Ruth Palmer — Painterly Illustrator, Editorial & Children's Books

British illustrator Ruth Palmer has a colourful, 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.

Key Software

Photoshop

Style

Light and colour 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, watercolour, 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.

Yellow and purple wildflowers with bees and butterflies illustration by Ruth Palmer