I need your help...

Most of my life I have painted for relaxation but recently, due to pressure of work, I have not been able to paint so often. Instead, I have been drawing; the difference is that I can draw when I have 10 minutes, and hour or a couple of hours to spare, something I can't do with painting.





I started by drawing a picture of Tiger Woods, this related to my passion for golf and my history of painting golf courses. While working on this picture I got the idea of painting other notable characters past and present, to date these have all been people that I admire. Drawings I have now completed include; Michael Jordan, Pavaroti, Nelson Mandela, HRH The Queen, John F Kennedy, Rudolph Nureyev, Dame Helen Mirren, Elvis Presley, Pele, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Katerina Witt.

I am currently working on drawings of Barak Obama, Marlyn Munro, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa...this is the first thing I need your help with; I would like suggestions for other eminent people to draw, who do you think should join this list of people?

Secondly, what do I do with the pictures? My first idea was to sell these by auction and donate the proceeds to charity however, I have a couple of issues with this. Firstly, I would like the pictures to stay together in a single collection and I don't imagine too many people will want all of the images or, have room to display them. Secondly, I think there may be other ways to raise significantly more for charity by keeping the images in a single collection.

I have been talking to people involved in fundraising about the potential opportunities that the collection could offer. Perhaps the publication of a coffee table style book with the proceeds goings to a selected charity. Maybe a traveling exhibition (possibly connected to a book launch) to help raise awareness for a charity. Possibly a set of limited edition prints with the proceeds going to charity. Perhaps I could donate the original works to a charity for a year at a time to do all of the above so that more than one charity can benefit from whatever fundraising opportunities they can arrange.

I am entirely open to suggestions, comments and ideas. If you think I would be better to just sell them off and donate the proceeds to a single charity, lease let me know. If you feel there is a bigger opportunity, please let me know.

Don't forget, I'm still looking for ideas for celebrities and iconic people that should be included in the collection so please send me any comments you have about this.

Lastly, it would help me greatly if you could share this blog post with your friends, the more comments and input the better. You can use the "Share" button on the right hand column to add the blog post to your Facebook profile, Twitter page, Digg, Delicious and a whole host of sharing sites, please do what you can to spread the word, the more people I get involved, the greater the interest will be when I finally decide on a fund-raising route.

Thank you.