\n Tony Drakes, 72, can often be found drawing on the High Street, creating detailed designs entirely out of chalk.\n<\/p>\n
\n Over the years, of which he admits he has lost count, he has depicted a variety of scenes, book characters and other famous figures, including the late Queen Elizabeth II, shortly after her death in 2022.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember,” Mr Drakes said. “I’ve always drawn. It’s an escape for me.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I didn’t do any lessons or go to art college or anything. I’ve just always been able to do it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “My grandma always said ‘if God has given you the talent, use it.'”\n<\/p>\n
\n Originally from Bradford, Mr Drakes went into service with the army when he was 16.\n<\/p>\n
\n After leaving the army, he said art became a way to clear his mind, as well as a way to connect with the public, including children, who sometimes draw with him.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It keeps me occupied because I went straight into the army from school so I’ve got a lot of stress problems and if I sit in, my head goes round and round,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “By coming out, it gets me out, gets me socialising, gets me a few bob. It can’t be wrong, can it?\n<\/p>\n
\n “I usually get to speak to a lot of people. In summer, when people aren’t in a rush, parents will sit outside the caf\u00e9 and the kids will draw with me. They love it.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Many of his designs are planned to fit with the season but he said he sometimes lets ideas come to him when he sits down.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to do until I sit down,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Because I’m drawing for the public, I’ll usually depict the holiday, whether it’s Christmas, Easter or Halloween.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I can do drawings pertaining to that to cheer people up or sometimes I’ll pick characters out of books or animals.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Drakes, 72, can often be found drawing on the High Street, creating detailed designs entirely out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-302294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}