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“Ruth Paul lives in an off-grid straw bale house in the middle of a paddock under a wind farm just outside Wellington, New Zealand,” says this site<\/a><\/strong> for Walker Books in Australia. And it’s to that straw bale house that I’m heading today (at least cyber’ly) to have breakfast with Ruth. <\/p>\n Ruth saw her U.S. picture book debut (Candlewick) this year with Hedgehog\u2019s Magic Tricks<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, originally released last year by Walker Books. It’s a “story and artwork as delicate as milkweed floss,” wrote Kirkus Reviews<\/em>. <\/p>\n I’ve corresponded with Ruth for a couple years now and was pleased to see her books released here in the States. Ruth even visited back in 2010, so be sure to visit that post<\/a><\/strong> if you want to see more of her art. <\/p>\n This morning we’re having, says Ruth, “knobbly poached free-range eggs (what\u2019s left of them) with crispy free-range bacon (what\u2019s left of it) on burnt toast, prepared and delivered by my kids. My husband has to make the good, strong coffee to go with it. We\u2019ll plump up the pillows, let the sunshine in, and you can join me in your pyjamas for breakfast in bed.” I’m most excited about the good, strong coffee. Let’s get to it, and I thank Ruth for visiting. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: It used to be illustrator. Now it\u2019s definitely author\/illustrator. Which works well if I get bored doing one or the other. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: <\/p>\n (All published in New Zealand\/Australia, originally \u2013- other imprints and countries, subsequently.)<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What is your usual medium?<\/font><\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019ll try anything once. My books to date have been in varying bundles of acrylics, chalk, pencil, watercolour, and Photoshop. I\u2019m keen to do a new book in oils now. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you have illustrated for various age ranges (such as, both picture books and early reader books OR, say, picture books and chapter books), can you briefly discuss the differences, if any, in illustrating for one age group to another?<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019ve illustrated the occasional chapter book, but mostly I try to concentrate on doing my own picture books now. I feel I have greater overall creative control when I can knit the words and pictures together as I go. Also, illustrating your own work means you get to keep the creative angst in-house. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Where are your stompin\u2019 grounds?<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: I live on a small farm just outside of Wellington, New Zealand. You\u2019ll all most likely know Wellington as the town where Peter Jackson<\/a><\/strong> has his film studios. And, yes, heaps of people I know, myself included, have had a gig on The Hobbit<\/a><\/strong><\/em> at some point or other. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you tell me about your road to publication?<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: Student\/waitress\/actress\/postie\/receptionist\/student\/sign-writer\/illustrator\/dogsbody\/writer\/illustrator. Something like that. I studied English, history, law, design, and illustration over the years; became a commercial illustrator; illustrated a couple of books by other writers; then started writing my own. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you please point readers to your web site and\/or blog?<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: Website: ruthpaul.co.nz<\/a><\/strong>; Facebook page: Ruth Paul Picture Books<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you do school visits, tell me what they\u2019re like.<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: I love school visits. I try to wear nice shoes. I have learned that you should NEVER let children ask you questions. Otherwise, they ask things like \u201cDo you sweat?\u201d, \u201cDo you have a job?\u201d, \u201cDid you write The Hobbit<\/em>?\u201d and \u201cT-Rexes only have two fingers\u201d (after you\u2019ve shown an almost-finished book in which they have three). <\/p>\n Here is my favorite letter from a recent school visit. You have to read it right to the end to fully appreciate it. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you teach illustration, can you tell me how that influences your work as an illustrator?<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: I get very enthusiastic about everything students do. I see all the potential. But you can\u2019t mark on potential, and I don\u2019t like being mean, so I\u2019d be a terrible teacher. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Any new titles\/projects you might be working on now that you can tell me about?<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: My last few books have had very concise, whittled-down text. So, now—as a knee-jerk reaction—I am writing something long and convoluted and poetic and completely not what a publisher will be likely to want. <\/p>\n In the meantime, I have two contracts lined up for completely new books. (Yay! I get to experiment!)<\/p>\n In brief, I am happy to be employed. <\/p>\n 1.<\/font> Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What exactly is your process when you are illustrating a book? You can start wherever you\u2019d like when answering: getting initial ideas, starting to illustrate, or even what it\u2019s like under deadline, etc. Do you outline a great deal of the book before you illustrate or just let your muse lead you on and see where you end up?<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: My eureka moment is when an idea coalesces in my head. I can get very excitable around this time. <\/p>\n First, I have to write the story completely. Then I start sketching out my ideas in thumbnail size and realize how much work there is ahead of me, at which point I feel like I\u2019m standing at the foot of Mount Everest in beach shorts and flippers. Next, I begin the bigger drawings — fun and thick and loose, with a 5B or 6B pencil, usually. These drawings get refined while I make the composition and detail work. Sometimes, if I\u2019m not careful, I lose the magic during this process. <\/p>\n I transfer to whatever medium I\u2019m working in or on and start the colouring. I love colour, so this part is fun, fun, fun. My first one or two pieces start to come together and I feel like I\u2019m getting somewhere, and I get a little bit excitable again. Then I look up again and realize I\u2019m not even at Base Camp yet. So, from there on in I just keep my head down and work, work, work \u2018til all the illustrations are done. <\/p>\n Many moons later, just when I think I\u2019m broaching the summit, I lift my head up above the ledge and see another whole cliff-face. This is the revision — corrections, touch-ups, sometimes whole new illustrations where one or two aren\u2019t working. <\/p>\n I finally make it to the top, plant my flag, and look back. <\/p>\n That\u2019s when I wonder if my idea was actually any good in the first place. <\/p>\n 2.<\/font> Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Describe your studio or usual work space.<\/font> <\/p>\n Ruth<\/strong><\/font><\/strong>: I think last time we talked I had a dead sheep in the shower? It\u2019s the room off the garage; it has an old fireplace now, so I don\u2019t freeze to death. It has mice and spiders. I can make it VERY messy when I\u2019m working. My dog chews up firewood and paper on the floor and makes it even messier. This is a photo of it tidy. <\/p>\n [Ed. Note: YES! We had a conversation, involving “boy lamb’s bollocks,” about how someone once confused your job as “illustrator” with “elastrators.” I bet all the money I own it’s the first time someone’s confused artwork for children’s books with a bloodless method of castration for livestock.]<\/em> <\/p>\n 3.<\/font> Jules<\/font><\/strong>: As a book-lover, it interests me: What books or authors and\/or illustrators influenced you as an early reader?<\/font><\/p>\n Ruth<\/strong><\/font><\/strong>: We weren\u2019t a hugely booky house, but my Dad often told me stories. At some point my parents gave me Hilda Boswell\u2019s Treasury of Children\u2019s Stories<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. It included “The Selfish Giant”<\/a><\/strong> by Oscar Wilde<\/a><\/strong>, “The Snow-Image”<\/a><\/strong> by Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a><\/strong>, and excerpts from Heidi<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, David Copperfield<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, The Arabian Nights<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, etc. I loved the stories. I LOVED the pictures. I would lie in my bed and look at them and imagine myself inside them. <\/p>\n Here are two that I truly loved (don\u2019t ask me why) \u2013- one from The Arabian Nights<\/em> and one of David Copperfield<\/em> after a bath in Miss Betsey’s home. I totally wanted my own silvery ocean, or a bed and a windowsill like David\u2019s. <\/p>\n 4.<\/font> Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you could have three (living) authors or illustrators—whom you have not yet met—over for coffee or a glass of rich, red wine, whom would you choose? (Some people cheat and list deceased authors\/illustrators. I won\u2019t tell.)<\/font><\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: Does it have to be illustrators? Or even author\/illustrators? Movie stars, deep-sea divers, people who work for NASA maybe? We illustrators spend far too much time alone with our pencils to be the best drinking buddies. (Okay, so all my illustrator friends, you KNOW I\u2019m only joking.) <\/p>\n If it has to be illustrators, then I\u2019d rule out all the ones that are bonkers, all the ones that are too earnest, all the ones who are only good talking to their pets and studio-ornaments, and all the ones who are nervous with their peers’ successes. That leaves me with \u2026 hmmm \u2026 lets see \u2026 well, not me, actually. In which case, these three people (who\u2019s work I greatly admire) could go to the pub without me: Emma Chichester Clark<\/a><\/strong>, Brian Wildsmith<\/a><\/strong>, and Ayano Imai<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n 5.<\/font> Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What is currently in rotation on your iPod or loaded in your CD player? Do you listen to music while you create books?<\/font><\/p>\n Ruth<\/font><\/strong>: When I write, I listen to nothing. When I illustrate, sometimes I listen to Radio New Zealand<\/a><\/strong>, our national public broadcast radio station. I have, in fact, developed a long-time crush on one of the radio presenter’s voices. This is what happens when you spend too much time alone. <\/p>\n My current favourite songs are
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\nThis is my first year in the U.S. with Hedgehog\u2019s Magic Tricks<\/a><\/strong><\/em> [from] Candlewick (I am in love with my Kirkus<\/em> review<\/a><\/strong> and am going to frame it, even though they thought my Red Panda was a dirty old Raccoon \u2013- I can live with that) and Stomp!<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, coming out in English and Spanish in Scholastic\u2019s book clubs. <\/p>\n
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Hedgehog is going to make Mouse disappear.”<\/em>
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— Illustrations from <\/em>Hedgehog\u2019s Magic Tricks<\/a><\/strong>
(First U.S. edition: Candlewick, April 2013)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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(Walker Books, 2013 — will be <\/em>Red Panda’s Candy Apples in the U.S., 2014)<\/em>
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\nOkay, we’ve got our coffee, and it’s time to get a bit more detailed with seven questions over breakfast. I thank Ruth again for visiting 7-Imp.<\/font> <\/p>\n
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which are so loose, compared to the finished art.”<\/em>
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