Illustrating Plovers: Bruce Hutchinson

Today I have with me in the studio illustrator Bruce Hutchinson. Thanks for coming in today. Oh, thanks for having me. So, Bruce, you reached out because you're doing a very special project. Tell me about that. A local author Andrew first reached out to me, um, almost two years ago now to collaborate with him and illustrate his children's book. Um, the minute I read the text, I was hooked, brought a tear to my eye, and, uh, yeah, I've been plugging away at it for, it took me a good year and a half to finish all the artwork. Um, now it's ready to go to the press and we're super excited about it. And what is the subject of your very special book? Well, the story follows a young girl, um, her name is Aspen. She is actually based on Andrew's daughter. She goes to Higgins Beach often. Um, one day she notices all these beautiful little birds late in the spring and she starts to take notes about the plovers, brings her, she has a sketchbook with her, so she brings her sketchbook along, does some drawings, and brings her notes and drawings into her teacher. And her teacher informs her that they are in fact piping plovers and they are on the endangered list. So Aspen gets super excited, as does all, you know, all her classmates and they sort of all band together. Go to Higgins Beach often and try to tell people to stay away from the nesting area some point in the summer because she can't stay there 24 7. She actually even opens up a little lemonade stand with dog treats and pamphlets about the plovers. And that's basically it. The, the story comes full circle as the book winds down. One of the page used to depicts her as a teenager returning to the beach and the plovers are flourishing. Not to give too much away, but the last page shows her as an adult woman with her own child, which that's the one that really got me. So it's a wonderful story. So What was it about the piping plovers that appealed to you? Well, having, um, my wife and I and children and my sister's family and her children, we rented a home right at the setting. It's the last house on Higgins Beach before you hit the Spur Wink River. And we did that for like 15 years in a row. And we used to see like the plovers all the time. And you know, truth be told, we knew that people didn't know it was a nesting area. So you'd get the occasional loose dog running over there and Frisbees and volleyballs flying through the, uh, the dune grass. And yeah, when Andrew approached me with a story, I'm like, oh my goodness, I know that area so well. How can I say no? Apparently Clover habitat in Maine is down like by two thirds. So the birds really help. And this is because they've been building, we've been building seawall and jetties and there's been more, um, kind of human impact on their nesting sites. That's partially, it, partially, um, climate change, sea level rise and, you know, people sort of not being aware. Um, thankfully the Audubon Society, you know, puts signs up now and people are becoming more aware that it's, uh, really fragile and they are such fragile little birds. So, you know, once one dog off leash can really cause some havoc. Not that I'm not a dog lover, I Am. And they are. They're, they're tiny little birds. They're very tiny. My wife and I used to joke that the, the, the fledgling chicks look like a fluffy marshmallow on two toothpicks. You know, they're just so cute. You didn't grow up near the ocean. You've lived there as an adult, but you actually grew up more inland. That's Correct. Yeah. But, uh, almost every Sunday in the summertime, my parents would pack us all into the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and drive to Reed State Park almost every Sunday. So love the ocean. If you had told me back then that I'd be living a hundred yards from the water in Cape Elizabeth, I would, I would've said no way. Can't happen. But, and my wife is totally drawn to the ocean as well. I mean, we live in such a beautiful state. We're so lucky. So your parents putting you all in the car, cuz there are quite a few of you, right? Seven of Us. Seven of you. Mm-hmm. . And you lived in Waterville? Mm-hmm. . So packing you all up to go to Reed State Park. That was a commitment. . Yeah, it was a huge commitment. And, uh, on Sundays, of course, all being good Catholics, we actually went to church at 5:45 AM I mean, the thought of it, I have three children and the thought that we'd be getting them up to attend mass at 5 45 and then go to the beach, not gonna happen. , I don't even think they have mass at 5:45 AM anymore. I've never heard of it. . And we had the, the third pew from the front of the church every Sunday. And your parents went with all nine of you? All nine of us. Wow. Mm-hmm. . So how did you end up moving from Waterville to Cape Elizabeth? I lived in Waterville until, uh, 1976, went to college, uh, in Providence at risd. Got married two weeks after graduation, and my wife and I were like, we're moving back to Maine, we're gonna live in Portland. So we lived in North Deering for 25 years after, well we, we made a couple stops before North Deering, but raised our children there. And when it came down to downsize, we found this great little house that needed a ton of work, and it's been 10 years and we pretty much have it the way we want it now. And, uh, we're loving it. Is your wife also from Maine? She's A Vermont. So, and she's also from a large family. You had mentioned to me that That's correct. Yeah, she's from a family of eight. We're both, both, uh, number six in line, kind of a cool coincidence. Yeah, that is interesting. Well, I'm the oldest of 10, so, um, I know the ones that were, I know the one that is sixth in line has had a very different experience in our family than, than I did . I know, I know exactly what you mean. Yes. It's almost like being part of different families. Mm-hmm. , if you're the oldest, you're kind of the chunk of the older family kids. And then if you're towards the end, you're So true. Yeah. Yeah. I hear you. And also growing up in a Catholic family, although by the time I went through they did not have 5:45 AM masses and nor I agree with you, would my parents have probably been able to prompt us to get out of bed mm-hmm. for this, but yeah. So I'm interested to know as far as your illustration career, why you made the choice to go, um, into that field. Well, I majored in illustration at, at RISD and was always like, um, you know, most artistic, you know, my senior year of high school and I just wasn't very good at anything else, . So I only applied to one school, which I thought was back then a good choice. Um, RISD has a great reputation and I got in and, um, when I got out, I did get a job at an advertising agency for about a year and a half. Made lots of contacts, you know, with graphic designers and art directors, creative directors. So that was like, I realized didn't quite fit in with that corporate environment. And I just made the jump to, you know, I had done some illustrations, um, for the advertising agency I worked at, and then I saw like a clear path, like I could start doing this on my own and I really never looked back. Yeah. So there was an old, an old joke if you were an artist, graphic designer, um, at, in the early eighties and you were looking for work, we used to tell each other, just walk up and down Exchange Street a couple times and you're bound to meet a frantic art director who needed, you know, an overnight piece of artwork. And that was a long time ago. Times have changed, but, um, somewhere along the line, maybe after just focusing on the local market and staying quite busy, one of my art director friends mentioned that I should look into getting an artist representative. I had never heard of it. So I reached out, um, to try and find a representative, sent samples of my workout, I got a very positive response, and soon enough I landed my first representative who was based out of Boston and she started getting me projects, you know, on an, you know, a regional national scale. And, uh, you know, it was surreal how quickly it happened. Um, and I was with her for maybe 20 years. She kind of got out of the business. Um, I quickly contacted another rep who was great out of Colorado and she got out of it too after about 10 years. But she was wonderful. And now I'm represented by a, uh, a fellow named Richard Solomon, who's, who's been an artist representative for as long as I've been an artist, and he's based outta Manhattan. Yeah, it's, it's been quite a journey. Um, lots of, uh, interesting clients and, uh, really fun projects. I have to say though, working on this children's book with Andrew was the most rewarding project I've ever been part of. Yeah, he was, he was just so great to work with. I mean, it was a true collaboration if, if I got stuck on an image, he, he always had a, a really good suggestion. Um, and we, we believe so strongly in the book, that's why we decided to kickstart it so we could keep sort of creative control of the whole process. And, uh, we're really excited that, uh, it's really done well and we, we hope that the book's gonna be printed and ready to go. I think in August or September, unfortunately, I, we, we were hoping that it would happen a little bit quicker, so we were hoping that it would be late spring because the plovers are already, they, they're back north and we were out at Hi beach just a couple weeks ago and there was some nesting pairs. So, but it's all good. There'll be another spring around the corner. It Seems to me that we've been paying attention to the Plovers for quite a while now. When I've walked on beaches, and this has been years and years, there have been roped off areas and signs and, um, letting people know that these are protected nesting areas. Do you, do you know whether that has made a difference? I, I do. I absolutely do. Um, I can't give you any statistics. Andrew would be the one to, uh, have like the scientific, uh, background to, to, uh, give you some facts and figures, but, um, it really seems like it's having an impact As you're doing your illustrations. Um, I know you've worked for Shipyard Basket Island, oyster, Bon Appetit, LL Bean, TEXA monthly. Have you ever done children's books before? That was another, uh, interesting thing. I'd been approached before, uh, several times, but the timing never, you know, scheduling as a freelance artist is, is really difficult and it still is. So I always had to turn them down. Andrew's project came along at the, not just the perfect time, but it, it was the text that really made me think, I, I have to get involved with this. Um, it's such a great opportunity to work on something that we're, you know, pretty passionate about. And to have the setting, you know, practically in our backyard, it was, it was great. I was really super excited about it. And, you know, it's a big project, uh, 28 full page illustrations plus the front cover and the back cover. And, you know, even after doing this for 42 years, it, it can get a little bit overwhelming to think how much we have to do. It was, I think, suggestion to just take it one page at a time. So I would work on actually three pages at a time. You know, do rough pencil sketches, you know, run, run them by Andrew. And 99% of the time it was like, ah, this is gonna be great. I love it. So then I, you know, I'd finish the three pages and then start on the next three and so on and so forth. Saving the, uh, front cover and the back cover for last because I, I really wanted to have that perfect image for the front cover. Um, that would kind of hook people sort of get to the crux of, of, uh, you know, the whole story, which to me was that people, if they're careful, you know, we can, we can live harmoniously with the plovers and, uh, it's not like we totally have to not go to the beach anymore. We can still do it. We just have to know like where they're at and just be a little bit more careful. How did Andrew find you? He found me through, uh, I think it's a website, uh, for RISD alumni that I wasn't even aware that I was on. I'm lucky enough to have a, a wonderful daughter-in-law who, who does a lot of like social media stuff for me. And I'm, I'm not really aware, but God bless her. She, I think she got my work on that site and Andrew found out that I was, uh, I was from Maine and, uh, yeah, he was living in South Portland at the time and, uh, he reached out to me and this was right in the middle of the pandemic. And, um, it was difficult at first. Uh, you know, we, we would meet outside all masked up and, and uh, you know, talk about, uh, you know, some of the images we wanted to include. And, uh, yeah. , it's interesting thinking back, it seems like a long time ago, it seems like yesterday. Yeah, I think the, the Covid pandemic definitely, uh, kind of caused a little bit of a time shift for, for many of us. For me it was, I remember, you know, a lot of friends and family like, oh, I don't like this working at home stuff and I love working at home. And, and you know, it was like, what's the problem? I've been doing it for 42 years. Working at home is wonderful. Yeah, that's great perspective. I mean, this is, this is your work. So for you it's, it probably just meant that the people that you interacted with who didn't work from home were needing to shift their way of doing things, but not necessarily the way you did it. Yeah, I totally got that too. I, you know, how many times did we all say if you have grown children, like thank goodness, you know, our children were grown up when this thing hit because I can't imagine the challenges we had. We have a grandson and, and, uh, we had 'em on Mondays, um, for virtual classroom work. And it was like my heart went out to not just the, uh, the kids and having to adjust to the new way of going to school, but the teachers how they had to switch everything around. So Yeah, kind of glad we're, we're getting out of that phase. You and me. Yes. . So one thing I've been interested in when it comes to illustration is that it seems like it's been impacted by the, the, the digital world and the ability to do things differently than just simply with, um, penning mm-hmm. , Yeah. Pencil drawings. And so how has that been the case in your Life? Um, stylistically the, you know, the, the, uh, the digital age hasn't changed anything that I do really differently. I occasionally, um, someone will reach out to me who sees my website or my representative's website and, um, get back to me and ask me what app I use, which always cracks me up, you know, and I, I usually reply like, I use the old fashioned, start with paper and pencil and then move on to traditional tools. One really nice thing though about what's happened with the digital age and art is that I can scan my work at home and just send the file out and hold on to my originals. Cause I'm early on in my career working for a big advertising agency and you'd have to send the physical artwork out and maybe 50% of the time they'd send it back. And if you tried to reach out to them, they'd be like, yeah, if we can find it, we'll get it back to you. But oftentimes, who knows what happened to it. So it's great. I've got, uh, six blueprint files just filled with artwork. Bruce, When you were growing up, did your family encourage you to be an artist or was there someone at school that encouraged you to be an artist or be an illustrator? Uh, my mom dabbled in oil paints and I have these really early memories of looking over her shoulder and just being like incredibly fascinated. Like, she made it look super easy. I mean, I guess I had an aptitude for it early on. Like, I remember some of my teachers early on saying, oh, he has good eye hand coordination, you know, he doesn't want to use the big fat crayons and . Really strange things that, that stuck with me. And I just, I mean, looking back, I still have like some of my early like middle school, high school art and it's like, I look at it and I'm like, who, who told me I was talented? It, it was, you know, very rudimentary, but I stuck with it. Um, I had a really talented, uh, art teacher in high school and she was, gosh, lost touch with her, but she was a huge inspiration. Um, super talented, very approachable. Um, I do remember when I told her it was RISD or nothing, she was like, you better have a backup plan . And my backup plan was to join the Marine Corps, like my dad . How about that? Uh, so luckily I got in, um, and it was interesting being, you know, you know, voted most artistic in my senior class when I got to risd, it was a whole new world. I remember first day of figure drawing class, I was absolutely floored. It's like, I'm not a big fish in a small pond anymore. However the saying goes. I was like absolutely floored at the talent and you know, like everyone else, you see that and you just have to pick up your game. And, uh, yeah, I had, um, one of my drawing teachers, um, became an incredibly successful children's book, um, illustrator, Chris Van Osberg. Oh yes. Yeah. I mean, and he was, when I had him, he was working on his first book and he would br bring in, um, you know, page by page these unbelievably beautiful drawings. And I mean, I think that's why my whole career I was like, hmm, I really wish I I could get into the children's spoke market. And I think that was seeing his work and, and what he subsequently, subsequently did with like Jumanji and, um, the Polar Express and, and all that. Uh, he was such a soft spoken, uh, wonderfully talented instructor. Uh, very dry sense of humor, , uh, yeah, he was, he was huge. And he actually, he did put one book out, um, that, um, was a similar style to, to the way I work now, pen and ink. And, um, he taught us all that sort of, uh, time tested engraving style. And it was interesting when I got out of risd, I had a portfolio filled with, uh, watercolors and pencil drawings and I had one or two, uh, pen and ink drawings and you know, back in those days you would just go around to different advertising agencies with your portfolio and show your work. And, um, everyone, everyone you know, liked my work and, and was very, um, positive about it. But, um, those two black and white pen and drawings, everyone would be like, wow, these, I haven't seen anything like that. Um, these would reproduce really well in the newspaper and I didn't choose that as a career path, black and white line and watercolor combined, but it shows me and, um, turned out to be a pretty good fit. Bruce, I really look forward to seeing your book when it comes out, hopefully in, in August. Thank you. We'll see that you get a copy. Thank you. Appreciate that. That would be great. And where will people be able to get a copy of this book? Well, we're scouting locations, uh, around, um, Scarborough, um, around Cape Elizabeth, um, south Portland area. Um, depending on how many we we print, um, you know, we'll expand out from there. But, um, if you go to Higgins Beach in the summertime and stop maybe at IGA or the Higgins Speech market or, uh, maybe the Black Point Inn or in by the Sea, we're, we're looking into all, all these different places, so. And will there be information on your website? Absolutely, yes. What is your website? Bruce hutcherson.com. Very good. Well it's been a pleasure to talk to you today. Pleasure. It's all mine. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. I've been speaking with Illustrator Bruce Hutchinson and I'm looking forward to seeing his finished book that, um, will be featuring one of our most, uh, important protected endangered species here in the state of Maine, the piping plover. Thank you for coming in today. Thank you. Appreciate you. Appreciate you too.