Tine Vercruysse is a Belgian illustrator and graphic artist. She is best known as a children's book illustrator and has frequently collaborated with the authors Luk Depondt, Detty Verreydt and Riet Wille. Vercruysse was also the first artist to illustrate children's books of the best-selling author Marc de Bel. The illustrator herself has also written two books: 'Het Doe-Boek van Beer' (1996) and 'Het Wat Boek van Beer' (1996). Vercruysse designed the front and back cover of 'De Papieren Droomfabriek' (1985), a book about comics by Johan Malcorps and Rik Tyrions.
Early book illustrations
Tine Vercruysse was born in 1955 in Roeselare, West Flanders. Her career as a book illustrator took off in the late 1970s at Infodok, the publishing company associated with the cultural organization Davidsfonds. She livened up the pages of F.R. Boschvogel and Nestje de Langhe's 'Boschvogels Europees sagenboek' (Davidsfonds, 1978) and Karel Verleyen's 'De Vuurtoren van Grafein' (Davidsfonds, 1979).
De Papieren Droomfrabriek
In 1985, Johan Malcorps and Rik Tyrions published 'De Papieren Droomfabriek' ("The Paper Dream Factory", Infodok/Davidsfonds), a book featuring essays about comics. The authors discuss the appeal of comics, how they're made and their creative possibilities. Other chapters are critical analyses of ideological undertones, gender and racial stereotypes, commercialism and other topics. The authors illustrated their book with black-and-white samples from original Dutch and Franco-Belgian comic albums. The book's front and back cover, however, were illustrated by Tine Vercruysse. They feature many well-known comic characters around a campfire. On the back cover, Vercruysse drew a comic book page where each panel shows certain comic book archetypes, all grouped by category, such as professors and scientists, female characters, villains, dogs and sidekicks.
Back cover of 'De Papieren Droomfabriek'. Vercruysse groups together several similar characters from different comic series. In the first panel the scientists. We recognize from left to right: Professor Calculus (Hergé's 'Tintin'), Barabas (Willy Vandersteen’s 'Suske en Wiske'), Gobelijn (Jef Nys’ 'Jommeke'), little Adhemar (Marc Sleen’s 'Nero'), Kumulus ( Pom's 'Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber') and Geriatrix the druid (Albert Uderzo’s 'Asterix'). In the second panel we see all women. From left to right: Marie ('Jommeke'), Charlotte (Merho's 'De Kiekeboes'), an unknown character, Madam Nero ('Nero’') and Aunt Sidonia ('Suske en Wiske'). In the fourth panel various villains scheme together. First row (top to down): Anatool ('Jommeke'), Rastapopoulos ('Tintin') and Krimson ('Suske en Wiske'). Second row (top to down): Ricardo ('Nero'), L'Ombre Jaune ('Bob Morane'), Joe Dalton (Morris’ 'Lucky Luke') and Gargamel (Peyo’s 'The Smurfs'). Five dogs present their bone in the fifth panel: Snowy ('Tintin'), Rantanplan ('Lucky Luke'), Pekkie ('Jommeke'), Dogmatix ('Asterix') and Bill (Jean Roba's 'Boule et Bill'). The final panel shows all sidekicks. First row (top to down): Lambik ('Suske en Wiske'), Fantasio (Jijé and André Franquin’s 'Spirou') and Captain Haddock ('Tintin'). Second row (top to down): Jerry Tumbler (Victor Hubinon’s 'Buck Danny'), Laverdure (Uderzo’s 'Tanguy & Laverdure'), Bert Bibber ('Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber'), Kid Ordinn (Tibet's 'Chick Bill') and Obelix ('Asterix').
Marc De Bel
In 1988 Vercruysse had the honor of being the first artist to illustrate Marc de Bel's children's books. De Bel was an elementary school teacher who had a rather eccentric approach. He rarely gave his pupils homework, because he felt it helped them pay more attention in class, rather than get stressed out or overworked. Every Friday afternoon he told his pupils stories, most of which he improvised on the spot. One of his pupils, Stedho, adapted two of his stories into comic books: 'De Knikkerdiamanten' (1985) and 'De Schat van De Clown' (1986). A thousand copies were printed and all sold out. It gave De Bel a sign that there was an audience for his stories. He got a professional publishing deal and made writing children's novels a full-time career. Vercruysse illustrated De Bel's first professional children's book, 'Het Ei van Oom Trotter' (Infodok, 1988). Reprints have been illustrated by Jan Bosschaert, Harmen van Straaten and Ken Broeders, all regular illustrators of De Bel's work. Ivan Adriaenssens and Michael Vincent later also adapted De Bel's novels into comic books.
Detty Verreydt
Tine Vercruysse is most notable as the regular illustrator of Detty Verreydt's children's books. Over the years she used her graphic talent in titles such as 'De Dromen van Nahum' (Infodok, 1989), 'Een Spook in het Witte Huis' (Averbode/Altiora, 1990), 'De Kast van Koning Leopold' (Davidsfonds/Infodok, 1991), 'Villa Mathilda' (Davidsfonds, Infodok, 1991), 'Vier Opas en Vijf Omas' (Bakermat, 1996), 'Staartendief' (Bakermat, 1996), 'Floeze en Floris' (Standaard, 1998) and Marijke Bisschop and Detty Verreydt's 'Hier Harder Slaan! Een Verhaal Over Pesten' (Averbode, 2000), 'Jan Smeerman' (De Eenhoorn, 2000), 'Argus' (De Eenhoorn, 2001) and 'Argus en het Flessenspook' (De Eenhoorn, 2002).
Other notable literary collaborations
Vercruysse has also been a frequent illustrator for Luk Depondt. She created artwork for his books ''t Weiland' (Davidsfonds/Infodok, 1991), 'Trippelmannetjes' (Bakermat, 1993), Trippelmannetjes (Bakermat, 1993), Luk Depondt and Gie Deboutte's 'Dichter Bij Mij; Poëzie voor Kinderen van 2 tot 12 jaar' (Bakermat & Cego, 1996) (Bakermat, 1998), Depondt's 'Een Vuurspuwend Monster(tje)' (Bakermat, 1999), 'Kijk Maar! Kijk Maar!' (Bakermat, 2000). Her work can be found in Riet Wille's books too. Over the years she illustrated 'Een Droom van een Boom' (Averbode, 2000), 'Een Boek vol Poep' (Averbode, 2000), 'Een Kaart Met Een Taart' (Altiora, 2000), 'Wie Zijn Twee Keer Drie?' (Altiora, 2001), 'Een Duif In een Kooi Is Niet Mooi' (Altiora, 2001) and 'Niveaulezen met Dobbelboeken' (De Boeck, 2004). She has additionally illustrated Patricia De Landtsheer's 'Gekke Mon' (De Eenhoorn, 1998) and 'Ploef en het Ruisbeest' (De Eenhoorn, 2000), as well as Kolet Janssen's 'Ik en de Anderen' (Averbode, 2001) and 'De Droom van God' (Averbode, 1998).
Over the years, she also illustrated books for Marita De Sterck ('Boeken Groeien Altijd Door', NCJ, 1991), Dirk Nielandt ('De Boomhutboom', Bakermat, 1999), Hilde Vandermeeren ('Het Groene Licht', 2003), Wim Vromant ('Het Lachje van Sint', De Eenhoorn, 2000), Lydia Verbeeck ('Oostende Enkele Reis', De Eenhoorn, 2002) and Heidi Walleghem ('Het Hamerspel', De Eenhoorn, 2003). One book she provided artwork for - Reina Ollivier's 'De Wraak van Ramona' (2013) - has also been translated in French as 'La Vengeance de Ramona'. Apart from fiction, Vercruysse has also livened up the pages of the non-fiction book 'Basisboek voor een ervaringsgerichte kleuterpraktijk' (CEGO Centrum voor Ervaringsgericht Onderwijs, 1994) by Ferre Laevers and Peter Van Sanden.
Personal literary career
Tine Vercruysse has also written two children's books of her own, which she naturally illustrated herself, namely 'Het Doe-Boek van Beer' (De Eenhoorn, 1996) and 'Het Wat Boek van Beer' (De Eenhoorn, 1996).
Poster work
In 2007 she was invited to make several sketches during the annual folk festival in Dranouter. Her drawings of the various artists who performed there were also used for the official concert poster.
Recognition
Tine Vercruysse won the Boekenleeuw literary prize (1986) voor 'Raadsels te Koop' and three times the award from the Children's and Youth Jury Flanders for 'Het Ei van Oom Trotter' (1988), 'Een Kop vol Vriendjes' (1991) and 'De Kast van Koning Leopold' (1992). Her work was exhibited from 3 March until 23 March 1998 in the André Demedtshuis in Sint-Baafs-Vijve, as part of an expo which included work by Rik De Keyzer, Lieve Noreillie and Martine Platteau.
Sequential illustrations for 'Een Droom van een Boom' by Riet Wille.