Image of dad Jerry to help baby Ayla

Aaron Jenkins, with his drawing of former All Black Jerry Collins.

When a Havelock North artist heard about the death of Jerry Collins he picked up a pencil and started sketching.

Aaron Jenkins was on Facebook when he read the former All Black, 34, and his partner Alana Madill were killed after their car collided with a bus on a French motorway.

Their child Ayla, just 4-months-old, is in a critical condition at a Montpellier hospital.

As a father Mr Jenkins immediately began wondering what he could do to help the baby.

"When I heard what happened, I'm a family man myself, and I thought what his family must be going through - so I got together with my wife and decided to do this portrait," he said.

"When I heard about the baby it really pulled on my heart strings - I have got two girls of my own."

It took 14 hours steady work to create the photo-perfect image using graphite, carbon and tinted charcoal on paper -which he then posted on Trade Me, with proceeds donated to an account set up in Ayla's name.

"Because there's already a Givealittle site we are going to get the winner to donate money into that and they have to give us proof before we hand over the portrait."

The listing went live at 10pm on Sunday, the following day it featured on Good Morning and has since been shared on Facebook pages such as Maori TV and Veitchy on Sport.

His auction had 23,000 views and bidding reached $2500 by 5pm yesterday and will run until June 14 at 6.14pm.

"It's already surpassed what I thought it would, I didn't think it would take off like this - it's really blown me away."

During the day Mr Jenkins works at Havelock North New World - but his passion is drawing.

He takes commissions through the Facebook page Art by Aaron Jenkins.

It's had a positive spin off for the part-time artist who also showcases his work at Linden Estate Winery, where a large picture of the All Blacks still hangs.

"I got 150 new likes on my Facebook, it's been pretty quiet lately. I never expected this attention, it's not why I did this."