In the first Helen Milroy Presents podcast, we welcome textile artist turned children’s book illustrator Ruth de Vos to the studio
Ruth de Vos says children’s books inspired her textile art long before she became an illustrator.
With six children in the house, she says storybooks were always a big part of family life, and she developed an appreciation for their brilliance and their accessibility as an art form. In this podcast, she takes us behind the scenes for a glimpse into how she created the illustrations for Shine by Danny Parker.
Topics discussed:
Editing illustrations
Capturing the joy and difficulty of parenthood
Celebrating ordinary, everyday moments
Finding a structure for the picture book
Killing your darlings
Real homes vs. Pinterest
Show Notes
About the host
Dr Helen Milroy is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She was born and educated in Perth and has a passionate interest in health and wellbeing, especially for children. She is currently a professor at the University of Western Australia, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, and Commissioner with the National Mental Health Commission. Her books have been shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards (2019, 2020), the Readings Children’s Book Prize (2020) and the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year (2020).
Backyard Bugs, Backyard Birds and Wombat, Mudlark and Other Stories are available in all good bookstores and online.
Guest
Ruth de Vos’s illustration work has grown out of a career as an internationally recognised textile artist. Ruth combines traditional (pencil, gouache, collage, screen-printing) and digital techniques to create fun scenes and worlds. Ruth’s passion lies in illustrating children’s books. As a mother of six young children, she is an avid and critical consumer of children’s literature, and she also has a ready source of drawing inspiration right in her home.
Shine, her picture book with Danny Parker, is available online and from all good bookstores. If you love art, we highly recommend her Instagram account @ruthdevosart.
