illustrations from ‘art of birds’

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animals, art, art of birds, birds, drawing, jack schmitt, jack unruh, pablo neruda

I recently shared a couple poems from the 1985 illustrated edition of Pablo Neruda’s poetry collection Art of Birds. I guess I got lucky last year, scoring an old library copy for less than $20, because prices on any edition of this book are now pretty steep. Here are four of Jack Unruh‘s bird drawings that accompany Jack Schmitt’s translations of the poems.

black-necked swan

andean condor

many-colored rush-tyrant

chimango caracara

pablo neruda: mebird

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art of birds, birds, pablo neruda, poems, poetry

It looks like several people enjoyed the previous post featuring a poem about a bird from Pablo Neruda’s book, Art of Birds. I mentioned that all but the first and last poems in the collection are about one specific species of bird, but the second-to-last poem takes a liberty with that idea. In it, having painted dozens of magically expressive verbal portraits of birds, Neruda considers himself as a bird.

MeBird (Pablo insulidae nigra)

I am the Pablo Bird,
bird of a single feather,
a flier in the clear shadow
and obscure clarity,
my wings are unseen,
my ears resound
when I walk among the trees
or beneath the tombstones
like an unlucky umbrella
or a naked sword,
stretched like a bow
or round like a grape,
I fly on and on not knowing,
wounded in the dark night,
who is waiting for me,
who does not want my song,
who desires my death,
who will not know I’m arriving,
who will not come to subdue me,
to bleed me, to twist me,
or to kiss my clothes,
torn by the shrieking wind.

That’s why I come and go,
fly and don’t fly but sing:
I am the furious bird
of the calm storm.

pablo neruda: austral blackbird

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art of birds, austral blackbird, birds, pablo neruda, poems, poetry

Last year, I got an illustrated hardcover edition of Pablo Neruda’s book, Art of Birds, translated by Jack Schmitt with drawings by Jack Unruh. It was a bit of an accident, since I thought I was ordering a bilingual edition, and I wish this volume included the original Spanish. But even without the originals, this is a very cool addition to my Neruda collection. Every poem (with the exception of the first and last) is about one specific species of bird, and many of them are right up there with Neruda’s best and more well-known poems.

The following poem is about the austral blackbird, which I had never heard of before, so here is a link to read a little more about this bird, see a picture, and listen to 30 seconds of its unique song.

Austral Blackbird (curaeus curaeus)

Whoever looks at me face-to-face
I shall kill with two knives,
with two furious lightning bolts:
with two icy black eyes.

I was not born for captivity.

I have a wild army,
a militant militia,
a battalion of black bullets:
no seeded field can withstand.

I fly, devour, screech, and move on,
rise and fall with a thousand wings:
nothing can stop my determination,
the black order of my feathers.

My soul is a burned log,
my plumage pure coal:
my soul and suit are black:
that’s why I dance in the white sky.

I am the Black Floridor.

bird skull

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birds, skull

A more exciting yet accurate post title: Ants Ate My Face.

mockingbird

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art, birds, digital, fine point pen, ink, mockingbird, photograph

mockingbird ink study: 01 and 05 fine point pens, charcoal.

mockingbird digital study: high contrast, pencil rendering, transparent color layers.

mockingbird: mom’s original photograph.

Puma Blues: Wildlife Art by Michael Zulli!

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animals, art, birds, drawing, Indie Comics, Michael Zulli, nature, puma, Puma Blues, wildlife

Aardvark’s The Puma Blues from 1986 features the artwork of Michael Zulli. Zulli drew some of our favorite Ninja Turtles pages in the story Soul’s Winter, taking those silly cartoon characters and imbuing them with a totally different, darker spirit. Here, however, Zulli portrays wilderness and the animals that live there, and the borders where they contact the human world.

Collector’s Guide: from The Puma Blues; Aardvark-Vanaheim, 1986. Reprinted in The Puma Blues Book One and Book Two; Mirage Studios, 1988.

brett’s bird

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animals, art, birds, Brett Alan Elliott, drawing, postcards

Brett Alan Elliott. We can’t find out much from researching the web, but we really dig this card. It reminded us of a youthful dream of being wildlife illustrators. We spent the better part of several years sick in bed reading every animal book in the public library, developing a real fondness for the illustrations.

Brett’s raven or crow has a lot in common with the local grackles here on Mars. He inspired our series of charcoal and pastel birds, and we began by imitating his bird’s pose to the best of our abilities. While we don’t ever expect to have his mastery of anatomy, structure, lighting, and detail — let alone inking technique — we found it incredibly instructional to study this image and learn from it.

We hope he doesn’t mind our posting it here, and if you know of his website or anything leave a comment for us please!

Birds are Dinosaurs,Too!

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birds, coloring book, dinosaur, Richard Cissel

Birds are dinosaurs, too. Here are two plutonium-powered critters to prove it: Richard Cissel and the Czechoslovakian Berry Monger!