About the artist
Thirty years of looking at people properly.
A caricature isn't a big nose and a small body. It's working out, in the first few seconds, which two or three things make someone recognisably themselves — and then having the hand to put them down before the moment passes.
Nick has been doing that since 1994: in front of crowds at weddings and awards dinners, and alone at a board working up commissions in pencil and watercolour.
Nick Bronowski
Tommy Lee, Mötley Crüe, 2011
Pencil on paper
Private commission · Hand-delivered backstage, Wembley Arena
- Years drawing
30+
Years drawing
- Caricatures drawn
5,000+
Caricatures drawn
- Events worked
300+
Events worked
- Countries
12
Countries
The work
Pencil, paper, and no undo button.
Everything Nick makes is drawn by hand. At an event that means a board, a sheet of A3 and about four minutes per guest, with the person sitting in front of him and a small crowd forming behind. There's no tablet, no printer and no second attempt — which is the whole reason it holds a room.
Studio commissions work the other way round. They start with photographs and a conversation about who the person actually is, then get built up slowly in pencil or watercolour, with the details that matter worked into the scene. A groundsman at Lord's got his lawnmower reimagined with a V8 in it. Three businessmen got their immaculate yacht redrawn as a wreck.
Along the way that has meant drawing Jon Snow at a political awards ceremony, Charlotte Hawkins at a charity gala, and hand-delivering a commissioned portrait to Tommy Lee backstage at Wembley Arena during Mötley Crüe's UK tour.
What booking Nick is like
Booked for the drawing. Rebooked for the ease.
Drawn by hand, every time
Pencil and paper, no tablet and no printer. Each guest gets an original A3 piece — the thing they keep is the thing they watched being made.
Nine to eleven an hour
Three decades of practice means a real likeness in about four minutes. Long queues don't build up and nobody gets left out.
Used to a room
Awards dinners, weddings, trading floors and backstage at Wembley. Nick reads the room, works it, and doesn't need managing.
In the room
Handed over, in person, every time.
Jon Snow, 2018
Pencil on A3 paper
Charlotte Hawkins
Pencil on A3 paper
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Pencil on A3 paper
Phil Spencer
Pencil on A3 paper
Enquiries
Tell Nick the date. You'll have a price within 24 hours.
Availability goes first for summer weekends and December. If your date is close, call — it's the fastest way to find out where things stand.