VIAN OELOFSEN
Vian Oelofsen is a freelance illustrator and
cartoonist with a B.A. Fine Arts in Graphic Design
and a B.A.F.A Honours degree in illustration from
the University of Stellenbosch. His whimsical
illustrations are mainly in water colour, pen and ink.
He was born in 1974 in Prince Albert down in the
Cape. Lived most of his childhood in Stellenbosch,
which is probably why he eventually studied
there as well. Was fortunate enough to do his first
picture book with Rachelle Greeff (Net Perfek,
1999) after which he started drawing pictures
full time. Was awarded the 2001 Vivian Wilkes
prize for work on a multi lingual rhyme book for
little children. That boosted his career quite
considerably and since then the majority of his
work have been comics orientated and for
younger readers.
Lately he has tried his hand at writing as well
(the books invariably have minimal words in them
but LOTS of pictures). And besides that,
the 2 main characters that keep him busy at
the moment are his “Adventures of Viki’ (activity
page in Vroue Keur) and Martie Prellers weekly
children’s story ‘Jamie and Sebastiaan’.