Cartoon Strips
Luke Warm's first published cartoons stip was And So On.. which appeared in Phoenix magazine in Ireland the early 1980's in Dublin. However his first significant success was with the weekly publication of 'Fence Sittin by Luke Warm', a social and political cartoon strip which ran for two years in Mmegi newspaper in Botswana, and jointly won the 1990 Botwana Press Trust Cartoon Award.
Then in the mid 1990's his Punters personal finance cartoon strip was syndicated weekly by the Press Association for two years to 5 regional newspapers in the UK. Since then he's had weekly strips in the Financial Times and the Evening Standard amongst others.
'Back to the Drawing Board' features an unusual B&W fantasy strip within a colour reality strip and grapples with global issues in our shrinking post 9:11 world. It comes in both a daily single strip format and the double strip weekend format show above - and is still looking for a home!
He's recently been drawing a weekly Brexit cartoon posted on his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages.
"Thanks again for the drawing of our family, everyone thinks it's excellent!"
Lynn
"Thank you so much for the caricature of my Dad. It is fantastic, it is just how we had imagined it. I think he is going to love it. Thanks again."
Jenny
"Thank you very much for the caricature of my Dad which you recently did for his 65th birthday. The family were all thrilled with it and we were very impressed both by the likeness and the amount of detail it contained. I only hope somebody is good enough to get one of me sometime (hint to hubby)."
Tracy
"This is excellent, you have captured everything that I wanted - well done."
Sundip
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
Jessie Brown
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
Avery Smith
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
Skyler Adelson
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
Kris Michaels
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
Frankie Bolder
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
Quinn Davis
The lowdown..
So who is the tall dude in the dark suit?!
Mark Nesbitt is an award winning Irish cartoonist and caricaturist who has worked under the pen name of 'Luke Warm' since 1990 - nearly 30 years!
He started off as a civil engineer drawing in his spare time and in 1985 was joint winner of a cartoon competition run by the Guardian newspaper and Granada TV. But it was while working on water projects in Botswana that he had his first major break with the weekly publication of his social and political strip 'Fence Sittin' by Luke Warm' which ran for over 2 years in Mmegi newspaper and was the joint winner of the 1991 Botswana Press Trust award.
In 1992 he moved to London, kept on the Luke Warm pen name and over the next ten years built up a body of cartoon and illustration work with the Financial Times, The Irish Times, The Press Association, the Times Higher Education Supplement, The Sunday Business Post and the Evening Standard amongst many others.
He moved to Devon in 2003 and since then, based in his purpose built studio, now mainly works as a caricaturist throughout the south west - in fact even as far south west as the Caribbean for P&O Cruises!
Caricatures by Luke Warm won the 2017 Best Entertainment Award at the South West Wedding Awards. He'd previously won the Best Entertainment Award at the 2009, 2010 & 2011 West Country Wedding Awards and in 2013 won their Judges Choice Award from a field of 138 entrants. He was also shortlisted for both the 2009 & 2010 Service Excellence Awards by the Federation of Small Businesses.
FAQ
The Answers You Need
What details do you need for a quote?
To give you a quote for caricatures from photos I need
the number of people to be included
the use the drawing will to be put to, and
your deadline
I will then give you a range of options and prices.
Size?
As a guide 1-5 people can be included at A4 size (210mm x 297mm), 1-15 at A3 (297mm x 420mm), 1-30 at A2 (420mm x 594mm) and 1-40 at A1 (594mm x 840mm) . However the more people on a given size of paper the less room for background details and context - packing too many people in can make a drawing end up looking like a school photo! A3 is the most popular size and makes a handsome present.
Photos?
The quality of your caricature directly depends on the quality of your photos - by far the most important element in the whole process! You do please need to put time to this!
I do need hardcopy printed photos to work from - at least 2-3 recent, close, clear, happy, smiling pictures of each person, without hats or sunglasses, showing the complete outline of the head. Ideally the head needs to be at least 2" high - a good test of a picture is whether you can make out the eye colour - and there needs to be enough clear detail to allow the caricature to be drawn several times larger than in the photo.
I also need photos of all the props and background items to be included.
Professionally printed photos are best - online digital printer Snapfish offers 40 free prints with your first upload. All pictures will be carefully looked after and returned to you.
Uses?
The most popular reasons caricatures from photos are commissioned are fro birthday and leaving and retirement presents.
Family portraits of up to 30 people have been commissioned for Paper, Silver, Ruby, Gold, Emerald and Diamond wedding anniversaries.
In the corporate world they're often commissioned as 'financial tombstones' to celebrate the completion of a project - with all the key members having signed and dated copies.
Large group caricatures are very popular as Mess drawing for the military (Officer's, Warrant Officer's, Sergeant's Messes etc) - they build team spirit!
Black & White or Colour?
For the classic, timeless look it's hard to beat B&W - great for wedding invitations and formal occasions. Adding colour will give the caricature warmth and fun.
Copies
Signed and numbered copies of group caricatures can be arranged - printed in Epsom DuraBrite ink on heavy 160gsm glossy photo card - so that everyone in the drawing has a copy.
How do I get the best results?!
Well organised clients get the best work - by keeping emails short and clear, maintaining the entire email thread, providing good quality photos, layout drawing and and brief - and so allowing me to put the maximum amount of time into the drawing itself.
What's the best way to contact you
By far the best ways to contact me are by email or by filling in the webform boxes below.
Enquiry Form
To contact Cartoons and Caricatures by Luke Warm please send an email or fill in the form below.
Greencroft, Harton Cross, Hartland, Bideford EX39 6AE, UK
01237 441 559 / 0797 323 1577 - 9-5pm weekdays only
