Leila Courtillon

Saint-Ouen, Paris / France

January 2022

What is your name and where do you live?
My name is Leïla, I currently live in Saint-Ouen, paris suburbs area.


How long have been drawing skateboard sketches and why?
Not long actually, most of the time I’ve been doing skateboard drawings for animated commercials, in animation we often work for sports brands such as Converse or Nike, Vans and sometimes it’s nice to have characters that are playing around with skateboards, it’s fun to animate and for the « mise en scene. »


Where do you get the inspiration from?
Most of the time from the street, I look a lot at people around me and small details, how they’re dressed, what they’re carrying, what they’re doing, it’s inspiring and I guesss it’s the best form of inspiration to me, real life! Even tho it’s a bit creepy haha!


What does skateboarding mean to you?
For me skateboarding is about community, sharing experiences with other and helping each other through a fun sport. I used to skate when I was little with my friends at primary school and teach my little sister. I watched the show Betty recently on HBO and it reminded me of that feeling of community that was super nice! Great show with interesting characters If you got the chance to check!


If there is one thing you could change about skateboarding, what would it be?
I don’t know, maybe that it’s also this feeling of community that is quite not encouraging some people because you can easily feel excluded by groups and it might be hard to join from an introvert perspective such as mine haha! It’s double-edge, I guess.