A boy who was scolded for making doodles at school has now struck a major deal with Nike.

12-year-old Joe Whale from Shropshire, England, became an instant celebrity after his amazing artwork went viral.

According to Joe’s parents, their little boy was scolded by his teachers for doodling during class. Rather than telling the child off, his parents recognized the potential in the child and signed him up for an after-school art club where he continued to develop his skills.

Impressed by Joe’s skills, the boy’s art teacher started posting pictures of his doodles and his drawing on the walls of the Shrewsbury Number Four restaurant on Instagram where the artwork went viral.

Since then, Joe became the illustrator of the children’s book named Game of Scones. More recently, in 2022, he also struck a deal with Nike that will see him encourage other children to be creative.

“Obviously the head (of after school art club) posted something of mine on Instagram and that’s where she saw something in my art and that’s where it all started really,” Joe admitted as he appeared on This Morning show.

His proud dad, Greg, added: “At school, we didn’t really see the issue as he’d finished all his work so we never thought there was a reason to stop him doodling once he’d finished so we were always going to encourage creativity, because that’s what we do with all our children.

“Then it went on Instagram and he did the wall at the restaurant in Shrewsbury and it went a bit mad, so you have to learn quickly how to deal with incoming inquiries.”

Speaking of his passion, Joe continued: “I think the favorite thing that I’ve done is definitely designing a book series, illustrating a book series, it was really fun and it was one of the things I really wanted to do when I first started.

“They would give me the names of the characters then I’d have to see what they would look like, and get used to drawing them and different scenes and all different characters.”

The bright young student went on to say that there was no wrong or right in art and that everyone should show what they want to show through their artwork.

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