Live wedding illustration
Live wedding illustration is drawing made during the wedding itself, not worked up from photographs afterwards. Rui Charnock draws in ink and watercolour at weddings across Portugal, producing about two finished illustrations for every hour booked — twelve across a typical six-hour day.
You watch it appear, and so does everyone else. That is the whole difference between this and a photograph of the same moment.
What a booking produces
| Hours booked | Illustrations | Or, with guest portraits | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | About 8 | 5 illustrations + 90 minutes of portraits | Ceremony and drinks |
| 6 | About 12 | 8 illustrations + the drinks gap | Ceremony to first dance |
| 9 | About 18 | 12 illustrations + an extended session | Getting ready to last dance |
How the day runs
I arrive an hour before whatever you want drawn first. That is usually getting ready, because the light is good and nobody is watching yet.
From there I work where the day is. Ceremony from the side, never the aisle. Speeches from the back. The first dance from the floor. I am standing for most of it, and I do not need a table, a power socket or a briefing.
A booked hour produces about two illustrations. Six hours is the point at which a wedding starts to read as a whole day rather than a set of moments.
What is actually on the paper
Ink line first, laid down fast and unbroken. Watercolour after, while the line is still wet enough to bleed into. The paper stays white — that white is most of the drawing.
Faces are recognisable. Not photographic, but your mother will know which one she is. That is the part that takes the years.
Afterwards
Work leaves the venue with you on the night if you want it, in a rigid folder. Anything unfinished comes back to the studio, gets its final washes, and is scanned at archival resolution.
Originals and prints are posted within two weeks. Digital files come sooner, usually the same week, because people want to post them.
Prices are published on the pricing page. Nothing is gated.
Check your date WhatsAppWhat you actually get
- About two finished illustrations for every hour booked — roughly twelve across a six-hour wedding, plus fifty to seventy guest portraits if portraits are included.Getting ready, the ceremony, the speeches, the first dance.
- Guest portraits handed over on the night, as favours.Two or three minutes a face. People queue for them.
- Finished in studio, delivered within two weeks.Scanned at archival resolution. Prints and the original both come to you.
- From €X. Travel included within X km of Lisbon.Full breakdown on the pricing page. Nothing behind a form.
Check your date
Tell me when and where. If I am free, I will come back with what it costs and roughly how the day would run — usually the same evening.