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Youngstown-area artist draws portraits of Maine mass shooting victims

Ron Wood Jr. says he's hopeful the portraits will bring the families some sort of comfort.

AUSTINTOWN, Ohio — At Ron Moore Junior's home studio in Austintown, the details are everything.

"I do everything in layers. All the graphite is in layers," he told us while working on a sketch. "I'll get one layer down then I'll spray it with a workable fixative."

His intricacy is impressive because, at one point, he thought he may never draw again.

"There (came) a time in my life when I got Parkinson's, where the symptoms got too bad and I lost the ... I temporarily lost the ability to do artwork," Ron said.

Now, he's leaning into his challenges.

"Sometimes I allow the tremors to do the details," Ron told us.

He's done pieces for people across the country, even presidents, like Jimmy Carter.

Yet, his current project is one of the most meaningful. Ron is drawing portraits of the victims killed in the Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting that happened earlier this month.

He'll gift them to their loved ones.

"I like artwork that impacts a person's life, hopefully for the better," Ron said.

The time spent, about 12 hours on each one, is well worth it.

"I don't wanna just do a sketch and send it off to their families. I wanna research the person. So hopefully I can capture some kind of characteristic in the portrait," he said. "No matter how many hours I work on the artwork, if all it does is give the family just one small inch of comfort and hope, then it's worth it."

While he knows his sketches won't erase the pain, he hopes they'll bring the victims' loved ones peace.

"These families are experiencing some of the darkest times that they'll ever experience in life. I'm convinced that by showing just a little bit of love, I can outshine any darkness," Ron said.

Ron plans to gift the paintings to the families later this month. He also plans to auction off one some of his artwork to raise money for those families.

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