A window cleaner who sketches celebrities in his spare time has set his sights on selling portraits on the high street.

Jay Pritchard, of Marling Way, Gravesend, has captured the likeness of more than 100 famous people, including Robert de Niro, Robin Williams, Mother Theresa, and One Direction.

The 36-year-old, a self-employed window cleaner, worked in a number of jobs after studying art and design at North West Kent College, but realised in July last year that his passion for drawing should not be held back.

“I spent a load of money buying the best pencils and started watching YouTube videos to improve my skills,” he said.

“I wanted to do this properly if I was going to do it at all. It was Morgan Freeman who said, ‘when you’ve got a gift you shouldn’t lose it’.”

It is a gift that clearly runs through the Pritchard genes. His grandfather, Stephen Owen Pritchard, designed tanks in the Second World War, and was an art editor at The Practical Householder, a popular decorating magazine in the 1950s and 1960s.

“Every time I used to do sketches, my granddad would say ‘that’s really good’ and it spurred me on to do more,” he said. “It was as if he was still there and I was looking for his approval.

“I want to try to get them as realistic as I possibly can,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to capture eyes and the expressions of the face.

“There’s a buzz when it comes out how it’s meant to look like.”

Mr Pritchard has begun taking paid commissions, which take around six to seven hours to complete. He recently sold £180 worth of drawings to one person, who took home portraits of Johnny Depp, Bruce Lee, and a chimpanzee.

“I get people asking me to draw everything,” he said. “But I can go from not drawing anything in a week to drawing three or four in a few days. It’s like binge-drinking.

“People think I’m good but I want to get to a stage where my pictures look like photographs.

“They’re getting a lot more realistic but I still need to learn more.

“I’m saving money, and hopefully next year I’ll have a stall in Gravesend town centre. When people see I can draw celebrities, hopefully then they’ll want me to draw their kids, grandparents, brothers and sisters, and dogs.”