Young people design illustrations for one year anniversary of Keyham tragedy

Young people from Plymouth have been invited to take part in art project to mark the anniversary of the Keyham tragedy, which happened almost one year ago on 12 August.

The local group is working with two artists to create illustrations that will be projected onto Smeaton's Tower and Theatre Royal Plymouth over the anniversary weekend.

The tragedy saw a 22-year-old man kill five people, including a three year old, and hurt two others, using a shotgun. He then killed himself.

This morning (2 August), the group met with two artists to storyboard their ideas. Hannah Pooley from Plymouth Together, said: "We wanted to make sure that Keyham and the people that live here are represented across the anniversary weekend.

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"We didn't want to chose something to project, or simply make it green. We wanted to make sure Keyham was really part of it."

The two artists, Lucy Walton and Shri Gunasekara, have just graduated from Arts University Plymouth.

Lucy and Shri will use the drawings to create the moving illustrations.

Shri and Lucy are the two artists transforming the sketches into illustrations. Credit: ITV West Country

Lucy said: "There are a couple of parks around here that are really important to people and the view out from the Docklands.

"That'll work nicely because I can make that quite wide and really work in a landscape [theatre facade] format. It'll really capture that I think.

"It's really a privilege to work on this."

Shri added: "When you're illustrating you're thinking about 'how do you make this dog look very lovely and warm and happy?'

"Or 'how do you make the flowers look really welcoming?' So it's going to be a really interesting project."

The illustrations will be projected onto Smeaton's Tower on Friday 12 August. Credit: ITV West Country

Ebonnie Hele is 12-years-old and lives in Keyham with her family. Art is her favourite subject in school so when she heard about this project, she really wanted to be part of the anniversary.

She said: "I'll feel proud seeing it up there. You try not to think about what happened. But you couldn't really escape and get away from it."

On Friday 12 August, there will be a candlelit vigil on Plymouth Hoe that people are encouraged to attend.

There will be a private vigil for family and people close to the victims in Keyham.

The illustrations will be projected onto Smeaton's Tower that evening and onto Theatre Royal Plymouth for the whole weekend.