BIOGRAFIE/BIOGRAPHY AND WERKWIJZE/WORKING-METHOD:

Geboren 15-3-1956 in Hilversum. Op het atheneum tekende hij al karikaturen van leraren, voor de schoolkrant. Altijd had Ronald het geweten: hij wilde bioloog worden. Tijdens zijn studie op de universiteit van Utrecht mocht hij zijn tekentalenten niet botvieren. Geen mooi uitgewerkte aanblikken vanuit de microscoop. Als bioloog lukte het niet aan de bak te komen. Na een interimbaan, met behoud van uitkering, bij de gemeente Hilversum, werkte hij vrijwillig voor Natuurmonumenten. Vogelrondleidingen, en ook cartoons en stripjes voor folders. Ondertussen maakte hij kleurrijke vogeltekeningen, met kleurpotlood of met pastel. Het liefst werkte hij tussen de mensen. Vogels, het kijken naar vogels, het buiten zijn, is een rode draad door zijn leven. Het bezoekerscentrum van Natuurmonumenten, toen nog in het Corversbos, gaf Ronald de ruimte zijn werk te exposeren in 1989. Daar werd hem gevraagd een strip te tekenen in een nieuw op te zetten blad: ‘Weet Ik!’ Dat werd Vlop de Vos. Vlak nadat ‘Weet Ik!’ er na drie jaar mee stopte, vroeg de Nederlandse Dierenbescherming Ronald een stripfiguur te maken. Het hoofd bestond al. Ronald gaf het een lijf, een karakter en een naam: Dibbes. In het blad van de Kids For Animals is Dibbes te vinden, samen met zijn vriendje Bazooka en af en toe, veel te weinig vindt Dibbes, met zijn vriendinnetje Esmeralda. Niet veel later stapte Ronald met een map onder zijn arm het Wereld Natuur Fonds in Zeist binnen, hopend dat Vlop de Vos een nieuw onderkomen zou krijgen. Nee, Vlop niet, Ronald bedacht een nieuw stripfiguur: Hupie, de kleine panda, de mascotte van de rangerclub, in het blad TamTam. Tot drie keer toe werd een bundeling van de strips door het WNF uitgegeven. Jammer genoeg nog niet te koop in winkels. Hupie is genoemd naar de kater van Marjo, Ronalds secretaresse, zijn muze, zijn levenspartner.

Update:

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Born March 15th, 1956 in Hilversum, The Netherlands. In secondary school he was already drawing caricatures of teachers for the school paper. At the age of thirteen he knew he wanted to be a biologist, but as a university student he was not allowed to make any artistic drawings of plant and animal specimens, nor of microscopic slides. Only schematic line drawings. After graduating with an MSc in Biology, he soon found there were no jobs available and he started out as a voluntary guide on birding-outings for a major Dutch nature organisation, Natuurmonumenten. He also began making cartoons and strip comics for Natuurmonumenten brochures, but in the late 1970’s through the 1980’s his main concern was to become a bird artist, or more specifically: a performing bird artist. Working in Natuurmonumenten’s crowded visitor’s centre, performing before a live audience of nature-minded people, it was a real challenge to create beautiful bird art with his crayons on big pasteboard plates. Soon he became a regular feature at Natuurmonumenten’s annual Nature Fair, as well as at other bird-related gatherings. 1989 became a crucial year, with an exhibition of his artwork in Natuurmonumenten’s own gallery. Of a total of 26 exhibited crayons, 13 were sold within a week. By a stroke of good luck, on the day of the opening some editors of a newly-hatched youth magazine, Weet Ik!, were present. They were impressed by the strip comics and cartoons which were exhibited on the side, and Ronald was asked to create a comic strip for Weet Ik!. This led to Vlop de Vos, a comic strip about a fox in its natural surroundings, with a rare mixture of education, humour and anarchy. The 2-page strip was an instant success with the young readers. Unfortunately, the magazine was not, and it ceased to exist after three years. Being out of work, and convinced that he had found his goal in life, Ronald agreed when asked to create a new comic strip for the youth members' magazine of the Dutch RSPA, Kids for Animals. Still obsessed with continuing the adventures of Vlop the fox, he was reluctant at first to fall in with the RSPA’s wish for a new strip character: a dog. The dog's head was an integral part of the existing Kids for Animals logo, created by a design bureau. Ronald gave the dog its body, its name Dibbes and its character. He also gave Dibbes a friend for life, Bazooka, a Big Dane with an uncomplicated character, and a girlfriend Esmeralda, a poodle with whom Dibbes would like to spend more time than his adventures allow. The comic strip Dibbes was a success from day one, when it first appeared in 1993. Just months later, Ronald stepped into the WWF Netherlands office, and tried to convince the editors of the WWF youth magazine TamTam that Vlop the fox would fit in nicely in a magazine that had no comic strip as yet. The WWF granted Ronald the honour of creating a new comic strip, featuring a little red panda, for TamTam. This became Hupie, The Little Red Panda. Hupie was modelled on the red panda that lives in China, and is now the mascotte of the WNF Rangerclub, the young members of WWF Netherlands. Ronald’s girlfriend Marjo, who is also his secretary, his muse, his soul-mate, and now his wife, inspired him to name Hupie after her tomcat. Hupie began his adventures in September 1993 under the name Hu-Pi, showing his Chinese roots, but this became Hupie ( pronounced << huepy >> ) in the very first strip. For Ronald, his knowledge of biology is a clear advantage, as numerous different animals feature in his Hupie comics. Animal behaviour is combined with a shot of humour here, and that it’s a success is proven by the 14 consecutive years the comic strips Hupie as well as Dibbes have now been published, for a highly appreciative young audience of 130,000. Three Hupie strip albums have been published, the latest ( Hupie and his wildlife friends ) being sold by the WWF Netherlands. Hupie is translated into English for the benefit of the young members of WWF Malaysia, in their magazine. Having been a birder ever since he first picked up a pair of binoculars, Ronald has been publishing a comic strip on birdwatchers since 1996, named Kor Haan ( the Dutch name for the male Black Grouse ), in which birders, twitchers, dudes, robin-strokers and laymen are featured in much the same way as in the sometimes grotesque and hilarious real-life situations every birder will know. Only with lots of sardonic humour, and clearly exaggerated.

Update:

ZIJN WERKWIJZE/HIS WORKING METHOD:

Ronald verzint zelf een verhaal, de tekst, de humor. Hij tekent op een groot vel van ca. A2. Elke keer opnieuw rekent hij de kaderlijnen uit, aangepast aan het idee in zijn hoofd. Soms ontstaat het verhaal pas als hij al voor zijn gekaderd vel zit. Zomaar beginnen met het derde plaatje, dan het vijfde of een ander. Eerst in potlood, en al snel in inkt, toch gumt hij pas als alles is geïnkt. De zwarte partijen vult hij direct in. Langzaam, maar sneller dan je denkt breit hij het rond. Alles doet hij zelf. Het inkleuren doet hij zeer nauwkeurig met Tombo viltstiften. Ronald werkt thuis in zijn atelier, maar ook wel op scholen als demonstratie. Het lijkt zo makkelijk als Ronald bezig is, vol bewondering kijken kinderen en hun ouders toe als ze hem zien tekenen. Stil en soms aanstekelijk, er wordt getekend, ook door de kinderen. En voor de kinderen, daar doet Ronald het voor. Laat Ronald maar tekenen. Iedereen geniet van zijn stripfiguurtjes.

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Ronald invents his own stories; the comic strip begins as an idea, or a gag, and soon develops into a script in his mind. Nothing is written down yet, the comic is allowed to wander freely through his thoughts, growing, developing. The moment of inspiration, a good idea, is an unpredictable thing. Sometimes it takes days to happen, in the strangest places, but once it pops up the thinking starts. When the rough scenario is completed in his mind, Ronald sits down to make a conceptual version, an actual series of quick line-drawings with a ballpoint, each strip scene on a separate sheet of paper. The completed concept, the storybook with situations and text balloons on 12 sheets, is then e-mailed to WWF or RSPA for approval. Sometimes a word is altered, or added, but the whole concept is much like the final version already. Then begins the real work. On 300grams/m2 paper of 42 cm by 60 cm, he rules the lines of the framework, using waterproof black ink from a Staedtler drawing pen, in proportion to the expected dimensions of each of the 12 situations in the concept. Some small, others bigger where more room is needed. With this finished, Ronald begins to draw his characters in the first square, with a fine-pointed pencil. Then the inking follows, using different Staedtler waterproof drawing pens, very fine, fine and medium. Square two is done in the same way, et cetera. The whole 12 – square plate once completed in ink, all pencil lines are erased, leaving only the waterproof line drawings. Then colours are added, using specialized water-colour pens with a paint-brush point to allow both fine and coarse strokes ( Tombo, 144 different colours ). The colours are sometimes mingled to create more liveliness and expression in the characters, and make them stand out more. The waterproof inking is necessary so the colours won’t bleed. The time it takes to finish a comic strip is 4 days. 2 days of drawing and inking, plus 2 days to do the colouring. A working day, however, is only 4 to 6 hours for Ronald. The colouring is preferably done during the day, in good natural light. The time it takes to come up with an idea in the first place, a really good thought that will trigger the rest, is virtually impossible to predict. The deadline for publication will be the factor that defines this, most of the time.