An artist is set to begin painting the portraits of cremated people - using colour created from their ashes.

Mike Smith, 46, said: "I should be starting one in the next couple of weeks, using the ashes of a girl's father which have been on the mantelpiece for about 15 years."

He said he hoped to create another portrait of a man said to have been the inspiration for Spike Milligan's Goon Show character Moriarty.

Since the artist, based in Mary Tavy, Devon, first offered the service a few weeks ago, he has been contacted from people from as far afield as Kent and Durham.

"Some people may think it is a macabre idea, but personally I do not think so, as long as the portrait is done with loving care," he said.

He has said he would spend at least a day talking with the family to get to know something of the deceased person before painting the portrait from a photograph.

Mr Smith said he thought of the idea when he began using cigarette ash to lend a period tone to a portrait he was painting.