An Aberdeen runner has kept his online followers entertained with a series of creative Christmas designs throughout the festive season.
Stuart Marr, 38, has been drawing enormous pictures across the parks and pitches of the city using the route marker on fitness app Strava for five years.
He plans out a path beforehand, and sticks to it as closely as possible on his runs, which can be anywhere from 2km to almost 6km depending on the complexity of the picture he wants to make.
This year, his designs have included an elf, a guitar-playing Christmas tree and even Santa getting stuck in the chimney.
Mr Marr, who is originally from Westhill, said: “Sometimes the markings on the pitch can help me, and I can see where I am with the Strava app.
“It’s about judgment as well, because some bits are trickier to do than others. Drawing circles is a challenge, because you’ve got to judge them quite well.
“Most of my drawings I’ll get the first time around, it’s very rare that I’ve had to start again because I’ve had a false start.”
Among his most popular designs from 2021 has been a Covid virus getting jabbed by an enormous vaccination needle, drawn across Sheddocksley pitches, which collected more than 1,700 likes on Instagram.
He often creates pictures to mark important events, such as a kilted man for Scotland’s appearance in Euro 2020 and a head with a brain for last year’s World Mental Health Day.
Mr Marr has been running for 20 years, but was first inspired to start the drawings after seeing ‘Pedalling Picasso’ Anthony Hoyte create intricate designs around parks in London.
However, the smaller Granite City parks pose more of a challenge for him, as he needs to fit often very complex details into odd shapes.
He said: “If you look back at previous years and what I’ve done, you’ve always got to think, ‘How can I better it next year?’
“It gets quite tricky, thinking what else I can do, and how am I going to do them. Sometimes you get ideas, and you think, ‘How am I going to do this now?'”