A doting dad is charting his son’s early years with a series of heartwarming sketches - producing a fresh drawing every week.

Art teacher Paul Hodge grabbed a pencil and captured baby George on paper when he was just hours old in hospital.

Since then he has sketched the growing tot every seven days.

George turned two on Friday, and his development can be traced in a series of more than 100 sketches.

Mr Hodge, from The Spires, Canterbury, told the Gazette: “I did the first sketch in the back of the red book they give you in hospital.

“George was only a few hours old and he and Katherine were asleep. I found a blank page at the back of the book and did a quick drawing with a mini pencil. It went from there.”

Mr Hodge, who teaches art and design and fine art at Ashford College, followed the sketch up with several others.

“I know people have done this with photography,” he said. “I felt that with drawing you get a more personal response.

“You get to know your child, to analyse how they look. I think it’s a more personal approach than photography.”

Mr Hodge, 34, trained as an artist having studied at the Royal Drawing School in London, as well as at Canterbury Christ Church University.

His plan is to present George with the sketches on his 18th birthday.

“I’ll carry on but may start doing them every month rather than every week as the rate of change slows down,” he said.

“Really this is all about time and change, and keeping a track of that.”

Asked whether he liked his father’s drawings, George said simply “yes”.

Mr Hodge said: “I’m not sure he is aware of what’s being done, but he smiles when I show him the drawings.

“I think he recognises himself in the later ones. In the early ones he points and says ‘baby’.”