Writers might wish to be framed with passages of their best work permeating the portrait. There will be a self-portrait of Brown who is sponsored by Windsor & Newton of Harrow, Middlesex, world-renowned makers of art materials.
"Each one will be a personal diary and a reflection of the person and not simply a reproduction of a flat photograph," says Tony, the son of an insurance salesman, who attended the Blessed Sacrament School, Walton, Liverpool, before his family crossed the river.
Picasso maintained that different textures could enter a composition enabling the reality in the work to compete with the reality in nature in an abstract manner.
However, traditionalists need not fear. Tony's figures will not appear as cubes with their noses and eyes at peculiar angles. But he believes that in the collage form each portrait will carry its own truth and together they will give the viewer an idea of what being a Merseysider means.
One of Tony's subjects is his wife Lorraine, 42, who is not only his "soulmate" but his guide in bringing a dream to fruition.
They have been contacting big galleries and other venues, including the Artists' Club, in Eberle Street, Liverpool, where he has already exhibited his work, and the Athenaeum, Church Alley, Liverpool.
To display all 100 paintings at the same time would require a large area and some venues would have to stage a series of exhibitions to show them all.
The Williamson Art Gallery on Slatey Road, Birkenhead, has already guaranteed Tony space in 2007 for the portraits, some of which will be four feet by six feet.
"This is an ambitious scheme," says Colin Simpson, the gallery's curator, "but as long as the works themselves are well done and recognisable, which from the evidence so far, they are, it will make an interesting exhibition. T
here is a depth in the material. The images tell their own stories and it will make a fascinating record for the year of heritage, showing the range of personalities who have been involved."
