Richard Hull, professor of graphic arts, Brigham Young University, and illustrator of children’s books, will speak at the Fine Arts Foundation meeting, May 10, 1:30 p.m., in the Balch Auditorium at Scripps College. A tea and book signing follows in Stewart Court of the Malott Commons.
Most of Hull’s creative work involves children’s markets–picture books, magazines, posters, and school texts. He has illustrated for Jim Aylesworth’s The Cat and the Fiddle and More and My Sister’s Rusty Bike. For Judith Viorst he has illustrated The Alphabet From Z to A With Much Confusion on the Way and Sad Underwear. The Fairy Poems of Laura Ingalls Wilder, compiled by Stephen Hines, are among his works. Other clients include Harper Collins Publishers, BB&K Design, The Children’s Television Workshop, and Ranger Rick Magazine, National Wildlife Association.
Hull is presently an associate professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he teaches illustration, computer graphic technology, figure drawing, and conceptual and editorial illustration. He has also been an art director and graphic designer for Ensign Magazine.
Hull credits his unique creative vision to a childhood spent co-conspiring with his twin brother on a farm in Quincy, Washington. The boys frequently had to hoe fields of sugar beets, potatoes, and beans. "I had to develop an imagination to survive," says Hull. Perhaps this environment explains the frequency of little creatures like fanciful bugs and birds that inhabit much of his work.
At the age of 12, he decided he wanted to be an art director. However, he had no idea what an art director was or did. It seemed a good goal for someone who loved to draw. After an undistinguished academic career at Brigham Young University and a tour of duty in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, he became an art director and found it "neither fun nor interesting." He began to work long hours nights and weekends to hone his skill and talent as an illustrator. After 15 years as an illustrator, in 1987 he moved on to become a teacher at Brigham Young University, where he is loved and admired by his students to this day.