This was interesting: this guy is useing his own blood, and other people's blood, to paint.  I guess he's a heroin addict and got arrested for shooting up some girl, but his defense is that he was just getting blood from her to paint a picture.

 

Doherty's blood paintings

By Robert Mendick, Evening Standard 05.05.06

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Pictures painted by Pete Doherty using his own blood are to go on show. <REPLACE type="morelinks" align="right">

The singer is to exhibit them at a London gallery and charge about £1,000 each to sell them, the Evening Standard has learned.

His friends say they help prove his innocence over claims he injected a female fan with heroin while she lay unconscious at his Hackney flat. Doherty was arrested on Saturday by police investigating a photo in The Sun, apparently showing him sticking a needle in the arm of Laura McEvoy, 21.

He faces a maximum 10-year jail sentence if prosecuted and found guilty under the Offences Against The Person Act. But Doherty, 27, claims he was actually drawing blood from Ms McEvoy to use in a painting.

The paintings shown here were completed over the past six months. They are being stored at the home of Paul Roundhill, 51, his self-styled literary agent, in Whitechapel.

Mr Roundhill said today: "I picked these pictures up at his flat in Hackney. Blood paintings are something he has done for a long time. I think they help explain the photograph of Laura. It shows he does do blood paintings." He said convent-educated Ms McEvoy was not a "druggie" but a "nice girl".

"I really don't think Pete was injecting her," he said. "It was just staged."

<REPLACE type="imagequick" name="0">The most recent blood painting was completed while Doherty was in Ireland. It shows his tour bus surrounded by fans. Another sketch shows Doherty smoking with a female companion. Friends said she is not supposed to be Kate Moss.

They can be viewed on Mr Roundhill's website balachadha.com, for a charge. Some say "balachadha" is local slang for crack cocaine. Doherty recently used blood drawn from his former manager James Mullord. Mr Mullord said: "He was very careful, he used a new needle. Pete has become very good at using the syringe, either scratching it on to the paper or spraying an area. It creates an effect a little like a Ralph Steadman cartoon."

It is understood Doherty recently sold a conventional painting for more than £1,000. He is on two years' probation for drugs possession. The Evening Standard understands he will undergo a second surgical implant next week in an attempt to combat heroin addiction.