A Stobswell artist’s drawing of the star of a hugely successful BBC crime drama has proved to be a hit, none more so than with the man himself.
Liam McLean, who posts his art on Instagram page l4mart, shared his drawing of Line of Duty’s Martin Compston this week.
The former Morgan Academy pupil soon got the surprise of his life when the actor, who plays DS Steve Arnott in the show, commented and shared the drawing with his 200,000 followers on the social media website.
The seal of approval is all the more special as the work will be auctioned off to raise funds for Jillian Steedman and a fundraising campaign to pay for her cancer treatment, known as Fundraising for Jill.
Jillian is battling an extremely rare form of the disease and needs immunotherapy to help in her fight.
A drawing of fellow hit BBC actor Cillian Murphy, who stars in Peaky Blinders, will also be auctioned.
The 29-year-old said the message from Compston and others on his work helped inspire him to keep honing his craft.
He said: “I grew up doing music all my life then over the past seven months I found my love for art. I am self-taught and I’m constantly practising to improve my skills.
“I work full-time so I only have limited time to draw on days off when I’m not seeing family or friends. It’s difficult because an average drawing can take between four and nine hours, depending on the detail.
“Changing between styles, I decided to draw Martin Compston, he’s an actor I’m a fan of from Scotland.
“He saw the drawing on Instagram and shared it on his personal Instagram story and commented directly on my post.
“Getting that reaction makes it all worth it and pushes me harder to continue to explore my passion.”
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Compston is amongst a number of stars Liam has drawn and the artist is also beginning to get requests from others.
He added: “I have done portrait drawings for locals in Dundee and I got a request from Kyle Christie from Geordie Shore so I did that.
“I have over 70 pending requests including requests from former stars from The Only Way Is Essex and Ex On The Beach.”
Liam, who is scheduled to be married in Spain this July, has said the escapism of art has helped to relieve the stress of their wedding potentially being cancelled due to the pandemic.
He added: “It’s been tough with the ongoing Covid-19 situation as we have our wedding in Spain due on July 3 which potentially might be cancelled, but the drawing has helped to release the stress and lets me zone out.”
