YELLOWKNIFE - After a vicious beating outside the White Fox bar in January, the RCMP had no suspects.

Their investigations were coming up empty. They decided to rely on a rarely used RCMP tool - the composite sketch.

Recent sketches drawn by RCMP Cpl. Jeff Presley include suspects for (clockwise from top left) a sexual assault, an attempted sexual assault, a robbery, and another sexual assault. The sketches were made in late fall 2006 and early 2007. Two have been identified so far. - illustrations courtesy of Cpl. Jeff Presley

Less than six days after it was released in the media, the man depicted in the sketch arrived at the Yellowknife detachment.

No charges have been laid but "we're not looking for anyone else," said Const. Roxanne Dreilich.

It's quite rare that RCMP use sketches here - estimates were that six have been used in the last 10 years.

Cpl. Jeff Presley, 45, is the man who wielded the pencil in this case. His full-time job is as a homicide investigator with Project KARE in Edmonton. He is an RCMP sketch artist part-time.

Creating a composite sketch from start to finish takes from one to four hours, he said, depending on the witness.

The witness for the White Fox beating composite was "very, very good," said Presley.

Making the sketch was straightforward, he said.

"It was long, over two hours," said the artist.

The process is done with a book of facial features, said Presley.

"I don't ever know who the suspects are in any of my drawings," he said, "and if I do know I won't draw it."

The most interesting part of his job comes when a sketch is completed.

"The way the witnesses react when it's a really good drawing," he said, "if they start crying or become angry at the picture, that's the thing I find most intriguing."

Sgt. Andy Ing of the Yellowknife RCMP detachment said that there is no hard and fast rule that decides when to use a sketch artist.

"It's a case-by-case scenario," he said.

"All I can say is that in this case we had an unknown subject and we had exhausted all the avenues of investigation in identifying the subject."

The Yellowknife detachment brought up a sketch artist from Edmonton in this case, but RCMP artists basically help out when needed, where needed, said Ing.

Presley has sketched for NWT's G Division before, he said.

He said the prompt success of his sketch was good news.

"I was happy," said Presley, of when he heard that the man in the sketch had approached RCMP.

"It makes you feel like you accomplished something," he said

Presley joined the RCMP 26 years ago. His sketches have been furthering investigations for 24 years.

It's made for an interesting career, he said.

With art training already under his belt, he took RCMP sketch art training, as well as with the FBI.

"It was the easiest training I had," he said of his time with the FBI. "The best training is in Canada."

In the FBI training, "there were people from all over the world. Canadians are usually the best," he said.

Sketch art is something Presley does in addition to his regular job - he said about one per cent of his time is used for sketching.

However, he hopes that will soon change.

There's a chance the sketch artist job may go full-time in June, he said.