Wedding Bells - Unique Gifts for the Happy Couple!

It's so lovely to create a wedding gift.  Almost invariably I do not know the happy couple, so there is an information-gathering process and then I start to sketch. The illustration below for Sarah and Daniel charts their journey together: starting with meeting at a Christmas party, having their baby, an engagement in Brighton, moving to York, their wedding venue and their honeymoon in NYC.  

The opportunity to use such vibrant colours was a real treat on this Indian wedding present:

This wedding gift picked out places where the couple have lived, where they were getting married and honeymooning, their baby, and an exciting trip to Peru:

If you would like a unique and personal gift for friends or family then why not drop me a message, and we can think about some possible creative options.

Istanbul is Home

ÇukurcumArt

My base in the vast, energetic and historic city of Istanbul is in Çukurcuma. It is in Istanbul's antiques district and is made up of steep winding streets, punctuated with lovely little coffee shops and full of incredible treasures. Our local eight-storey emporium sells, amongst other things, ancient marble columns and vast wooden original Ottoman doors! 

Our flat there instantly became home and so I did my first house portrait, with our beloved Vespa and our favourite street cat - Mr. Tiddles - gracing the pavement.

The famous Hagia Sophia

If anyone is on Pinterest do have a look at my collection of Istanbul imagery.

Puffin and Buffalo's Day Out

I was asked to create a series of illustrations featuring two special characters - a puffin and a buffalo - to be framed as a birthday present. The characters represent the fantasy selves of a real-life couple, and 'puffin' had asked me to recreate some of their favourite London activities for Puffin & Buffalo's Day Out.

Making Tracks in the Snow of Istanbul

Big Bus Istanbul is nearing its first birthday, and last Christmas I really enjoyed creating a festive card for them. The topography of the city made it really interesting to play with perspective and to include both Europe and Asia in the design.

Big Bus Istanbul Christmas Card 2013

© Benedict Protheroe 2014

Victory Rolls, Red Lipstick and Straight to the 1940s

In 2013 I became involved in volunteering at the WWII weekend at a National Trust property in Somerset. I painted the show posters, orchestrated the fashion show and met some wonderful people.



The following year saw the show move to a bigger site at The North Somerset Showground, near Bristol. Over a period of months I illustrated a variety of promotional artwork.

The Dig for Victory Show 2014 took place this summer, and I flew back from Istanbul to spend the weekend immersed in a wonderful 1940s world.


Come along to next year's show - it will be on the 13th & 14th of June 2015. Announcements are made via the Facebook page and the artwork, which I am looking forward to creating, will be coming soon!

Wartime Beauty Illustration

The full cover, front and back, for the show programme

1940s fun

The site map for The Dig for Victory Show

Constantinople Calling and the first Christmas Commissions

In October 2013 I packed several suitcases and made the move to historic Istanbul. The initial weeks were spent in a hotel in touristy Sultanahmet and life was certainly in flux. I spent my time flat-hunting, drinking Turkish coffee, tickling the local street cats and exploring Byzantine churches. On the process and emotions related to moving abroad I am sure I could write a whole other blog; in short, I found myself feeling rather isolated, but in that isolation my illustration projects gave me a certain security.

Although keen to start doing commissioned work, I was slightly nervous at the prospect of working to a client brief. I was worried I might find it constraining or creatively stifling. However, I pushed on, put out the feelers for Christmas artwork and picked up three glorious snow and icing sugar dusted commissions!

The first request was to create an e-card to be sent out by The Heavenly Pudding and Pie Company, who are sadly no longer trading. Everyone loves a smiling mince-pie and I smiled as I drew these little chaps:

E-card for Heavenly Puddings and Pies

Christmas Facebook banner for Heavenly Puddings and Pies

The next commission was for festive artwork for Shopland Sawmills in the UK, who specifically wanted a character creating to represent their business. The lumberjack was lovely to create and features on the e-Christmas card, a festive Facebook banner, as well as on a large printed banner to advertise the Christmas tree sale:

Text added for the e-Christmas card

The banner to advertise the Christmas tree sale

The banner was printed onto a pale background for clarity

The last of the festive trio was for Team Pixie, a fantastic make-up and special effects supplier in the UK. I researched various pin-up photographs and artwork and came up with a sweet but cheeky yuletide pixie for the team:

'You, Me and the Frankie'

Frankie's Tea Party

My drawings for the You, Me and the Frankie series, featuring my little tiger, continued to occupy my time last year and gave me a huge amount of enjoyment. 


I hand-drew the images with a thin black marker on white paper and scanned them to my laptop, then tinkered with them on photoshop, moving elements around and colouring in the images. 


A lovely new cafe opened in Seaford, The Front Room, and they wanted some colouring-in sheets for children; so I created some featuring Frankie.