Sister of Humboldt Broncos coach calls artist's commemorative portraits an 'offering of joy'

 A teenager who channels her love of sports into art is gaining new fans with her latest series of Humboldt Broncos portraits.

Tiff McLennan was born with spina bifida, and is wheelchair-bound — the 14-year-old from Yorkton, Sask. said art helps her work through some of life's frustrations or the pain she sometimes faces.

"If I can't calm down from something, I just draw," she said.

Two years ago, she began drawing football players, inspired by her love of the CFL and its athletes, some of whom she's forged personal connections with.

After the Humboldt Broncos' team bus crash, McLennan's drawings of football players turned to hockey players and Broncos personnel. She began creating portraits of each of the 29 people aboard the bus.

"I just wanted to do something good so I just decided to start drawing them."

Each time she completed one, McLennan would tweet a picture, starting with her picture of survivor Ryan Straschnitzki​.

Deborah Carpenter's brother Darcy Haugan was the team's head coach, and was among the 16 that did not survive. Carpenter said she'd noticed McLennan's drawings and started looking forward to seeing them.

"They just brightened your day whenever you'd be scrolling through Twitter and see a face pop up. And she was so excited to share what she had drawn," Carpenter said. "And I waited for Darcy's to show up."

It turned out, McLennan saved Haugan's portrait for last. And once that final picture popped up on Carpenter's Twitter feed, she recognized him immediately.

"She nailed the hair, nailed the eyebrows," said Carpenter with a laugh.

She felt McClennan even captured that mischievous twinkle in her brother's eyes: a twinkle that belied his dry sense of humour, that sometimes left her guessing if he was making a joke or not.

McLennan has been keeping her drawings in books, but she's parted with one of her Broncos' portraits, mailing Straschnitzki his picture to autograph. Straschnitzki, like McLennan, is working on dreams of becoming a wheelchair athlete.

Personally, Carpenter said she felt McLennan's gesture was "incredibly sweet.

"The piece that was there . . . was just this innocence and this offering of joy out of her heart, to brighten other people's lives, and that, I think is very special."

McLennan says she's inspired by the positive response to her art.

"It makes me feel really great and makes me want to do drawings even more."

McLennan's portraits of Broncos that did not survive: