Have you always been drawing? I have always doodled, whole pages full of cartoons, jokes and fantasy figures. I hardly ever really 'completed' anything. When did you realize that you wanted to become an illustrator? When I saw a documentary about the British illustrator Brain Froud, and his film The Dark Chrystal. For months on end I drew nothing but fairy-like beings. Have you studied formally? What? I went to the Academy of Fine Arts. I was 17 years old when I started and at first I did not understand at all what the teachers wanted of me. I wanted a technical education, I wanted to learn techniques, but they felt you needed to be inspired enough to find things out by yourself. Later on I went to Exeter College of Art & Design as an exchange student and found that what I wanted did exist after all. Who are your clients and how did they find you? Mostly via word of mouth. A few colleagues who had set up their own design studio helped me out a lot. And I wrote to and telephoned all the graphic studios in Nijmegen, as well as all the PR bureaus and after that all the editors of trade journals. I sent them loose leaf portfolios with black and white copies of my work. Usually they would let me know that it had been filed. Sometimes I would get a commission several years later from someone who had indeed kept my portfolio. At this point in time I barely have time for acquisition.		How do you start a job and where do you seek inspiration? With cartoons I first think of a good joke that will tersely demonstrate the essence of the text. Usually I already have the picture in my head, but it takes a lot of erasing and correcting to get it down pat on paper. I draw compositions in matchbox format in order to keep sight of things and not lose myself in details. In what media do you prefer to work? I work best with ink and brush, but I do like to go off occasionally on a more dangerous tangent with other materials. Then I draw in pen and ink and color it in with colored ink. Sometimes I have the most unexpected but fantastic results. When is a drawing finished? Usually just before a deadline. What work have you been most satisfied with? I work in two different styles: one is functional, tight-lined and cartoonesque, the other is dreamy and fairytale-like. The last one I like the best, long term. A good joke is less tenable than a beautiful drawing. What kind of project would you still like to tackle? A picture book of my very own creation, but then the possibilities would be so limitless that I would have trouble choosing what I want the most.
		sources of inspiration: 1] Martin Toonder, because of the drawing style, which I was brought up on. My cars, gadgets, fences and poles all look like those in Rommeldam. And the way he uses black/white appeals to me. 2] Brian Froud: Through him I started to believe the fairytale that I would be able to make a living with my doodles and scratches. And I lived happily ever after. 3] Regis Loisel: cartoonist, nice jaunty lines. 4] Luke Bode: knows how to reduce everything to his own strong ornamentation. In this case: Elvis portrait by: Inge Hondebrink, Nijmegen translation: Ellen van Boggelen-Heutink