Picture Book Tutorial with Ruth Sanderson

During my last summer at Hollins, I had the privilege of taking a picture book tutorial with the brilliantly talented artist, Ruth Sanderson. The best part about working with Ruth was getting to see her process. She told us about the research involved when finding her way to the images. When she worked on A STORM OF HORSES: THE STORY OF ROSA BONHEUR, she went to France to see the home and landscape in the artist’s work.

This is a lovely book in which Ruth was both the author and the illustrator.

     Ruth also showed us how she uses light and shadow to convey a mood, or how the quality of the lines themselves, whether thick or thin, smooth or jagged, could create an emotion alongside a facial expression.

Ruth’s scratch board work is exquisite.

     Many of the students in that tutorial were in the author/illustrator program. Seeing their projects evolve under Ruth’s guidance gave me insight into the many layers a story expresses through words and pictures.

     My final projects were two little dummy books: LUCI COLLINS PAVES THE WAY and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DORA DE LARIOS. Since I wasn’t in the illustrator program, I was allowed to use online images, but otherwise I left the illustrations blank.

I used online images of some of Dora’s whimsical creatures for the cover of the book. 

     A few years after I graduated, I commissioned Ruth to create a Green Man for me. She asked what kind of leaves I wanted, and I chose acanthus. She did not disappoint.

The Green Man by Ruth Sanderson

     For those not fortunate enough to work with Ruth directly, she has written how-to books on drawing you might enjoy. Some of you might already know her work if you’ve ever read Nancy Drew.

Ruth also has a few coloring books available.

  In addition to bookstores, you will also find Ruth Sanderson’s work in galleries. I hope to be able to visit those galleries one day. The illustrations of Ruth Sanderson are truly inspiring!