Illustrator Saturday – Molly Ruttan

Photo by Gabe Moffat

Molly Ruttan is an author/illustrator of children’s books. She grew up making art and music in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and earned a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art. Molly now lives in the diverse and historic neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles. She played violin as a child, and now plays drums, sings in a community choir, and has dabbled in learning the viola. She loves exploring all kinds of fine art and illustration mediums, including making her own animated book trailers. Her life is full of art, music, family, friends, and all kinds of pets and urban animals.

Molly’s titles include her illustrator debut, I Am A Thief! by Abigail Rayner, (2019 North South Books) which won a 2021 Northern Lights Book Award for humor; her author/illustrator debut The Stray, (2020 Nancy Paulsen Books) which was listed as a 2021 ALA CORE Golden Duck Notable Picture Book; Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure by Abigail Rayner (2022 North South Books), which has been endorsed by the Celiac Disease Foundation; and Something Wild (2023 Nancy Paulsen Books), which is Molly’s second author/illustrated book.

Both I Am A Thief! and Something Wild has received starred Kirkus reviews. Molly is currently working on The Yowlers, written by Stacy Lynn Carroll (Nancy Paulsen Books), which is set to be published in the Fall of 2024. Molly has one additional book forthcoming at this time.

HERE IS MOLLY DISCUSSING HER PROCESS:

I start all my illustrations with sketches in my sketchbook. I work at home, but I also like to carry my sketchbook around with me when I go out, in case I get an idea or see something that inspires an idea.

I’m using one of the illustrations from my new book, Something Wild, to show you an example of my process. In the story, Hannah wishes something wild would happen to prevent her from having to play her violin in the school recital, because she is experiencing terrible stage fright. As she and her family walk by a fountain on the way to the recital, she imagines that dolphins spring from the water and carry her and her violin away.

Photo by Gabe Moffat

Here is the thumbnail sketch from my notebook showing Hannah being carried away by the dolphins.

I cropped the spread size and adjusted it slightly to get it to fit the right aspect ratio.

When I got the thumbnail composition working, I redrew it larger and more clearly. I printed it out on my large-format printer, redrew it using my light table, and then scanned it. In this case, I decided to flop the sketch, because I wanted

Hannah is moving backward in the book, (because she is fearful of the recital, and doesn’t want to go forward in the story).

Next, I adjusted the composition in Photoshop as needed, and checked things like where the gutter was by importing it into a book dummy I had created in InDesign. When it was exactly how I wanted it, I printed it again. I took the print to the light table and redrew it in charcoal. I drew it in two sections, so it would fit in my scanner. Doing it in sections also helped reduce the risk of smudging the charcoal. I scanned the sections and put them together in Photoshop.

Then it was time to start painting! Earlier I had created and scanned many of the colors and textures that I anticipated needing for the book. I used charcoal, pastels, cardboard textures, and liquid acrylic paint, in addition to picking colors and textures from quite a large library I’ve created over the years. I used charcoal to create all the gradations and much of the texture specific to this painting. I created a document in Photoshop and imported all the textures and colors I wanted as layers.

I isolated some of the charcoal lines and charcoal splatter and made them white. Then I blocked in some of the color and charcoal areas. I also redrew & replaced various details, such as Hannah’s head.

I continued painting, experimenting with color, and making adjustments. The final Photoshop file got quite large (over 9 GB) because every color and texture is scanned in, plus I painted it actual-size, (20.5 x 10.5). I have a desktop computer with a large monitor, so I am able to work on all my illustrations this way. Many hours later, I had my final painting!

INTERVIEW WITH MOLLY BELOW:

Did you grow up knowing you wanted to be involved in art?

Yes! From the time I was very small, I knew I was an artist. My twin sister and I showed artistic talent from a very
early age and my parents encouraged us both throughout our childhood by providing lots of art supplies and art classes.
Later they encouraged both of us to attend art school. I come from a long line of artists on both sides of my family.

How did you decide to attend Cooper Union School of Art in New York?

I had a wonderful art teacher in high school who was extremely supportive. Cooper Union is very exclusive and prestigious, and she made it her mission to get as many of her students in as possible! Both my sister and I were accepted, along with one of our friends. Several more students from our high school were accepted over the next few years. I entered as a painter and discovered my love for graphic design while I was there. Illustration was not offered as a major at the time, so I studied drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture, and got my BAF in graphic design. I worked in my graphic design teacher’s design firm during the summer in my junior and senior years.

Did your twin sister end up making a career using her artistic talents as well?

Yes, she currently works for SONY Pictures Animation as Senior Marketing Artist.

Did you move to California with your childhood sweetheart Gabriel Moffat after graduating?

No… we were friends when we were young, but we lost track of each other through high school and college. I moved to LA because my parents had moved there while I was in school. Gabe spotted me in a supermarket parking lot about a year later, and we reconnected. It was an amazing and beautiful synchronicity!

Did you have a job lined up in California before moving there? What was your first job? How did you get the job as a Magazine Art Director?

Yes, I did have a job lined up when I moved to Los Angeles– an associate of a design firm in New York hired me as a junior designer for a short time. After that, I got a job with a company that produced magazines. I got the job the old-fashioned way—by answering an ad in the newspaper! I gained a lot of experience with magazines and publishing there, and was consequentially hired as Art Director for SHAPE Magazine, where I worked for several years. After SHAPE I spent many years freelancing for many other LA-based magazines, as well as producing books, magazines, newspapers, and other projects (including illustration) for other clients.

Did you take any illustrating classes during this time?

Yes! One of the first things I did when I arrived in Los Angeles was to sign up for a children’s book illustration class at Otis College of Art and Design. From the time I was a kid I had wanted to illustrate children’s books, and I enthusiastically started a few books. But my job schedule and family kept me from seriously pursuing it at that time — at that point, I had three children, and I was staying at home with them between freelance work gigs.

But as time went on I managed to take many art classes, exploring and developing all kinds of techniques and mediums.

Music seems to be a big part of your life! How did you juggle singing and playing drums in the eclectic-folk-rock band New Garden?

My sister and I grew up singing together; in addition to making art, it was a big part of how we played. We both dabbled in various instruments as well. I started playing drums when I was a teenager. I was self-taught and didn’t read music, so I would always sing to myself or have the vocals going in my head to keep track of the song. By the time a couple of friends and I formed Garden Variety in Los Angeles (which later became Garden, and then recently New Garden), I was able to sing harmony out loud and into a microphone while I was playing. For me, drumming is a lot like dancing—I’ve always considered singing and drumming a similar skill set to singing and dancing. You can read more about my life with music on the Musical Bio page of my website.

Does your husband Gabriel play in bands with you? Does he help out with his audio engineer and music producer skills?

Gabe is a brilliant music producer and audio engineer. I am extremely lucky to have the love of my life be such a talented, wonderful person! He was not a member of Garden, but he and I are both members of the band Phideaux. He recorded and engineered all of Garden’s albums and most of the albums the band Phideaux has released, as well.

 You mentioned that you thought about writing and illustrating picture books for a long time. What was the spark that recently put you on that path?

The spark that set me in motion was a comment my father-in-law, who was a successful actor, said to my high-school-age daughter when she asked him if she should pursue a career in acting. He told her, “Only do it if you know you will die if you don’t.” He was talking to my daughter, but he could have been speaking to me! I realized in that moment that I had always deep down felt this way about illustrating children’s books—hearing him say that brought it screaming to the surface. I was at a point in my life when my kids were starting to leave home and my band life had subsided. I knew in that instant that it was time for me to jump in. Soon after I took a life-changing class with Marla Frazee at the Art Center School of Design. She gave me the exact encouragement I needed to hear. Taking her class transformed my father-in-law’s spark into a fire inside of me— and it has not gone out to this day!

 

Was I am a Thief! by Abigail Rayner, (2019 NorthSouth Books) your first illustrated book?

Yes, it was my debut as an illustrator. I had actually signed the contract for my author/illustrator debut The Stray with Nancy Paulsen Books first, but I am a Thief! was on a shorter time frame, so it was published first.

How and when did you connect with Rachel Orr at Prospect Agency?

I met Rachel Orr at an “Agents Day” SCBWI regional conference in 2016. During my session, I showed her my book dummy for The Stray. We had an inspired talk about it, and I felt like we really clicked. After the conference we kept in touch; about four months later she offered me representation. I adore Rachel, she is a wonderful person on top of being a super great agent!

In 2020 your debut Author/Illustrator book, The Stray, published by Nancy Paulsen/Penguin RandomHouse came out. Was this a book you had written and illustrated prior to getting the contract?

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, I had taken an illustration class with Marla Frazee at ArtCenter School of Design. After the class, a group of us continued with Marla in a series of private workshops. I developed The Stray in one of her workshops. Our group is now an artist’s collective called The Mulberries, https://hellomulberries.com/artists.

Last year Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure, by Abigail Rayner was published by NorthSouth Books. Was this a two-book deal when you signed to illustrate I am a Thief! ?

No… Abigail Rayner wrote another manuscript that NorthSouth acquired, and the editor asked me if I would like to illustrate it. I love Abigail’s work and I loved working with the editor and all the wonderful folks at NorthSouth on I am a Thief!, so of course I said yes!

Your second author-illustrated book, Something Wild, with Nancy Paulsen/Penguin Random House was published last Spring. Was that part of The Stray book deal?

No… Like The Stray, I wrote Something Wild in one of Marla’s workshops. After The Stray was published, Rachel submitted Something Wild to Nancy.

Next year you are scheduled to illustrate, The Yowlers, by Stacy Lynn Carroll with Nancy Paulsen/PenguinRandom House. Have you started working on that book?

Absolutely! The Yowlers publishes in the Fall of 2024 — so I’ve spent the last many months doing the artwork for it. I’m working on revisions as we speak!

What do you think helped develop your style?

Thousands of hours of drawing and painting, dozens of classes, and surrounding myself with art that inspires me. I have a huge collection of current picture books, (which I add to on a regular basis!) but I’m especially inspired by the picture books I loved when I was a kid. Books written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey, Beverly Cleary books with illustrations by Louis Darling, and books by Wanda Gaag. And of course, all the books that Garth Williams, Arnold Lobel and Maurice Sendak illustrated!

 How did you learn to use AfterEffects and do animated book trailers?

I’ve always loved animation. But what got me going on book trailers was when NorthSouth arranged for a book trailer to be made for I am a Thief!. I was curious, so I checked out the website of the animator they had hired and became truly inspired. (Later there was a scheduling problem, so they hired someone else.) I took notes on how the trailers were done & drew out a very rough storyboard for The Stray, which I had just completed the art for.

I chose to work in AfterEffects because it was similar to PhotoShop, which I use, (both are Adobe Creative Cloud Apps, so they work together), and ProTools—an application my husband uses for his work that I am familiar with.

I spent weeks and weeks figuring it all out! Every time I had a question I looked it up on YouTube, or asked Daniel Heitmuller, (one of my Mulberries), who teaches it. After I finished the first trailer I took a SKILLSHARE class and learned a lot of shortcuts! Every time I make a new book trailer I learn more. You can view all my trailers on my YouTube channel.

 What book do you think was your biggest success?

Success has many definitions—and I think each of my books has brought me success in a different and unique way!

What are you working on now? Any exciting projects on the horizon?

Yes, I’ve started illustrating a new book which I am not at liberty to discuss right now! I also have another author/illustrated book that I’m revising and will be sending out soon. On top of this, my daughter is pregnant with twins!

She lives nearby, and I can’t wait for that exciting project to begin!

Do you have any unfulfilled career goals?

I mainly hope to expand my work to include middle-grade novels, early readers, board books—all books!

Are there any painting tips (materials, paper, etc.) you can share that work well for you? Technique tips?

I love knowing Photoshop. Not only is it a great painting and illustration tool in and of itself, but using it to support traditional media is great too. Several of my friends who work exclusively in traditional media have found knowing how to scan and then prepare their art for print in Photoshop extremely satisfying. I highly recommend learning it!

Any words of wisdom you can share with the illustrators who are trying to develop their careers?

Try all kinds of traditional art materials. I love revisiting the many different art mediums from my childhood and art school days. Over the years I tried everything from oil painting to colored pencils to printmaking. During an illustration techniques class, I re-stumbled upon charcoal, which is my favorite medium now! You never know what you’ll fall in love with until you try it. There are all kinds of interesting digital programs to try, too… but I believe knowing how the actual medium feels and works before you go digital is really enlightening. And don’t forget to have fun! If a medium or style isn’t working for you, move on to something else. What you find comes naturally to you is the best indication that you are on the right track.

If you want to illustrate children’s books, make sure your work shows that you can draw the same character in different situations. Children’s books are often emotional, so show a variety of facial expressions and body language as well. Also, join SCBWI and participate! It’s a great way to get your art seen– both online in the website gallery and in person in the portfolio showcases at conferences. Last, remember that it’s never too late to start! You never stop being an artist, of any kind.

Thank you so much for having me on your blog today, Kathy! It was a pleasure.

The pleasure was all mine Molly. Thank you for taking the time to answer the interview questions and sharing your process. It was a nice way for all of us to get to know you. Please keep me posted on all your future successes, so I can share them with everyone.

Here are some links you can use to visit with Molly:

WEBSITE: https://www.mollyruttan.com/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/mollyillo/?hl=en
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/mollyruttanillustration/
X TWITTER: https://twitter.com/molly_ruttan?lang=en
AGENCY: https://www.prospectagency.com/client.html#molly-ruttan

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy