Ruth Palmer - Traditional Painterly Illustrator, London

British illustrator Ruth Palmer has a colorful, painterly style that immediately draws the eye, and her work’s traditional feel makes it ideal in editorial, packaging and children’s books projects. There’s a sense of adventure and narrative in everything she paints, often with a 1950s feel to catch the imagination.

After living and working in London for many years, today she enjoys a quieter life in Devon, where a barn building has become her studio. Among her influences are late-Victorian artists like James Guthrie, John Lavery, EA Walton, Stanhope Forbes and Elizabeth Forbes. She most admires representational paintings that capture light and atmosphere, like the work of children’s illustrator Stacey Schuett. Ruth has a diploma in Illustration from Harrow Art College.

Approach

Ruth approaches each new job with an aim to fulfil the brief as closely as possible and will select the medium she works in accordingly. She blocks out a composition instinctively, then plays about with traced sketches in Photoshop to get it right.

Style

Light and color come to the fore in many of Ruth’s pieces, which have a classical painterly feel to them. The style often depends on the media she uses, which could be pen and ink, watercolor, gouache, Photoshop or alkyds.

Client list

Ruth has been commissioned by clients including Penguin, Warne, Telegraph Magazine, Quercus books, Sky, NFU Countryside, Hachette, Marks and Spencer, Readers Digest and KPM.

Having contacted the agency in need of front cover artwork with a short deadline, I was very impressed with the quick response. Any potential problems with the brief were ironed out at an early stage. Ruth was very attentive and understood the subtleties involved in this kind of work and she was able to adapt as the brief was amended shortly afterwards. The rough was an accurate rendition which helped focus everyone's attention and the final artwork was of a high quality and delivered ahead of schedule, Thank you both!

Jason Morris, The Telegraph