in terms of knowledge about it but I always love to do portraits. I would also look for drawing classes if I
could do anything differently before as it is better to have the fundamentals of basic drawing at an early age. I also wish our education system could include more varieties of topics for Art& Design, not just focusing on multimedias but also focusing on specific art style and its culture.