Through U.S. history, there have been many portraits depicting every president of the country.

Tim George is just another artist adding to that collection.

George, 57, a resident of Clintonville, recently finished portraits of all 43 U.S. Presidents.

But where other artists use pencil and paper, George chooses a different route: an Etch A Sketch.

His work is on display in the basement of the Ohio Statehouse until Dec. 1.

To coincide with Tuesday’s presidential election, George revealed an Etch A Sketch portrait of Barack Obama.

For George, this was an election that hit close to home.

At the age of four, his daughter Ellie had surgery to fix three holes in her heart.

Since her surgery, insurance companies have considered her uninsurable.

George said the election was important to him “because both candidates promised to do something about the health care problem.”

Although Ellie is perfectly healthy now, her parents were forced to carry her on their insurance plan for years.

She recently landed a job in St. Louis with a company providing health insurance after 60 days.

If George’s daughter did not have heart surgery 20 years ago, George acknowledged he may not be where he is today.

It is his daughter’s heart surgery that caused George to become more acquainted with the Etch A Sketch.

George spent a lot of time with his daughter when she was in the hospital recovering from her operation.

It was only a matter of time before he stumbled upon an Etch A Sketch in the children’s playroom.

His daughter, not knowing what the toy was, wanted to know more about it.

George started turning the knobs and showed her how it worked.

Since that moment, he has been perfecting his skills.

It was a slow process at first: George began by drawing diagonal lines and circles.

“It’s really a challenge to draw anything,” George said, adding that with an Etch A Sketch, the artist is not able to lift his or her utensil and start a new line.

George said the most difficult thing about learning the Etch a Sketch was drawing basic geometric shapes and trying to think ahead while moving the pen-shaped stylus behind the screen.

By the time his daughter left the hospital, George could sketch cartoon characters.

Before long, George was sketching animals and displaying them in his daughter’s class.

Soon, George began touring schools and museums showcasing his work. All this exposure landed him many spots in newspapers and even a couple of appearances on “Good Morning America.”

George was eventually contacted by a publisher and his work was featured in the children’s book “Looking at Animals with Mr. Etch A Sketch.”

To this day, George makes sure to visit hospitals in the Columbus area once a year, sketching for sick children. George said the portraits of the American presidents were his most ambitious, yet gratifying work to date.

Since the presidential figures are easily recognizable, George said he had to be absolutely sure they looked the part.

“Every move is important because you can really mess it up easily,” he said.

Some presidents were easy to draw; others were downright frustrating for him.

George said it took him six attempts to get President Calvin Coolidge just right.

Each sketch takes him anywhere from four to 12 hours, depending on the difficulty.

The portraits of the 43 U.S. Presidents, Obama and sketches of a few historical national landmarks took George nine months to complete.

The Etch A Sketch has been around since 1969 when The Ohio Art Company started mass producing the toy in Bryan, Ohio.

To this day it has sold more than 100 million units.

The Etch A Sketch is a simple and inexpensive toy.

The glass screen of the Etch A Sketch is clear and static electricity causes a fine aluminum and plastic powder mix to cling to the inside of the screen.

A pen-shaped stylus is moved by knobs on the inside that removes the powder from the screen, creating lines.

There are two knobs, one on the lower left side controlling vertical movements and one on the lower right side controlling horizontal movements of the stylus.

Since all it takes are a couple vigorous shakes to erase time consuming work, George said he needed a way to preserve all of his artwork.

He said in the past he has ruined drawings by accidentally dropping or shaking them.

To fix this problem, The Ohio Art Company sends George Etch A Sketches without a glued back. This way, George can easily remove the back to drain out the powder when he is finished with each piece.

After the exhibit at the Ohio Statehouse ends, George said he wants to take the presidential portraits on a tour throughout the country, visiting museums like the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY.

Matt Hancharick can be reached at [email protected].