So, who are you?
My name is Oskar van Velden, I was born in 1980. I currently live in Dordrecht (the Netherlands), together with my wife Liesbeth, my son Tobias (2011) and our 3 cats.
Sounds like you have an awesome life, so why did you wanted to become a cartoonist?
Well, I got my Bachelor in Information and Communication Technology in 2005 and I’ve been working in the web development industry ever since.
But when I was a little boy, my dream was to become a cartoonist (besides an inventor, police inspector, a detective and a truck driver). I drew everywhere and every day. I had every equipment you can imagine: indian ink, dip pens, those plastic frames to draw word balloons with, a lot different pens and pencils, just almost everything.
I never really did anything with it. I only drew cartoon figures, not even told stories or made any books. I just loved to draw. But then the computer came and snatched me away. For years I was held hostage. And when I left Highschool, I totally had forgotten my dream to become a cartoonist.
And it took me more than 10 years to get back to that dream. It was in 2008 that I remembered my childhood dream and decided that I wanted to pursue it. I wanted to becoming a cartoonist. Whole 2008 I spend drawing, improving my drawing skills and waiting until I was ready to be good enough to start a comic. Eventually, the end of December 2008, I decided that I would never be ‘ready’ enough and that I just had to start to get the ball rolling.
So January 3rd I uploaded my first comic. A week later I had this site up and running and the rest you can check here in the archives.
So I have a few questions.
Sure ask ahead.
I want to become a cartoonist as well, what should I do?
Start! Draw every day, draw everything you find hard to draw, until it’s not hard anymore. But don’t wait. Just start and see where you’ll end up. You can always start another comic. But when you wait and don’t start, you won’t get anywhere.
I like your style, would you want to create some artwork for me?
Sure, just contact me or check the commercial page with more information about how you can hire me.
How can I contact you?
You can find me on Twitter @skar or drop me an email: oskar[at]mojocomic[dot]com