BRITAIN IS NOT DEAD.
IT JUST NEEDED
A FRENCH ARTIST.
One photo. One French artist. One gift nobody forgets — drawn by hand in Bordeaux, printed and delivered in the UK. No AI, no templates. Ever.
Real reactions · Nobody is acting 🎭
THE PERFECT CARICATURE. ON ANYTHING.
Hand-drawn from your photo · Printed and posted within the UK · No AI · No templates
Send a photo today, receive the hand-drawn artwork in your inbox within 24 hours. Print it yourself, or keep it for later.
ORDER →
Their face, your sense of humour, their morning tea. The one mug in the cupboard nobody else dares touch.
ORDER →
Their face on their feet. The gift nobody sees coming, and the one everybody photographs.
ORDER →
Stainless steel, hot or cold for hours, and their caricature riding along on the commute.
ORDER →ONE DRAWING. TWO WAYS TO OWN IT.
Every order starts the same way: Sébastien draws you by hand, in ink and watercolour, on paper. Then you choose what lands on your doorstep.
| 🇬🇧 PRINTED GIFTS | 🇫🇷 SIGNED ORIGINAL | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Your hand-drawn caricature printed on mugs, posters, canvas, socks, puzzles… | The actual ink and watercolour drawing, on art paper, signed by Sébastien |
| Made | Drawn in Bordeaux, printed in the UK | Drawn and painted in Bordeaux, France |
| Price | From €25 (caricature by email) · gifts €35–€70 | From €120 (pencil portrait) to €200+ (painting on canvas) |
| Delivery | About a week · posted within the UK | About two weeks · sent from France |
| You receive | The product, plus the HD file by email | The original artwork, plus its HD scan by email |
📺 25 years of caricature, on paper and on air
WHY FRENCH?
BECAUSE GREAT ART
STILL NEEDS A HUMAN HAND.
Sébastien Rieu draws from his studio in Bordeaux, France — ink, paper, and 25 years of caricature behind him. Not a prompt, not an algorithm: a real artist who studies your photo and decides what makes it you.
Every caricature is drawn from scratch, just for you. The gifts are then printed and posted inside the United Kingdom, so what arrives is a normal domestic parcel.
Every line drawn by hand by Sébastien — no AI, no templates, no shortcuts.
Caricature by email within 24 hours. Printed gifts in about a week. Signed originals from France in about two.
One artist, one drawing, one person in the world who owns it.
SCANNED. NOT DIGITAL.
A digital file does not mean a digital drawing, and the difference is the whole point.
Sébastien draws every caricature the old way: Indian ink and watercolour, on real art paper, at a real drawing table in Bordeaux. Once the artwork is finished, it is scanned in high definition. What reaches your inbox is a faithful capture of a drawing that physically exists on paper — not pixels pushed around on a tablet, and certainly not AI.
Want proof? Ask for a progress photo of your own commission. A real artist can always show the work halfway through — Sébastien films at the drawing table.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ON PAPER
Indian ink, watercolour and acrylic. Shown whole, never cropped.
Place du Tertre, Montmartre
WatercolourThe square where caricaturists have set up their easels for more than a century, painted from the pavement rather than from a photograph. Sébastien worked there before opening his own studio, and the crowd in the background is the one he drew for years.
Mr Bean
Indian inkA face built almost entirely from the chin and the eyebrows. Caricature is a matter of deciding what to exaggerate and what to leave alone, and here everything else was left alone on purpose.
Scarlett Johansson
Indian inkPortraits of famous faces are the hardest test a caricaturist can set himself: the likeness has to survive the exaggeration. The brush lines here were laid down in one pass, with no pencil underneath.
Emmanuelle Béart
AcrylicPainted in the pin-up tradition, with acrylic on paper rather than ink. It belongs to the series of paintings that eventually became a room of its own in the gallery.
Little Rascal
WatercolourChildren are drawn with a lighter hand: the exaggeration goes into the expression rather than the features. This is the treatment most family commissions receive.
Good Boy
WatercolourDogs and cats have their own way of holding a pose, and the whole character usually sits in the ears and the eyes. Pets are among the most requested subjects, alone or beside their human.
EXPLORE THE GALLERIES
Twenty-five years of drawings, all made by hand, all on paper.
📚 The only caricature studio with its own encyclopedia — walk through 250 years of caricature history: the English masters · Daumier · Gustave Doré · Poulbot
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Real customers. Real gifts. Real reactions.
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QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK BEFORE ORDERING
IS MY CARICATURE DRAWN BY A REAL PERSON OR BY AI?
Every drawing is made by hand by Sébastien Rieu, a French caricaturist of 25 years, with Indian ink and watercolour on paper. No AI, no templates, no filters — ever. You can ask for a progress photo of your own commission while it is being drawn.
DO I RECEIVE THE ORIGINAL DRAWING OR A PRINT?
Both exist and they are kept clearly separate. Gift products — mug, poster, canvas, socks, puzzle — are printed from the high-definition scan of the hand-made drawing. The signed original on art paper is ordered separately and sent from France; it is presented on the Original Art page of atelier-caricature.co.uk.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
A caricature by email arrives within 24 hours of your order. Printed gifts take about a week, since the drawing has to be made first and the item printed afterwards. A signed original sent from France takes about two weeks.
WHERE ARE THE PRINTED GIFTS MADE AND POSTED FROM?
The drawing is made in Bordeaux, France, then the mugs, posters, canvases, socks and puzzles are printed in the United Kingdom and posted from there. For a British customer the parcel is an ordinary domestic delivery.
CAN I ASK FOR CHANGES?
Yes. After ordering you receive the sketch by email and can ask for adjustments before Sébastien completes the final artwork. Nothing is printed or posted before you have approved the sketch.
HOW DO I KNOW IT IS REALLY HAND-DRAWN?
Sébastien Rieu is a named artist with a 25-year portfolio who has been filmed at his drawing table by France 3 national television. Ask for a progress photo of your commission: an artist who really draws can always show the work halfway through, which is exactly what an automated seller cannot do.
READY TO MAKE
SOMEONE’S DAY?
Send a photo, choose your gift, and Sébastien does the rest — from a drawing table in Bordeaux to your door in Britain.
THE FRENCH ARE COMING. AGAIN.
Let’s be honest: Britain has been through a lot lately.
Brexit. The weather. The football.
But there is good news. A French artist has crossed the Channel — armed with Indian ink, watercolour, and 25 years of shameless pencil mischief — to draw you, your colleagues, your pets, and anyone else who deserves to be immortalised in glorious satirical art.
No AI. No filters. No apologies.
Just proper, hand-drawn caricatures in the finest tradition of Gillray, Rowlandson, and the Golden Age of British satire — with a distinctly French twist.
🇫🇷 Drawn in Bordeaux. Delivered to your door. Oui.
MEET THE ARTIST →EMBARRASSINGLY SIMPLE TO ORDER
SEND A PHOTO
Any clear photo will do. Funny expressions actively encouraged.
APPROVE THE SKETCH
Pencil preview within 48 hours. Changes included at no extra charge.
IT ARRIVES
Printed in the UK. Delivered within 3–5 working days. Digital same day.
AS SEEN ON FRANCE 3 NATIONAL TELEVISION
France 3 — one of France’s main national TV channels — came to Sébastien’s studio in Bordeaux to cover his career.
The report spans 25 years of craft : from live caricature events at weddings and corporate galas across Europe, to high-profile criminal trials where Sébastien works as an official courtroom illustrator for France 3 and France Info — drawing defendants, lawyers and judges in real time, with Indian ink, under pressure.
Every stroke you see is done live, by hand. No AI. No undo button. Just a pencil, a pot of ink, and 25 years of knowing exactly which line makes a face come alive.
📺 Watch the full broadcast on YouTube →CARICATURE: A BRITISH INVENTION?
Not quite — but Britain came very close to owning it. James Gillray. Thomas Rowlandson. George Cruikshank. The 18th-century English masters turned caricature into a political weapon that Napoleon himself feared. Discover the full history in our free encyclopedia.
📚 READ THE ENCYCLOPEDIA →Have a question before ordering? Meet Toutou, the chatbot of a French caricature artist.
Want to see what previous clients say? Read the customer reviews.