Young Hawke's Bay artist Justin Cheung second in national competition

A Taradale High School student's artistic skills have been nationally recognised after coming second in a Yoobee Colleges competition.

But Justin Cheung had almost completely forgotten about the competition altogether.

"I saw the competition when it was announced just over a month ago and sort of put it to the side in my head for a while and then just a few days before entries had to be handed in a friend of mine reminded me of it," Cheung said.

"So I spent a couple of days planning what I was going to do and pretty much the day before I had to hand it in I spent from 6pm that night to 2am painting it and putting it altogether."

Yoobee Colleges is New Zealand's largest specialist creative and IT college.

Even though he was second in the 'Wellington with a Twist' category he says it wasn't near some of his best work.

"To be honest it's not really my best work because I was sort of rushed in doing it and thought I could have done it a little better."

Cheung said the piece he painted was to shed light on an alternate future which was ruled by a sort of power hungry society.

"The painting itself is sort of a look at an alternate future where the sort of power and influence in the country all centralised into one place and on the back of a mechanical looking hermit crab as it collects influence and power as it travels around the country."

For a long period of time he considered art as a simple hobby but the 18-year-old aims to hone his skills to pursue a dream job as a concept/character artist for film and animation.

He has already had his talents on display having hosted a week long art exhibition in Napier in August last year, where he was able to show off some of his best work to creative industry in the region.

"That was a great experience for me and to see people view my work and what I can do was amazing."