Meet Benjamin Belleuvre | cartoonist and firefighter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Benjamin Belleuvre and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Benjamin, what are you inspired by?
I am a professionnal lieutenant, working for a french fire department which is located in the south west of France, half an hour form the Atlantic ocean, and I like to draw since I’m little. I am inspired by the time spending at the fire station, talking with my brothers, going on fire calls, doing our job. If you spend just an hour listening to a fire house conversation, you will find ideas for a new sketch! We are used to see crazy stuff on calls, some sad and some funny, but I like to draw the funny ones! Usually most of my drawings are shared by firefighters but other people can like it too. Like the kids. They like the way I draw the firefighters and the fire engines. Lots of kids ask their parents to buy my Art book.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is all about fire department stories. I like to draw sketches about what I saw, or heard, or lived during my job, on calls or at the fire house. One day, I tried to realize a fire house logo in order to make patches for the firefighters of this fire house, they really like it. They shared it, and more people asked me to realize their fire house logo. Today, I have done almost 300 fire house logos in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and USA. As a firefighter, I think that I know what a firefighter like to have in his fire house logo. I ask them what they want inside like the action of the character, the tools, their station area’s most known places or buildings, their trucks, their colours etc… I mix all of it in my head and there it comes the sketch for the logo. It’s important to ask the good questions in order to know all what they want to make their fire house logo the one they can identify themselves. That’s the most important. The logo of the fire house can be then on hats, shirts, or painted on the wall.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live by the Atlantic ocean. One of my favorite place to spend time with firends from out of town would be to eat a pizza on the beach at the “la Coubre”” lighthouse , which is near the city of Royan in the south west of France. To get there, you have to take a 20 minutes walk threw the pine trees forest, and walk other the sand dune. I like to go there for the sunset and then go surfing until it’s dark.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife is the one who deserves recognition in my story. First, when I need to draw, she is taking care of ours kids, two boys who are 6 and 7 years old. Then, she is the one to who I show my sketch first. She read the text and think how could the sketch could be understood by men and women. Sometimes she tells me to put a different word, or to change something in order to not hurt somebody. This is why there is always a little mouse hiding somewhere in my sketches, that’s her. Because when we were in school together, me and my friends used to call her “the mouse”, because we thought she had a cute little baby face.

Website: bentmf.com

Instagram: Ben TMF

Facebook: Ben TMF dessins

Image Credits
Ben TMF